As a first grade teacher, my favorite part of the day became, without a doubt, direct vocabulary instruction. More specifically, a research-based approach called text talks. Far from “drill and kill,” text talks brought words to life for my students through teaching vocabulary in the context of story time, or read alouds. Text talks allow for choice in what is read and the words taught. This makes the text talk approach to direct vocabulary instruction easy to integrate into existing story time programming. Here’s how…
Before Story Time
- Select a text to read with children. For example: The Nutcracker in Harlem, written by T. E. McMorrow and illustrated by James Ransome. This was one of my favorite texts to read with my students. (I questioned if September was too early to use this as an example, but Dollar Tree already has winter holiday decor on its shelves, so…)
- Select words from the text to teach. Select words based on their utility and their importance in understanding the text. For example, I might choose “glare” from The Nutcracker in Harlem. How many words you choose to teach will depend on how much time you have. You’ll need at least 5 minutes per word.
- Prepare a child friendly explanation for each word. The Collins Dictionary helps with this. For example, The Collins Dictionary defines “glare” as “If you glare at someone, you look at them with an angry expression on your face.”
During Story Time
Read the text as you typically do during story time, leaving time to teach vocabulary after. Again: you’ll want to set aside at least 5 minutes per word you selected.
After Story Time
- Say the word. For example: “glare.”
- Remind children how the word is used in the text. For example: in The Nutcracker in Harlem, “The general glared but Marie kept drumming until he, too, fled.”
- If possible, display the word.
- Ask children to repeat the word by inviting them to say it with you.
- Say the child friendly explanation you prepared. For example: “If you glare at someone, you look at them with an angry expression on your face.” If a word has multiple meanings, you can address these as well.
- Share examples of the word in contexts that are different from the text you read. For example: “If a customer is being rude, an employee might glare at them.”
- Engage children in thinking about and using the meaning of the word. For example: through modeling or pictures, show examples and non-examples of glaring. You might ask children to: (a) look at a partner, (b) then glare at a partner, (c) then turn to a partner and ask/answer the question, “How did you feel when you were glared at?” (“When I was glared at, I felt…”)
- Ask children to repeat the word by inviting them to say it with you again.
And that’s it! For more than 100 more examples of text talks, click here to download this resource from Utah’s State Office of Education.
How do you support vocabulary learning in story time? Drop a line in the comments or at ktaksier@ufl.edu.
This blog post relates to ALSC Core Competency III: Programming Skills.