Making sense of text: vocabulary knowledge.
Annotation
Reece’s explanation of the acronym SPCA shows that he comes to the text with an
understanding of the concepts the organisation represents and is able to articulate this
using vocabulary that includes the appropriate use of different forms of the same
words, for example, ‘cruelly’, ‘cruel’.
During the reading, he draws on this knowledge to understand the meaning of the
phrase ‘the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’. In response to the teacher’s prompts,
he is able to use his prior knowledge and the sentence context to learn the meaning
of the word ‘Society’.
Text
“Our Hero: The Story of George”
This article tells the true story of how George, a small dog with a lion’s share of
courage, bravely risked his life to save five children from an attack by two large dogs.
While he died from the injuries he sustained, George’s story lives on and has spread
far and wide.
The text includes the names and acronyms of organisations (‘SPCA’, ‘PDSA’); the
metaphor ‘a lion’s share’; colloquial expressions and phrasal verbs, such as ‘Luckily
for them’, ‘put down’, ‘rang non-stop’, ‘no doubt about it’ as well as some words and
phrases that may be ambiguous or unfamiliar to the students, including ‘Jack Russell
terrier’, ‘straight’, ‘charged’, ‘bravery’, ‘awarded’, ‘acts of bravery’, ‘Austin, Texas’,
‘Marine’ and ‘permission’.
Task
The students are reading the text in a guided reading session to find out why George,
who was a little Jack Russell terrier, was called a hero. Before the reading session, the
students were asked to think about and record what they knew about the role of the
SPCA in preparation for understanding the wider context of the story.
Student Response
Teacher:
Reece, can you share with us what you know about the role of the
SPCA?
Reece:
It’s people who look after animals. Like, if some animal is lost or, like,
in danger or being treated cruelly, they help them. Some people are
really cruel. Like you see on the TV programmes; it makes you feel
sick.
Teacher:
OK, so when you read the article, you will be able to use that thinking
to help you understand what the letters SPCA actually stand for.
(The group discusses other explanations, then the students read the text silently to
themselves and then discuss their responses to the text with each other
and the teacher.)
Teacher:
Reece, have you got something to share?
Reece:
I think I found out here what the letters SPCA mean (reads from the
text) “In Wellington, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals – SPCA – announced that George would be awarded the
SPCA’s medal for bravery.” See – S is for society, P is prevention and
C is cruelty and A is animals. So I was right; it is about stopping
people being cruel to animals – because “prevention”, that means, like,
to not let the cruelty happen, but I don’t know what “Society” means.
Teacher:
Think about what you thought the SPCA was, and see if you can think
of another word that would fit in and could possibly be a synonym for
the “Society” – it might help.
Reece:
(Reads the sentence again to himself) It’s like ‘the people’ for the
prevention of the cruelty for animals.
Teacher:
Yes. So if it means a number of people, think about some other terms
we could use?
Reece:
Like ‘group’ (reads and replaces ‘society’ with ‘the group’). That
makes sense. So it means, like, a group of people.
Reference
Gibbison, Sue. 2011. “Our Hero: The Story of George”. School Journal, Level 2
August. Wellington: Learning Media for the Ministry of Education, page 27.
Annotation
Jack uses his prior knowledge, gained from a class discussion about paraplegia, and
combines this with what he knows about the root word ‘quad’ to help infer the
meaning of the unfamiliar technical term ‘quadriplegia’.
He then confirms and adds to his understanding by combining information from the
diagram and the text to make sense of this term in the context of wheelchair rugby.
As well, he notices and comments on some ambiguity in the definition provided in the
text.
Text
“Get Ready to Roll!”
This article describes the game of wheelchair rugby, explaining quadriplegia and how
wheelchair rugby allows people with quadriplegia to take part in a competitive sport.
It includes labelled diagrams and photographs that reinforce the meaning of complex
terms relating to quadriplegia and wheelchair rugby.
Possible unfamiliar vocabulary includes: ‘wheelchair rugby’, ‘volleyball’,
‘quadriplegia’, ‘paralysed’, ‘scrimmaging’ and ‘Paralympics’.
Task
The students are engaged in a first guided reading of the text “Get Ready to Roll”.
They draw on their prior knowledge along with information in the text to make
meaning from some words and phrase that are unfamiliar to them as they use the
information in the text to support their investigation into how people with disabilities
can participate in sports.
The teacher asks them to discuss with their buddy what they expect the section of the
text with the subheading ‘Quadriplegia’ will be telling them about and to talk about
what more they would like to know.
Student Response
(Peer conversation)
Peer:
I think it means that they are paralysed – because that’s why they are in
the wheelchairs. What do you reckon?
Jack:
Well, I think it means more than just that, because remember when we
were talking about paraplegics, that was about people in wheelchairs
who were paralysed in the legs – so it must be more than that. Like,
‘quad’ means four. I know because my dad’s got a quad bike, and that
has got four wheels; that’s why it is called a quad. So maybe they are
paralysed in four parts of their body. It can’t be all their legs and arms
though because they couldn’t play.
Peer:
I don’t think they could play if they were paralysed in four places.
(The students record their questions and then continue reading the text to themselves.)
Teacher:
Jack would you share what you found about the term quadriplegia.
Jack:
I knew that it means you are paralysed, and I thought that because it
said ‘quad’, it must mean that you were paralysed in four places.
Teacher:
So what did you learn from the text.
Jack:
I was right about the paralysed bit – but I found out that someone who
has quadriplegia is paralysed in their legs and their arms – because it
says here “someone who is paralysed to some extent in at least three of
their four limbs”. That’s your legs and arms, isn’t it?
Teacher:
Yes.
