Common Core Next Steps: Teach the Vocabulary of the Standards!
Marilee Sprenger
With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards by most states, there has been a sense of urgency for some educators and a sense of impending doom for others. As the tension grows for all, I looked for a place to start making the brain what I call “core compatible.” Neuroscience research has provided us with information that has been translated into classroom practice. We now know how to help most students.
For the past several years I have been sharing the research that suggests that standardized tests are based on the vocabulary of the standards. We discuss the 85% conclusion that Marzano and Kendall (1996) have researched. The teachers were much like my students, nodding that they knew this information and confirming that they were teaching the vocabulary. As a result, I assumed that they were using this exciting bit of knowledge to jumpstart their students to success. But why were test scores dismal at so many schools? Just as I would believe those nods and yeses from the kids, I believed the teachers as well. And the truth is, we do teach much of the vocabulary, however, not well enough. After all, who does not ask students to analyze, compare, or summarize? As I think about my own classrooms, I realize that with some students who were less familiar with terms like these, I would break them down for them as I cruised the room to help when I saw confusion on their faces. Instead of reiterating that we were working on compare and contrast, I would say, “Just write down what is the same and what is different.” So, they knew what I wanted them to do, but the words themselves, which they would run into on assessments, were often lost.
I started doing some research of my own. Whenever I was in a classroom during the past year, I asked students simple questions like, “Can you describe what is in this picture?” “Contrast those ratios.” “Analyze the poem.” From kindergartener Jack to sixth grader Liza, I got little response. Jack did understand compare when I asked, “Can you compare your lunch with Emily’s?” At the next table, however, Sam could not. When I headed to the high schools I thought it would be different. I was disappointed to discover that many of the students had difficulty with the words. Of course, those from poverty or ELL students had the most trouble. What if some of the difficulty our schools have with raising student achievement is as simple as teaching and reinforcing these words?
I wondered about my own students. Had I prepared them for their tests? Did I teach them the right words? I thought I had. But how did I teach them? Did the learning stick? I remember the rush to get things covered. Was I really taking into consideration the memory research? Was I teaching it quick but not making it stick?
As we transition to the Common Core Standards¸ we have the opportunity to truly prepare our students for their futures. We must do everything we can to ensure their success. The vocabulary of the standards is a great place to begin. The words of the standards are not uncommon, but for one reason or another, they have not entered most of our students’ long-term memories and been rehearsed to a point where they are automatically recognized, defined, and acted upon.
How often do you ask questions like this? “Does that make sense?” “Everybody got that?” “Are there any questions?” “Okay, did you write down that definition?” Too often, we accept nods and smiles for understanding. This is often why by the time students leave our rooms, that is, walk out the door, they have forgotten what we have just thought we taught them.
We have thousands of words stored in our mental dictionary, the small brain structure in the left hemisphere called Wernicke’s area. (Wolf, 2007) This lexicon has been built over the years and has the ability to store an unlimited amount of words. Those of us who came from a strong literacy background from childhood have a larger stored vocabulary. Students who come from a background of little literacy and limited dialogue have a smaller lexicon
When students learn sight words and high frequency words they are committing the patterns in these words to memory. Every time we see the letters t-h-e we automatically know we are reading “the.” Automaticity is that ability to do things without having to think about them at a conscious level. When we do something automatically, our mind isn’t occupied with the small details of the task. This takes place because of our procedural memory system. Take a moment and think of the things you do at an automatic level. Driving a car comes to mind immediately. In fact, driving at that mindless level is a little scary. Have you ever gotten in your car on Saturday to go the grocery or the mall and found yourself driving the familiar path to school? Or arriving at a destination wondering how you got there or if you ran a red light? Fortunately the patterns that are stored in this procedural manner send an alarm whenever something seems amiss. You respond quickly if you look in your rear view mirror and see the red revolving light on the top of a police car.
Motor skills, such as riding a bike, are processed in several areas of the brain including the prefrontal cortex and the cerebellum. In nonmotor procedural learning, such as decoding words, the brain area that appears to be most heavily involved is the visual cortex. As students rehearse their reading skills like committing the sight words to memory, those words are stored in many different ways, and initially they are stored pictorially. As the brain takes a snapshot of the words, it remembers the distinctions of the shapes and the lines and hence a picture develops. With repeated practice, a long term memory is formed. Remember that these changes do not involve understanding word meanings, only the ability to recognize the patterns more quickly. When students work on the meanings of words, more brain areas participate, including Wernicke’s area that I mentioned earlier.
