Tanya Christ and X.

Christine Wang

Supporting
Preschoolers Vocabulary Learning
Using a Decision-Making Model to
Select Appropriate Words and Methods

Young children ods for helping children

learn new vocabulary in her class directly learn
with great agility and vocabulary. To support
speed, but their learn- Ms. Allen and other teach-
ing is dependent on ers, we developed a simple
the range of words three-step model to inform
they are exposed to. the selection of appropri-
Teachers can naturally ate vocabulary words from
facilitate childrens curriculum materials and
vocabulary learn- activities. Such words
ing using a variety of might come up during
strategies, including shared book readings or
making conversation be words children need to
and posing thoughtful understand a classroom
questions. But there is science project. The model
Ellen B. Senisi

also an important role also addresses how teach-

for direct instruction, ers can plan ways to teach
which is what we focus those words during class-
on in this article. room activities (Christ &
Ms. Allen is an Wang 2010a) (see The
experienced Head Start teacher who effective vocabulary practices in her Vocabulary Decision-Making Model).
welcomed us into her classroom to classroom. When we first sat down to At the heart of good instruction
observe and mentor her as she facili- discuss how we could work on this is thoughtful and informed teacher
tated childrens vocabulary learning. goal together, she told us that she decision making (NAEYC 2009). These
As part of a research project, we especially wanted to learn how to bet- steps are research-based and were
spent 12 weeks helping her implement ter select words and teaching meth- field-tested in Ms. Allens classroom,
as well as university practicum experi-
ences spanning three years:
Tanya Christ, PhD, is an assistant professor of reading and language arts at Oakland
University in Rochester, Michigan. Her research focuses on early childhood vocabulary 1. Identify all the words that most
acquisition, issues of educational access, and teacher education. christ@oakland.edu children in the class are unlikely to
X. Christine Wang, PhD, is an associate professor of early childhood education at State know;
University of New York at Buffalo. Her research focuses on technology-supported col- 2. Select a small set of vocabulary
laborative learning, early science inquiry, and vocabulary development, as well as early words to focus on; and
childhood education in international contexts. wangxc@buffalo.edu
3. Determine what methods will best

support childrens acquisition of
2, 3 the selected vocabulary.

74 Young ChildrenMarch 2012

 In the following sections, we explain
and illustrate each step in the model
using examples from a shared reading
lesson. Teachers can apply the decision-
making model to plan ways to support
vocabulary learning during other class-
room activities as well. For example,
teachers can identify curriculum-
based vocabulary that will occur dur-
ing a social studies project, and then
use the model to select specific words
and teaching methods. Similarly,
teachers can consider new vocabulary
to use during morning meetings (for
example, new words to follow up on a
nature walk), and then use the model
to decide which of these words to
teach and how to do so.
To illustrate the steps succinctly, we
will present the decision-making steps
using an activity that occurs in most
early childhood classroomsreading
a story aloud. The planning strategies
presented below come from an inter-
view with Ms. Allen near the end of our
time working with her. In the excerpts
that follow, she discusses her use of
the model to select several words and
methods to support childrens word
learning. She applied the model to
reading aloud the book Where the For-
est Meets the Sea, by Jeannie Baker.
Step 1.
Identify all the words that most
children in the class are unlikely
to know.
When Ms. Allen first read the book
Where the Forest Meets the Sea, before
bringing it to her classroom, she identi-
the text and illustrations); and camou- Step 2.
flage, canopy, and understory (which
did not occur in the text, but were Select a small set of vocabulary
depicted in the illustrations). Because words to focus on.
it would be inappropriate (and ineffec-
To narrow the list of words identi-
tive) for Ms. Allen to teach all twelve
fied in step 1, Ms. Allen first con-
of these potentially new words to chil-
sidered how many words would be
dren during a single reading of the story-
appropriate to teach the children
book, she needed to winnow her list.
during the storybook reading: I try
The Vocabulary Decision-Making Model
Step 1.
Identify all difficult and poten-
tially unknown words in a text.
Step 2.
Select words for instruction.
Select a small set of words that are:
a. necessary for comprehension,
b. usable in childrens lives, Read all other
words without
c. able to be taught multiple times
across the curriculum, and
d. related to other vocabulary being
teaching their
meaning.
taught.
Step 3.
Select methods for
teaching words.

fied all the words in the text for which

the children were unlikely to know The word represents The word represents
meanings: reef, cockatoos, squawking, a new concept. a familiar concept.
creek, creepers, bank, ancient, hollow,

aboriginal, and twisted. She also iden-
tified two words that she thought a

few of the younger children might not No meaning Meaning clues

know: pretend and toward. Then she clues in text. in text.
noted words that the children already
knew from previous instruction, which

could be reviewed while reading this

Directly teach the Teach a word-
book: vines (which occurred in both
words meaning. learning strategy.

