On the Podcast: Vocabulary Development Across the Day with Tanya Wright and Katie Wood Ray

Young children love to learn and use new words. How do we tap into this natural curiosity and excitement to support vocabulary development?

Young children love to learn and use new words. How do we tap into this natural curiosity and excitement to support vocabulary development?

A transcript of this episode is available below.

Katie Wood Ray:
 

I took a walk this weekend with my three and a half year old nephew, and my sister was with me too, and I was just thinking about, it's such a joyful time right now in his development. And it's really, so much of it is about words. His approximations are so wonderful and he's leaning into trying to understand what things mean. He's interested in words, he ask us what we mean. And I was thinking about your book, and that's really the stance that you bring to this book, that as adults, we should both marvel at the learning children are doing and also just find joyful ways to support them in it.

Tanya Wright:
 

Well, I think, like you said, children love to communicate, they need lots of words to communicate. Words help them describe their world, words help them to share their learning and their ideas, and they really want to do that. So I think we should get excited about it.

I think when we think about vocabulary as a list of flashcards or something like that, that we have to cover, that's not really how words are used or how they feel in the world. In real life, we use words to help us communicate, to help us read, write, speak, listen, and learn, and that's how I think we should think about vocabulary for kids and in our classrooms, and in our families, in our homes.

Katie:
 

I'm curious about how vocabulary became your lane as a researcher. I know you started out as a kindergarten teacher, and then when you became a researcher, how is it that vocabulary became the thing that you wanted to study?

Tanya:
 

I have to say I've always loved words, I've always loved to write, and I've always liked to think about the best words to communicate with, but I honestly don't think I was the greatest vocabulary teacher when I taught kindergarten. I don't think I was always aware of how important it was unless it led to misconceptions for kids. So I was aware of it when kids were confused, but I wasn't necessarily aware of it as an all the time thing that I could help them with and help to focus on.

And then when I got to studying more about literacy and reading development, I really learned a lot about how important words are for helping kids to both read and write and communicate. And it just became really clear to me that this is such an important area to focus on to support kids' literacy development, but also kind of a neglected area often in classrooms. And I don't think that's anybody's fault or anybody's trying to do a bad job. I just think sometimes with younger kids, we're not necessarily focusing on that because we have so much other stuff to focus on. But I think once we do pay attention to it, there are lots of opportunities to build vocabulary across the day as part of the work and the learning that we're already doing with kids.

Katie:
 

I was rereading some of the book this morning ahead of talking to you about a couple of studies that really looked at vocabulary instruction in the early grades and found that a lot of it really didn't make that much difference in kids' vocabulary trajectory and how much they were learning, and how that was a catalyst for you too in your own research. So, was some of it just a recognition that what we are doing isn't working?

Tanya:
 

When I had to do a dissertation to get my doctorate, what I decided to do is go and visit a bunch of kindergarten classrooms all around a large Midwestern state. We visited 55 different classrooms for 660 hours, and what we did is tried to find vocabulary instruction happening in those classrooms. And it turns out we didn't find even one single lesson that focused on vocabulary across all those hours. But what we did find were teachers explaining words to kids across the day, and especially in certain parts of the day, like during read-alouds of literature and informational texts, during science and during social studies. And that's not really surprising because those are really big learning times, when new ideas from books, new ideas from content area learning are coming into the day.

All of this made me think a lot about what's happening in classrooms and how we can put more emphasis on vocabulary to make sure that kids do have some lessons. For example, some lessons around what to do when they get to a word that they don't understand. What could they try as an independent reader? How can they use words in their writing? Interesting words, right? These seem really important. But also to really think about vocabulary across the day. There's so many wonderful opportunities to learn new words when we learn new things, and taking a look in classrooms [inaudible 00:05:29] really helped me to see those opportunities.

Katie:
 

Well, and I think one of the things that made me reach out to you the very first time I did years ago, was because I noticed that you did such a great job of translating research into practice and really being clear about the practical implications of what research shows. And that just shines through in this book, and I really appreciate it, which is why too I'm so glad you're part of this great new team that's be editing The Reading Teacher. Congratulations on that, too.

Tanya:
 

Thank you very much. And I would love teachers who are part of the Heinemann audience and other authors from Heinemann to submit articles to The Reading Teacher, or teaching tips. If you just want it to be something brief that you've really worked on in your classroom, that would be so wonderful. Because what The Reading Teacher does is really a space for researchers and teachers and literacy coaches and others involved in literacy education to communicate. So researchers can share their ideas and teachers can share their ideas in this space.