The beauty of the automatic system in our brains is its ability to free up working memory. Working memory is the temporary system we use to get things done. You are using working memory as you read the words on this page. Your brain takes the information from the page, adds any prior knowledge you have of the topic and gives you the space to comprehend what you are reading. Becoming a fluent reader necessitates the ability to use the automatic system. Riding a bike, brushing your teeth, adding low numbers, multiplying, and singing songs fall into the category of automatic memory.
All of this information leads us to the fact that many of our students, especially those from less advantaged backgrounds, those who are ELL students, and some students with learning disabilities have a more limited vocabulary and have not developed their automatic systems to the level necessary for our purposes.
The Bottom Line
To raise student achievement and be successful with the Common Core State Standards, we need a smooth running automatic memory system to process and store the academic vocabulary of the standards.
Michael sits quietly at his seat, staring at the paper before him. His pencil is clenched in his hand. His eyes dart across the words on the page. He doesn’t understand what is expected of him. As a result he is embarrassed and a little panicky. This is a state test, and Michael knows he is not allowed to speak to anyone nearby. His feelings are troubling and he continues to look down at his paper and then down at his lap. As the minutes tick by on the clock, he feels more and more hopeless.
Mrs. Murphy observes the students as she sits at her desk. Occasionally, she cruises the room very quietly as to not disturb the students who appear to be working diligently. She sees Michael put his No. 2 pencil down. This does not bode well for Michael’s test score. When time is up, Mrs. Murphy asks all students to put their pencils down and collects the test booklets and answer sheets in the appropriate manner.
At this point Mrs. Murphy approaches Michael.
“It looked like you were having some problems with the test Michael. Did you have trouble reading the text selections?”
Still looking down, “No, ma’am.”
“Then why weren’t you answering the questions?”
“I didn’t know what they wanted me to say.”
“So, you understood the readings, but you didn’t understand the question?”
“No, ma’am. I didn’t know what that word meant, analyze.”
“But Michael we have gone over the definition of that word. You have done some activities in which you had to analyze how two articles addressed the same idea or theme. Do you remember that?”
“No, ma’am.” Michael continues to look down, now at the floor. Mrs. Murphy looks concerned and gets on with the class.
I want to point out two things in this scenario. First, according to Michael, he read and understood the texts he had to read for the questions. If that is true, this is probably a great accomplishment for him to tackle the complexity of the readings. It may very well be that he understood the readings but could not answer the questions because those contained vocabulary which he had not mastered.
The way memory works in the situation follows:
1. The student reads the selections. While reading, his working memory, the space in his brain behind his forehead, holds onto the new information, while drawing on long-term memories previously stored to help him comprehend what he reads.
2. When he reads the questions he is to answer in relation to the selections he has just read, he must be able to understand the vocabulary of the question so well that he doesn’t utilize any of the working memory space that is now designated as a holding port for the comprehension of the selections.
3. The student should automatically know and comprehend what the question is asking without skipping a beat. If the question is not understood, there are a few different situations that can follow. First, he might ponder the wording of the question. In the scenario, the word was analyze. He could sit there and say to himself. “Analyze. What is that? I know I have heard it before. But how do I analyze something?” Now, he either figures out what it means and returns to the test or he does not and the answer is blank. If the former occurs, that is, how to analyze suddenly comes to mind, he now must go back and figure out again what he is analyzing. You see, he pushed some of that information out of his working memory as he tried to figure out the definition of the word. And time keeps on ticking…
The second observation of the scenario with Michael is the fact that he is looking down. If you are familiar with eye-accessing cues as described by Ruby Payne (2009), you know that when we look down we are accessing our feelings rather than our memories. As long as Michael is looking down, feeling badly that he doesn’t understand what he is to do, and perhaps feeling like he is “dumb,” he cannot access the definition of the word analyze. He must look up to get the visualizations he may have stored from learning the word, So the first thing to do with a Michael situation in your classroom is to walk over to him and ask him a question that forces him to look up at you. That could trigger a memory!
If they Process it, It will be Stored
Memory is processed in a way that on paper looks very linear. The brain is, however, a parallel processor, and the brain can store information in different systems and structures simultaneously. (Medina, 2008)
Typically, a long-term memory is formed by information passing through several systems. First, information enters the brain through the senses (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, or gustatory) This information first must be noticed by the sensory memory system. If that occurs, the information is now in immediate or conscious memory where it will last up to 30 seconds. If the information is acted upon in any way, it will be placed in working memory. From working memory, which can last for hours, with enough engagements, the material may become long-term memories. It is in those working memory actions that networks in the brain are created and reinforced.
