Group 2

Jacob Schlaefer
Courtney Bergum
Michelle Weber
Xou Vang
Richard Bole
SECTION 1 Vocabulary/Distress
SECTION 2: DISCUSSION OF JENSENS ARGUMENT IN YOUR ASSIGNED SECTION(S)

Impoverished students are not exposed to as many vocabulary terms and words as non-
impoverished students by the age of 4. Additionally, if a student cannot understand the
words or vocabulary the teacher is using they cannot learn as fluidly as they could be. Low
income students at the age of 4 are exposed to 13 million words, middle class children will
be exposed up to 26 million words, and children from upper income families will be
exposed to around 46 million words.

A childs vocabulary is part of the brains tool kit for learning, memory, and cognition.

When children arent familiar with words, they dont want to read, often tune out, or feel
like school is not for them.
SECTION 3 CITATION OF OUTSIDE SCHOLARS* OFFERING SUGGESTIONS FOR
WORKING WITH IMPOVERISHED STUDENTS, THEIR HOUSEHOLDS, AND
COMMUNITIES (See your Individual Outlines - second column)

Bergland, C. (2014, February 16). Tackling the Vocabulary Gap Between Rich and Poor
Children. Retrieved October 2, 2017, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-
athletes-way/201402/tackling-the-vocabulary-gap-between-rich-and-poor-children
Richard Bole

Oslund, E. L., Clemens, N. H., Simmons, D. C., Smith, S. L., & Simmons, L. E. (2016). How
vocabulary knowledge of middle-school students from low socioeconomic backgrounds
influences comprehension processes and outcomes. Learning and Individual Differences, 45,
pp. 159-165. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2015.11.013
Jacob Schlaefer

Hart, B., & T.R. Risley. (2003). The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3.
American Educator 27 (1): 4-9.
www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/spring2003/TheEarlyCatastrophe.pdf
Michelle Weber

Rowe, M. L., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2009). Differences in Early Gesture Explain SES
Disparities in Child Vocabulary Size at School Entry. Science, 323(5916), 951-953.
doi:10.1126/science.1167025
Xou Vang

Snell, Emily K., Hindman, Annemarie H., & Wasik, Barbara A. (2015). How can book reading
close the word gap? Five key practices from research. The Reading Teacher, 68(7), pp. 560-
571.
Courtney Bergum
SECTION 4: DISCUSSION OF THE OUTSIDE SCHOLARS ARGUMENT AS IT RELATES TO
THE ASSIGNED SECTION OF THE JENSEN ARTICLE.
In the article Tackling the Vocabulary Gap Between Rich and Poor Children,
Christopher Bergland discusses the gap in vocabulary usage between middle/upper class
families and those people in low-income families, and how that affects the vocabulary of
their young children. He uses this gap to explain some of the reasons why children
experience greater difficulty in school and fall behind as they advance in grade level. He
then offers some suggestions on how to positively influence a childs vocabulary.
It is Berglands belief that the gap in vocabulary begins as early as 18 months and
increases with every year before the child begins kindergarten. Bergland states, By age
three, it is believed that children growing up in poor neighborhoods or lower-income
families may hear up to 30 million fewer words than their more privileged counterparts.
This gap continues to increase as the child ages and can put them two grade levels behind
by the time the child reaches 7th grade. Students will begin to feel uncomfortable about
school and begin to withdraw because they do not understand what they are reading and
what the teacher is saying.
The article continues by discussing the findings of a study performed at Stanford
and offers some suggestions on how to improve a childs vocabulary. In the Stanford study,
researchers discovered that it was not only using as many words as possible around an
infant, but also actively speaking to the infant. Paying attention to your baby and
specifically reacting to their words and mannerisms will help them learn words at a faster
pace. This active speech also relates to reading books to the child. Hearing the words in
complete sentences helps a child learn how to construct sentences when they begin
speaking. The results of this study led to the research team to create a theme called The
Three Ts.
1. Tune In by paying attention to what your child is focused on or communicating
with you.
2. Talk More with your child using lots of descriptive words to build his or her
vocabulary.
3. Take Turns with your child by engaging in his or her conversation
Bergland concludes his article by discussing the current Stanford study into child
vocabulary. The researches have shown their findings to half of their respondents in an
effort increase their word usage with their children. The study is showing positive results
and the children being exposed to new vocabulary are better able to communicate and use
higher quality words. Bergland finishes his article by suggesting that socioeconomic status
should not hold parents back from using The Three Ts and helping their child succeed.
Richard Bole

Research done by the multiple scholars shows low score results in reading
comprehension, sentence comprehension and vocabulary assessments for students from
lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The article begins depicting that poverty can put
students at risk for low academic performance and can limit individual's potential. The
article introduces the correlation between students of lower socioeconomic directly with
reading comprehension by explaining their findings of why there is an academic gap.
The research introduces with showing the academic discrepancies beginning early
in a child's life and explaining how that plays out through the rest of their upbringing.
Researchers conclude that the primary path to influence a child's language development is
one's socioeconomic background. When comparing students from varying socioeconomic
backgrounds it is seen that an individual from a background of higher socioeconomic status
will have better overall quality and a larger quantity of learning experiences. The scholars
conclude that the academic gap caused by the lack of experience and exposure to higher
level learning environments due to this it is hard for an individual to catch up while behind.
Additionally the findings suggest that if teachers could get students from
impoverished backgrounds, more importantly all backgrounds, could find a way to find
more exposure to a wider vocabulary, this could have a positive effect increasing
comprehension and overall vocabulary skills. Findings regarding vocabulary specifically
include that background knowledge, sentence, and reading comprehension all contribute to
ones overall vocabulary. In parallel with Jensons article the research simply backs up his
statements and concludes what we can do to assist these learners.
Jacob Schlaefer
In the article, The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3, the
author discusses the main point regarding children from low socioeconomic backgrounds
having a smaller vocabulary knowledge base than students of higher socioeconomic
families. This could lead to the risk of academic failure in their future education. According
to the article, a child from a low socioeconomic background would accumulate
approximately 13 million words by age four, whereas a child from a middle-class
background would accumulate around 26 million terms, and a child from an average
upper-class family would accumulate experience with almost 45 million words. The
articles research stresses the strong dependence of children on their family for their
knowledge experience during the first three years. Without instruction at home, students
may be at risk for academic failure in later years because they may not have the vocabulary
knowledge that is used in their textbooks or used by their teachers.
The researchers behind this article discussed the importance of the parents teaching
new vocabulary at home but also within in the schools it is important to create new
experiences for students to gain a bigger vocabulary. The authors state, So much is
happening to children during their first three years at home an intervention must address
not just a lack of knowledge or skill, but an entire general approach to experience.
Students need to get in the habit of seeking and noticing new words and then being taught
how to implement those words into their own conversations.
Michelle Weber