Young ChildrenMarch 2012 75

 Using the same guiding questions may lead different
teachers to select different words to focus on, due to
differences in the childrens experiences, interests,
and needs.

to pick only a few vocabulary words,
because 4- and 5-year-olds have a
hard time sitting still for that long and
really staying focused on the activity.
Currently, there is no research to
indicate the exact number of new
words that specific age groups can
learn at once. However, our experi-
ence suggests that learning two or
three words at a time is appropriate
then teach the children the word
meaning (Sternberg 1987). A good
test for this is deciding whether
a listener would have difficulty
understanding the story if the word
were excluded from the text.
b. Will children use this word inde-
pendently? Consider whether chil-
dren will be able to use this word in
their everyday interactions (Beck,

for most preschoolers, whereas kin-
dergartners may handle three to five
new words at a time. The number of
words children can learn at one time
varies from classroom to classroom
and year to year, depending on the
skills and knowledge of the children
in any given group. The only way to
determine the exact number of words
that most of the children in the class-
room can learn is through trial and
error: Focus on two words at first,
and if the children learn these easily,
add another word the next time. Or,
if it seems more appropriate for the
group, begin with three words, and if
they have difficulty with three words,
try two the next time. All good teach-
ing emerges from reflection on what
is working and flexible adaptation of
methods in the classroom.
Ms. Allen asked herself four ques-
tions about each of the 12 words
on her list, to guide her selection of
which words to teach during the first
reading of Where the Forest Meets the
Sea. (Note that she read the book
several times to the class and focused
on helping the children learn different
words each time.)
a. Is this word important for story
comprehension? Decide whether
understanding this word is impor-
tant to comprehensionif it is,
Julia Luckenbill
McKeown, & Kucan 2002). For
example, ask yourself, Can children
use this word in conversations with
friends, on the playground, during
classroom activities, or at home?
c. Can this word be discussed multi-
ple times across multiple contexts
in the classroom? When children
have opportunities to reuse and
review a word during numerous
other activities, they are more
likely to retain its meaning (Beck,
McKeown, & Kucan 2002; Wang &
Christ 2010).
d. Is this word related to other
words the children are learning?
When children learn words that
are related to one another, they are
likely to organize new word mean-
ings in their minds (Hyerle 2004).
For example, if children are learn-
ing about the animals that live in
the rain forest, the word predator
provides one way to categorize the
animals; when children learn preda-
tor, a next step is to teach related
words, such as herbivore, carnivore,
and omnivore. Then all of these
words can be used to discuss more
complex concepts, such as food
chains and food webs.
Ms. Allen explained her word selec-
tions with respect to the four questions:
There are three really strong
words that I will use because I can
keep talking about them through-
out the entire storywith vocabu-
lary, the more they hear it, the
more theyll remember it and think
about it. And thatll be the words
creek, creepers, and twisted. I feel
that those words help explain the
story better together. I probably
would do creepers because it is an
action word, and they can actu-
ally have a movement associated
with it. Children could potentially
use the word creepers. They can
creep in the gym, they can creep
outsidesame with twistednext
time their shoelaces get all tangled
up, I can use the word twisted. So
the more exposure children have
to the words from the book, and
the more they can use those words
outside of the book, the stronger
their understanding of the vocabu-
lary will become.
Keep in mind that using the same
guiding questions may lead different
teachers to select different words to
focus on, due to differences in the
childrens experiences, interests, and