For students like Michael, extra processing of academic vocabulary words is necessary. The fact may be that many of our students have heard these important terms, have done assignments using these important terms, but for one reason or another, there wasn’t enough processing time for their particular memory systems to store the words in long-term nonmotor procedural memory.
There is a large number of critical words our students must master to be successful with the standards. The definitions of the word critical tell us the story. As we head into the regular use of the Common Core State Standards, it is essential that our students master these words. It will be absolutely necessary for them to automatically know the definitions without utilizing precious working memory. If they must search their brains to understand what the questions on the assessment are asking of them, they are wasting precious time and brain space needed to analyze their readings and answer the questions. Although the CCSS have vocabulary standards that expect increases in academic vocabulary, the place to begin is with these critical words. Critical also is defined as “now or never.” The time is now to transition to the Common Core State Standards. As many as thirteen of the critical words can be found in the ELA kingergarten standards. There is much catching up to do for students in higher grades, but imagine what can be accomplished if we begin now. The students who are comfortable with these words will be the most successful in mastering the standards.
Here is the plan: process the critical words in enough different ways to get them stored in the brain in multiple places. The result of this is easier access to the definition. Continue to rehearse the processing in enough formats over time and the words become as automatic as who, what, why, how, and where! I use jingles for every word, add movement, 2D and 3D graphic organizers, use mind mapping, concept mapping, and vocabulary word maps. All of these and more provide many opportunities for differentiation and long-term memories.
Teaching the vocabulary of the CCSS is urgently needed to assist students in understanding what is expected of them as they tackle complex texts, learn to read more closely, add to their vocabularies, improve speaking and listening skills, and become well-rounded learners and members of society.
Marzano, R.J., & Kendall, J.S. (1996). Designing standards-based districts, schools, and classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Medina, J. (2008) Brain rules. Seattle, WA: Pear Press.
Payne, R.(2009). A framework for understanding poverty. Aha Process.
Wolfe, M.(2007). Proust and the squid. New York: Harper Collins.
Marilee Sprenger
With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards by most states, there has been a sense of urgency for some educators and a sense of impending doom for others. As the tension grows for all, I looked for a place to start making the brain what I call “core compatible.” Neuroscience research has provided us with information that has been translated into classroom practice. We now know how to help most students.
For the past several years I have been sharing the research that suggests that standardized tests are based on the vocabulary of the standards. We discuss the 85% conclusion that Marzano and Kendall (1996) have researched. The teachers were much like my students, nodding that they knew this information and confirming that they were teaching the vocabulary. As a result, I assumed that they were using this exciting bit of knowledge to jumpstart their students to success. But why were test scores dismal at so many schools? Just as I would believe those nods and yeses from the kids, I believed the teachers as well. And the truth is, we do teach much of the vocabulary, however, not well enough. After all, who does not ask students to analyze, compare, or summarize? As I think about my own classrooms, I realize that with some students who were less familiar with terms like these, I would break them down for them as I cruised the room to help when I saw confusion on their faces. Instead of reiterating that we were working on compare and contrast, I would say, “Just write down what is the same and what is different.” So, they knew what I wanted them to do, but the words themselves, which they would run into on assessments, were often lost.
I started doing some research of my own. Whenever I was in a classroom during the past year, I asked students simple questions like, “Can you describe what is in this picture?” “Contrast those ratios.” “Analyze the poem.” From kindergartener Jack to sixth grader Liza, I got little response. Jack did understand compare when I asked, “Can you compare your lunch with Emily’s?” At the next table, however, Sam could not. When I headed to the high schools I thought it would be different. I was disappointed to discover that many of the students had difficulty with the words. Of course, those from poverty or ELL students had the most trouble. What if some of the difficulty our schools have with raising student achievement is as simple as teaching and reinforcing these words?
I wondered about my own students. Had I prepared them for their tests? Did I teach them the right words? I thought I had. But how did I teach them? Did the learning stick? I remember the rush to get things covered. Was I really taking into consideration the memory research? Was I teaching it quick but not making it stick?