Katie:
 

One of the things that I have been struck with working with you on this, is this idea of letting go of thinking of vocabulary as this little thing you do, "Let's do 10 minutes of word study." And instead, thinking of it across the day, something that's infused into everything you do.

And yet, the fact that it's infused, it's not just responsive teaching. It's very, very intentional. So, it's not like you just wait for an opportunity. You're really thinking about it and anticipating what the teaching is going to sound like, what it's going to look like.

Talk a little about the importance of that, 'cause some people might think that all you really need to do is talk in intelligent ways to kids, and they'll pick it up. Right? They'll pick it up method, but this is really about a lot more than that.

Tanya:
 

So I think, of course, it's wonderful to talk to children using big words. And that's never going to harm kids and it's always an important thing to do. And if they ask about words, we always want to discuss words with children. But on the other hand, if we are going to agree that vocabulary is really important for reading, writing, speaking, listening, and learning, we also have to make sure that we are taking advantage of opportunities to ensure that all children learn the words they're going to need for school.

So, across all the content areas, as kids are learning new things, they're typically words associated with that content. And we really want to make sure that all kids learn the words they're going to need to participate in the learning of the classroom. And if we just leave it up to chance, then that learning is going to be inequitable in our classrooms. Right? Some children might happen to pick it up, some might not. And I really am one who thinks that if we say vocabulary is important, we need to make an effort to be planful and really ensure that kids are developing the vocabulary they need to participate in school, but also to be readers, writers, learners in the long-term.

Katie:
 

Well, I guess just the last thing I'd like to ask you, Tanya. The book is, in addition to being beautiful, which we've already talked about, it's wonderfully just practical and accessible. And I know what it's like to have a book coming out into the world, and you just have hopes for it. Right? You dream of the possibilities that this book, for what it can be in the world. And I'm just wondering what some of your hopes are for your Classroom Essentials book?

Tanya:
 

Well, I definitely hope that lots of teachers will choose to read the book. And I hope what they'll take from the book is sort of just reframing how vocabulary is thought about in elementary classrooms, really seeing how important it can be, but also seeing how we can plan for it across what we do to make sure that kids are learning word meanings.

And this is just so important in the long-term, because as they read more and more complex texts, there are going to be more and more interesting and challenging vocabulary. So if we help kids to use great words in their oral language, that's going to help them when that word is in a text that they're going to read.

So, I hope everyone will get as excited about vocabulary as I am. I hope teachers will be inspired to think about vocabulary in planning all of their units, and where are some opportunities to teach kids fantastic new words. And I hope that that makes kids in their classrooms excited about words. I find that when we teach kids words, they want to use them.

One of the greatest things I saw when I first started doing this was kids were learning about pets in a preschool classroom. And I saw kids playing with little plastic animals, and one said to the other, "This animal is ferocious." And I thought, "Wow, that's really wonderful because they had been learning that we don't choose pets that are ferocious animals." And I thought, "Yes, that's what we want." Right? We want kids to take these words, apply them, use them to convey meaning in their everyday life, and just get excited.

Katie:
 

Well, I can't imagine that it won't do all those things in the world, especially once people start reading it and talking about it, 'cause it's a lovely, gorgeous, smart book.

Tanya Wright is an Associate Professor of Language and Literacy in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. She is a former kindergarten teacher whose research and teaching focus on curriculum and instruction in language and literacy during the early childhood and elementary years. Tanya’s research examines instructional practices that promote oral language, vocabulary, and knowledge development for young children. 

For many years as the author of bestselling Heinemann books such as About the Authors, Study Driven, Already Ready, and In Pictures and In Words, and as a member of Heinemann’s Professional Development Services, Katie Wood Ray gave teachers resources and PD that transformed writing instruction and helped children discover a lifelong love of writing.

In 2014, Katie “moved to the other side of the desk” and joined the dynamic team of editors at Heinemann where she works closely with authors to craft powerful professional books on a range of literacy topics. Katie is also the series editor for the new Classroom Essentials books from Heinemann. Tasked with bringing foundational, progressive practices to a new generation of teachers, Katie works to ensure that the sharp focus and enhanced design of each book best serve the content. She also teamed up with her longtime collaborator, Lisa Cleaveland, to write one of the first books in the series, A Teacher’s Guide to Getting Started with Beginning Writers.