76 Young ChildrenMarch 2012

 Use story context clues to pro-
mote vocabulary learning. Children
need to learn how to actively, pur-
posefully learn vocabulary (Blacho-
wicz, Beyersdorfer, & Fisher 2006).
Teaching them to use context clues
to figure out word meanings can help
increase their vocabulary learning
(Sternberg 1987). The more supportive
the clues are, the better the opportu-
nity to model how to use clues to fig-
ure out word meanings and/or to guide
children in learning how to figure out
word meanings on their own. After
lots of modeling and guided practice,
teachers can prompt children to try to
use the strategy independently.
The storybook illustration included
clues to the meaning of the word creek,
so Ms. Allen decided to guide the chil-
dren through the process of figuring
out the word meaning as follows:
(Ms. Allen reads a sentence from
the book.) I followed a creek into
the rainforest. I would definitely
talk about creek, and use this
(an illustration of the boy wad-
needs. This is why teacher decision ing knee-high in the creek toward
making is criticalno curriculum the rainforest) as a picture clue.
guide can tell you which words the I would say, All right, they fol-
children will need to know or will be lowed the creek. I wonder what
able to use in other contexts; only
you can make these decisions based
on your knowledge of the children in
your class. A RECENT RELEASE FROM NAEYC
Step 3.
Determine what methods will best
support childrens acquisition of
the selected vocabulary.
Once Ms. Allen decided on an initial
set of words to teach, she thought
about the most meaningful way to
convey their meanings to the children
in her class. First, she considered
whether the children already were
familiar with related concepts; then,
whether there were context clues ISBN: 9781928896760 Item #296
available to help them figure out the $14.00 Members: $11.20 20% savings
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Young ChildrenMarch 2012
the creek is? And I would have
them look at the picture. Then
once the children understood that
it was a body of water, I would
say, Why do you think it is not
called the river? Or, Why do you
think it is not called the lake?
Asking them about those words
would help them realize that its
a smaller body of water, that it
isnt an ocean. So comparing and
contrasting what they know bodies
of water look like might help them
realize that a creek is smaller. And
hopefully they would see that in
the picture, the boy is standing
in itits not deep, and they can
probably walk in it.
When Ms. Allen addressed this word
while reading the story to the class,
Basir explained that he figured out
where the creek was in the illustra-
tion because he knew it was water
and saw the fishies in it. After read-
ing the story, Ms. Allen extended the
childrens understanding of the mean-
ing of creek by using the picture clues
and asking questions such as, Which
do you think is largeran ocean or a
creek? Since the children had studied
oceans previously, they deduced that
the creek was smaller based on the
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illustration. Ms. Allen asked
the children what clues helped
them figure out that the creek
was smaller. Daren suggested,
There are fish. Ms. Allen
countered, There are fish
in the ocean, too. Another word through a direct approach.
teacher prompted, How do
you know that its not deep
like an ocean? Daren replied,
Because the boys standing in it!
With careful prompting, the children
were able to use clues in the text to
learn more about a creek.
Directly teach words that repre-
sent new concepts. When a word is
not clear from context clues, or rep-
resents a new concept, plan to teach
children the word through a direct
approach (Kibby 1995). Since children
learn word meanings incrementally,
over time and through multiple
children the illustration of the
twisted roots and explain that
When a word is not clear from
twisted means all stuck together
context clues, or represents a new and around one another.
Later, after reading the story,
concept, plan to teach children the
the teacher can provide mul-
tiple examples of the word in
context (Beck, McKeown, &
Kucan 2002). Ms. Allen planned
to share examples of twisted
exposures across varying contexts with the children in her class: when
(Vygotsky 1962; Christ 2007), its best your shoelaces get twisted together
to take several approaches to teach- and are hard to untie, or when strands
ing a particular word, depending upon of spaghetti get wound around one
what children already know about the another on your plate and make it
words meaning. hard to get a small bite because the
When a new word is first introduced, noodles are all twisted together.
a teacher might provide a brief defini- Once children have some familiar-
tion while reading the story, to help ity with the word, teachers might ask
children maintain story comprehen- them to point to a representation of
sion. For example, Ms. Allen planned the word in an illustration in the book
to explain the word twisted while they are reading, or ask brief ques-
reading the story. She would show the tions that elicit the use of the word or

Approaches to Supporting Childrens Word Learning*

Approach Description Objective References

Pointing and Teacher uses labeling or pointing to
labeling direct a childs attention to an illus-
tration of the word, usually while
saying the word, or the teacher asks
children to point to a word that they
have been exposed to previously
To help a child connect Senechal 1997
the word with its related
concept visually or to help
solidify a childs previous
connection between the
word and the image

Eliciting Teacher asks a comprehension To elicit use of the word and Walsh & Blewitt 2006
questions question that elicits a childs use of to create a memory of the
the word words sound

Non-eliciting Teacher asks a comprehension ques- To get a child to notice and Justice 2002; Walsh & Blewitt 2006
questions tion that requires a child to provide provide information related
information related to the words to the concept the word
meaning, but not the word itself represents

Brief definitions Teacher gives brief, child-friendly To maintain comprehension Coyne et al. 2004; Biemiller & Boote
explanation of the words meaning 2006

Extended Teacher provides opportunities for
approaches a child to more deeply process the
words meaning by having a child
respond using the target word cor-
rectly in a meaningful context
To elicit use of the word in Beck, McKeown, & Kucan 2002; Coyne,
meaningful contexts McCoach, & Kapp 2007;
Juel et al. 2003; Silverman 2007

*For a review of the research on vocabulary practices for pre-K and kindergarten, see Christ & Wang 2010b and Christ & Wang 2011.