As we transition to the Common Core Standards¸ we have the opportunity to truly prepare our students for their futures. We must do everything we can to ensure their success. The vocabulary of the standards is a great place to begin. The words of the standards are not uncommon, but for one reason or another, they have not entered most of our students’ long-term memories and been rehearsed to a point where they are automatically recognized, defined, and acted upon.
How often do you ask questions like this? “Does that make sense?” “Everybody got that?” “Are there any questions?” “Okay, did you write down that definition?” Too often, we accept nods and smiles for understanding. This is often why by the time students leave our rooms, that is, walk out the door, they have forgotten what we have just thought we taught them.
We have thousands of words stored in our mental dictionary, the small brain structure in the left hemisphere called Wernicke’s area. (Wolf, 2007) This lexicon has been built over the years and has the ability to store an unlimited amount of words. Those of us who came from a strong literacy background from childhood have a larger stored vocabulary. Students who come from a background of little literacy and limited dialogue have a smaller lexicon
When students learn sight words and high frequency words they are committing the patterns in these words to memory. Every time we see the letters t-h-e we automatically know we are reading “the.” Automaticity is that ability to do things without having to think about them at a conscious level. When we do something automatically, our mind isn’t occupied with the small details of the task. This takes place because of our procedural memory system. Take a moment and think of the things you do at an automatic level. Driving a car comes to mind immediately. In fact, driving at that mindless level is a little scary. Have you ever gotten in your car on Saturday to go the grocery or the mall and found yourself driving the familiar path to school? Or arriving at a destination wondering how you got there or if you ran a red light? Fortunately the patterns that are stored in this procedural manner send an alarm whenever something seems amiss. You respond quickly if you look in your rear view mirror and see the red revolving light on the top of a police car.
Motor skills, such as riding a bike, are processed in several areas of the brain including the prefrontal cortex and the cerebellum. In nonmotor procedural learning, such as decoding words, the brain area that appears to be most heavily involved is the visual cortex. As students rehearse their reading skills like committing the sight words to memory, those words are stored in many different ways, and initially they are stored pictorially. As the brain takes a snapshot of the words, it remembers the distinctions of the shapes and the lines and hence a picture develops. With repeated practice, a long term memory is formed. Remember that these changes do not involve understanding word meanings, only the ability to recognize the patterns more quickly. When students work on the meanings of words, more brain areas participate, including Wernicke’s area that I mentioned earlier.
The beauty of the automatic system in our brains is its ability to free up working memory. Working memory is the temporary system we use to get things done. You are using working memory as you read the words on this page. Your brain takes the information from the page, adds any prior knowledge you have of the topic and gives you the space to comprehend what you are reading. Becoming a fluent reader necessitates the ability to use the automatic system. Riding a bike, brushing your teeth, adding low numbers, multiplying, and singing songs fall into the category of automatic memory.
All of this information leads us to the fact that many of our students, especially those from less advantaged backgrounds, those who are ELL students, and some students with learning disabilities have a more limited vocabulary and have not developed their automatic systems to the level necessary for our purposes.
The Bottom Line
To raise student achievement and be successful with the Common Core State Standards, we need a smooth running automatic memory system to process and store the academic vocabulary of the standards.
Michael sits quietly at his seat, staring at the paper before him. His pencil is clenched in his hand. His eyes dart across the words on the page. He doesn’t understand what is expected of him. As a result he is embarrassed and a little panicky. This is a state test, and Michael knows he is not allowed to speak to anyone nearby. His feelings are troubling and he continues to look down at his paper and then down at his lap. As the minutes tick by on the clock, he feels more and more hopeless.
Mrs. Murphy observes the students as she sits at her desk. Occasionally, she cruises the room very quietly as to not disturb the students who appear to be working diligently. She sees Michael put his No. 2 pencil down. This does not bode well for Michael’s test score. When time is up, Mrs. Murphy asks all students to put their pencils down and collects the test booklets and answer sheets in the appropriate manner.
At this point Mrs. Murphy approaches Michael.
“It looked like you were having some problems with the test Michael. Did you have trouble reading the text selections?”
Still looking down, “No, ma’am.”
“Then why weren’t you answering the questions?”
“I didn’t know what they wanted me to say.”
“So, you understood the readings, but you didn’t understand the question?”
“No, ma’am. I didn’t know what that word meant, analyze.”
“But Michael we have gone over the definition of that word. You have done some activities in which you had to analyze how two articles addressed the same idea or theme. Do you remember that?”
“No, ma’am.” Michael continues to look down, now at the floor. Mrs. Murphy looks concerned and gets on with the class.