Jack
Then I found out that some people with quadriplegia can still have
some movement in their arms or hands or fingers. They would have to
if they were going to play wheelchair rugby because you need to move
your arms to control the wheelchair and throw the ball. See here
(referring to the diagram). If you break your spine up here, that is
when you can be a quadriplegic – and I found out that the higher up
you break it, the more paralysed you will be. So I reckon these guys
will have broken their necks around about here (referring to the lower
circled area of the spine in the diagram).
But I think it’s a bit strange that it starts with quad if it only means in
three of their limbs – but it says “in at least three” so it could be in four
too.
Reference
Wall, Bronwen. 2011. “Get Ready to Roll!” School Journal, Part 2 Number 2.
Wellington: Learning Media for the Ministry of Education, page 26.
Annotation
Cormack successfully classifies most words the teacher has listed from the text by
drawing on his prior knowledge of the meaning of each word and thinking about
how the words are used in the text.
He identifies the affix in the word ‘conservationist’ and responds to the teacher’s
prompt to work out the meaning of the word by referring to a class suffix chart.
Text
The Bittern
This is a 12-page graphic novel about the conservation efforts of Dunedin farmer
Henare Kāretu, who preserved a wetland in order to protect the habitat of the bittern.
The text has been deliberately constructed to support a wide range of readers to
understand its content. There are two to four illustrations per page, and text is
provided as yellow-boxed snippets of narrated information or as speech bubbles for
dialogue between the characters.
Students may be unfamiliar with words and phrases such as ‘raupo’, ‘harakeke’,
‘DOC’, ‘wetland’, ‘rank grass’, ‘ecosystem’, ‘true conservationist’, ‘value’, ‘unveil’.
Task
The students engage in a pre-reading task to help build on their prior knowledge in
order to read the text successfully.
The students are introduced to the text and are given the opportunity to share and
discuss their experiences of farming, conservation and important ceremonies. Then
the teacher provides a list of words from the text for the students to discuss and
categorise under four headings: Farming, Conservation, Ceremony, Don’t Know.
Student Response
Teacher:
Cormack, can you share with us the words that you and your buddy
have recorded under ‘Conservation’ and tell us why you put them
there.
Cormack:
(Reads the four words on his list). We put ‘true conservationist’ there
because it has got ‘conservation’ in it, but I’m not sure exactly what it
means; and we put “DOC” there because that is the name of that group
that we talked about before that looks after all the land so it doesn’t all
get ruined; and we put ‘swamp’ and ‘wetland’ there because we know
swamps are no good for farming and we thought that wetland could be
the same and that’s no good for farming, but they could be good for
some other animals.
Teacher:
Let’s work out what ‘true conservationist’ means. You’ve highlighted
‘ist’. What do you know about the meaning of the suffix ‘ist’?
Cormack:
(Referring to the suffix reference chart) Oh, it says it means ‘someone
who’.
Teacher:
OK everyone, put that information together with what you know about
the word ‘conservation’ and discuss with your buddies what you think
it means.
Cormack:
(To buddy) It must mean a person who protects animals and things like
the bush and swamps where they live because that is what DOC does
and that’s about conservation.
Reference
Noonan, Diana. 2012. The Bittern. School Journal Story Library, level 3. Wellington:
Learning Media for the Ministry of Education.
Annotation
Jane is able to interpret and appreciate the use of the unfamiliar expression ‘lion’s
share of courage’, used to describe why the dog received a bravery award for
protecting the children.
In response to the teacher’s prompts, she adapts and uses the phrase in a personal
context and is able to recognise the figure of speech as a metaphor.
Text
“Our Hero: The Story of George”
This article tells the true story of how George, a small dog with a lion’s share of
courage, bravely risked his life to save five children from an attack by two large dogs.
While he died from the injuries he sustained, George’s story lives on and has spread
far and wide.
The text includes the names and acronyms of organisations (‘SPCA’, ‘PDSA’); the
metaphor ‘a lion’s share’; colloquial expressions and phrasal verbs such as ‘Luckily
for them’, ‘turned on’, ‘put down’, ‘rang non-stop’, ‘no doubt about it’ as well as
some words and phrases that may be ambiguous or unfamiliar to the students,
including ‘Jack Russell terrier’, ‘pit bull terriers’, ‘straight’, ‘charged’, ‘vet’,
‘announced’, ‘awarded’, and ‘Marine’.
Task
The students are reading the text in a guided reading session to find out why George,
who was a little Jack Russell terrier, was called a hero.
As they read the text for themselves, the students are expected to use their prior
knowledge along with information in the text to make meaning from some words and
phrases that are unfamiliar.
Student Response
Jane:
I like this bit: (locates and reads) “George was a small dog with a
lion’s share of courage,” because it’s a good way of showing us why he
was a hero – like, a lion is one of the strongest animals, so if he had “a
lion’s share of courage,” that means he is really, really, brave. Like,
braver than other dogs. That’s why he got the top award for bravery.
Teacher:
Yes, I agree. It is a good way to show, not tell, us something that is
important. How could you use that expression to describe some of your
behaviour?
Jane:
(Thinks for a bit) I ate a lion’s share of pizza last night, and my brother
was mad with me because he reckons I ate more than him.
Teacher:
I can see why he would have been upset. I have an image of you as a
big lioness devouring the pizza and your poor brother only feeding on
the scraps. Do you know what figure of speech both you and the author
have used?
Jane:
It’s not a simile because it doesn’t say ‘like a lion’, so it must be a
metaphor.
Reference
Gibbison, Sue. 2011. “Our Hero: The Story of George”. School Journal, Level 2
August. Wellington: Learning Media for the Ministry of Education, page 27.