78 Young ChildrenMarch 2012


information about
the words meaning
during the story
(Senechal 1997;
Walsh & Blewitt
2006). For example,
since the children
had already learned
the word vine from
a previous story,
Ms. Allen asked
Moses to point
to the vine in the
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vine, so Ms. Allen
clarified, Thats
the leafheres the
vine (while running her finger along
the vine in the illustration). Then she
showed another illustration of a vine
on the back cover of the book. To
check childrens comprehension, she
asked all the children to point to the
vine they had planted in their class-
room. Most of the children pointed
to the terrarium that housed the
vine in response to her request. As is
evident in this example, children typi-
cally need multiple opportunities to
encounter a word to learn its meaning.
Since it takes longer to provide
extended responses and discussions
about word meanings that help chil-
dren deeply process the meanings,
they should occur after reading, so as
not to impair the flow of the story and
thus childrens story comprehension
(Beck, McKeown, & Kucan 2002). For
example, after reading the story Ms.
Allen asked the children what they
might find in a creek. John recalled
fishies. Gina, who is a dual language
learner, suggested a blue-morpho
butterfly. Ms. Allen clarified, You
might find a blue-morpho butterfly
flying over a creek. Ginas suggestion
exemplifies the importance of offering
multiple opportunities to revisit word
meanings to ensure all childrens suc-
cessful word learning.
Young ChildrenMarch 2012
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option 5 (9:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m. EST, Mon.Fri.)
Selection of an appropriate method learning. Her methods for supporting
for teaching vocabulary depends on the childrens word learning helped
childrens (1) lack of or prior exposure them gain new understanding of the
to the word, (2) lack of or partial under- focus words. After using the decision-
standing of the words meaning, and making model to guide vocabulary
(3) background knowledge. Deciding teaching over eight weeks, the chil-
which method to use is also based on dren in Ms. Allens class scored signifi-
(4) how many or what kinds of other cantly higher on a curriculum-based
opportunities to revisit this words assessment of vocabulary knowledge
meaning are likely to arise in future than similar children in a control class.
classroom activities. Teachers deci- As in any strategic thinking approach,
sion making is critical for successful this step-by-step planning is only nec-
vocabulary instruction, because only essary until a teacher has internalized
a teacher who knows the children well the decision-making process. Over
will provide appropriate challenges to time, this process will become more
advance their development (NAEYC automatic and efficient. Ms. Allen
2009). summarized for us her experience
The table Approaches to Sup- using the model: When you first came
porting Childrens Word Learning in, I thought, Oh my goodness, what
includes the descriptions of several am I doing? Then I read about the
methods for supporting childrens model; I saw how it worked. Now I feel
vocabulary learning. It details what confident about being able to use this
kinds of learning objectives might be model in my classroom. I really feel
met through each method, and pro- that it is workable for any teacher.
vides references for further study. Teachers decision making and
interactions with children impact
what children learn (NAEYC 2009). We
Planning for success know that when teachers use planned
and purposeful methods to teach
While reading Where the Forest Meets children vocabulary, the children
the Sea, Ms. Allen effectively used the learn more words (Biemiller & Boote
model to guide her decision making 2006; Beck & McKeown 2007). Plan-
for supporting childrens vocabulary ning for vocabulary learning in early

When teachers use
planned and purpose-
ful methods to teach
children vocabulary,
the children learn
more words.
childhood is critical, because children
who have not developed a vast reper-
toire of words by the time they reach
the upper elementary grades may
experience reading and academic dif-
ficulty (Biemiller 2003; Chall & Jacobs
2003). Early intervention is especially
important for children from families
with low incomes (Hart & Risley
1995), children experiencing speech
and language difficulties (Nathan et
al. 2004), and dual language learners
(Shatz & Wilkinson 2010), who may
come to school knowing or being able
to articulate far fewer words than
other children (Hart & Risley 1995),
and for whom the vocabulary knowl-
edge gap typically widens as they get
older (Biemiller & Slonim 2001). Given
the importance of understanding
word meanings to childrens reading
success, we hope that our model will
support more teachers as they make
decisions about implementing effec-
tive vocabulary teaching strategies in
early childhood classrooms.
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a br
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Students: Comparing Extended Instruction
to Embedded Instruction and Incidental
Exposure. Learning Disability Quarterly 30
(2): 7488.
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Copyright 2012 by the National Association for the
Education of Young Children. See Permissions and Reprints
online at www.naeyc.org/yc/permissions.
Young ChildrenMarch 2012