I want to point out two things in this scenario. First, according to Michael, he read and understood the texts he had to read for the questions. If that is true, this is probably a great accomplishment for him to tackle the complexity of the readings. It may very well be that he understood the readings but could not answer the questions because those contained vocabulary which he had not mastered.
The way memory works in the situation follows:
1. The student reads the selections. While reading, his working memory, the space in his brain behind his forehead, holds onto the new information, while drawing on long-term memories previously stored to help him comprehend what he reads.
2. When he reads the questions he is to answer in relation to the selections he has just read, he must be able to understand the vocabulary of the question so well that he doesn’t utilize any of the working memory space that is now designated as a holding port for the comprehension of the selections.
3. The student should automatically know and comprehend what the question is asking without skipping a beat. If the question is not understood, there are a few different situations that can follow. First, he might ponder the wording of the question. In the scenario, the word was analyze. He could sit there and say to himself. “Analyze. What is that? I know I have heard it before. But how do I analyze something?” Now, he either figures out what it means and returns to the test or he does not and the answer is blank. If the former occurs, that is, how to analyze suddenly comes to mind, he now must go back and figure out again what he is analyzing. You see, he pushed some of that information out of his working memory as he tried to figure out the definition of the word. And time keeps on ticking…
The second observation of the scenario with Michael is the fact that he is looking down. If you are familiar with eye-accessing cues as described by Ruby Payne (2009), you know that when we look down we are accessing our feelings rather than our memories. As long as Michael is looking down, feeling badly that he doesn’t understand what he is to do, and perhaps feeling like he is “dumb,” he cannot access the definition of the word analyze. He must look up to get the visualizations he may have stored from learning the word, So the first thing to do with a Michael situation in your classroom is to walk over to him and ask him a question that forces him to look up at you. That could trigger a memory!
If they Process it, It will be Stored
Memory is processed in a way that on paper looks very linear. The brain is, however, a parallel processor, and the brain can store information in different systems and structures simultaneously. (Medina, 2008)
Typically, a long-term memory is formed by information passing through several systems. First, information enters the brain through the senses (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, or gustatory) This information first must be noticed by the sensory memory system. If that occurs, the information is now in immediate or conscious memory where it will last up to 30 seconds. If the information is acted upon in any way, it will be placed in working memory. From working memory, which can last for hours, with enough engagements, the material may become long-term memories. It is in those working memory actions that networks in the brain are created and reinforced.
For students like Michael, extra processing of academic vocabulary words is necessary. The fact may be that many of our students have heard these important terms, have done assignments using these important terms, but for one reason or another, there wasn’t enough processing time for their particular memory systems to store the words in long-term nonmotor procedural memory.
There is a large number of critical words our students must master to be successful with the standards. The definitions of the word critical tell us the story. As we head into the regular use of the Common Core State Standards, it is essential that our students master these words. It will be absolutely necessary for them to automatically know the definitions without utilizing precious working memory. If they must search their brains to understand what the questions on the assessment are asking of them, they are wasting precious time and brain space needed to analyze their readings and answer the questions. Although the CCSS have vocabulary standards that expect increases in academic vocabulary, the place to begin is with these critical words. Critical also is defined as “now or never.” The time is now to transition to the Common Core State Standards. As many as thirteen of the critical words can be found in the ELA kingergarten standards. There is much catching up to do for students in higher grades, but imagine what can be accomplished if we begin now. The students who are comfortable with these words will be the most successful in mastering the standards.
Here is the plan: process the critical words in enough different ways to get them stored in the brain in multiple places. The result of this is easier access to the definition. Continue to rehearse the processing in enough formats over time and the words become as automatic as who, what, why, how, and where! I use jingles for every word, add movement, 2D and 3D graphic organizers, use mind mapping, concept mapping, and vocabulary word maps. All of these and more provide many opportunities for differentiation and long-term memories.
Teaching the vocabulary of the CCSS is urgently needed to assist students in understanding what is expected of them as they tackle complex texts, learn to read more closely, add to their vocabularies, improve speaking and listening skills, and become well-rounded learners and members of society.
Marzano, R.J., & Kendall, J.S. (1996). Designing standards-based districts, schools, and classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Medina, J. (2008) Brain rules. Seattle, WA: Pear Press.
Payne, R.(2009). A framework for understanding poverty. Aha Process.
Wolfe, M.(2007). Proust and the squid. New York: Harper Collins.