Author Goldin-Meadow and Rowe argued that early child gesture plays a row in
Social Economic Status (SES) children vocabulary development. The ways parents talk to
their children is similar to parent-children gesture. Children gesture comes before speech
(Rowe 2009). An example of gesture is: the child is pointing to a cat, means it is a cat. When
the parent translates their childs gestures into words, the words becomes part of the
childs spoken vocabulary. Rowe said, Parents who produced more gesture types had
children who produced more gesture types. High-SES children are exposed to a broader
range of meanings in gesture because they have various access to resources (internet,
store, school, well educated etc) whereas, low-SES dont have the opportunity to get the
resources.
Xou Vang

In the article, How can book reading close the word gap? Five key practices from
research, The authors and researchers found that they should focus on building the
vocabulary in 3 to 6 year olds because this is the time for development. It is crucial for
children to develop so they can express their idea and feelings as well as succeed in all
areas of school. Another thing they found was that young children learn words from
interactions with others like adults. Low income families hear 616 words per hour while
middle class families hear 1,251 words per hour and upper-income families hear 2,153
words per hour. By the age of 3, high/upper income families have been exposed to 30
million more words.
The researchers find that teachers and families can help build their children's
vocabulary in five ways which are, provide child-friendly definitions for unfamiliar words,
ask question and discuss new words, reread books, engage them in retelling activities, and
integrate new words from books in daily life. This will allow the child to be exposed to
words more often and get a better understand for words they are not familiar with. This
will give them a more diverse vocabulary and help them to develop well and become a
literate student.
With all of these strategies they will be able to read books to impact their word
choices. Snell states that, Book reading can serve as an important vehicle for developing
vocabulary (Snell, Hindman, & Wasik, 2015, 568). Reading and implementing these
strategies will allow children to expand their words they know by age six.
Courtney Bergum

SECTION 5: CRITIQUES OF JENSENS ARGUMENT IN THE ASSIGNED SECTION(S)

(STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES)

Jensens article is well-written and offers many important numbers to consider and
offers some ways that a teacher positively impacts the vocabulary to their students. The
amounts of words spoken by children of varying socioeconomic backgrounds was
corroborated by the individual article I chose as well. (40 million for the highest income
families down to 13 million for the lowest income families.) Jensen goes on to discuss the
vocabulary being the brains tool kit for learning, memory, and cognition. In Berglunds
article, he discusses how a poor vocabulary can put children behind before they reach
school age, and that those children may be behind by as much as two grade levels by
reaching 7 grade. Both authors stress the importance of vocabulary to the success of a
th

child in school. Jensen also offers some tips for teachers on improving the class
vocabulary. Flashcards for the students, words of the day, and special daily rewards for
using certain new words. All of these ideas seem to have potential to work in the
classroom.
 The shortcoming of Jensens article is that he doesnt address what the families can
do at home to improve their childs vocabulary. The article was written for teachers, but
the job of teaching doesnt end with the school bell. The teachers need to be prepared to
speak to the parents about ways to improve their childs vocabulary at home. In the
Berglund article it shows how much actively speaking to a child can improve their
vocabulary. Parents need to have one on one conversation with their children at home,
using a full vocabulary, to help them learn how to properly form sentences and understand
new words. This tactic would be more effective with children in early elementary school,
but older children should still be engaged and challenged. The Three Ts are applicable,
regardless of age.
1. Tune In by paying attention to what your child is focused on or communicating with
you.
2. Talk More with your child using lots of descriptive words to build his or her
vocabulary.
3. Take Turns with your child by engaging in his or her conversation.
Richard Bole

Eric Jensen conveys a well crafted argument and discussion specifically for our
section of vocabulary. I felt that he wrote well with showing where the discrepancies are in
vocabulary and words known for different socioeconomic status individuals. Jenson also,
depicts how the vocabulary is an important tool for a learner in education as well as their
everyday lives. Another positive of his piece was the way he conveyed the content as to be
informative and not opinionated, too often will a writer try to press an opinionated bias
piece of literature on a reader.
I felt as if Jenson did not not prepare enough information for what a community or
family can do in conjunction with a teacher to work toward this problem. I would like to
see more examples of what individuals can do to even if they are not a teacher. There needs
to be more communication between the aspects of a child, teacher, and guardian or
parental unit. I would have liked to see there be additional information with regards to how
implementing what to do can benefit the children and the community. The outside article
shows that reading comprehension and vocabulary go hand an hand and can be utilized as
learning tools for students. We can help these individuals to reach potential academic
goals if we focus on enhancing the vocabulary opportunities.
Jacob Schlaefer

The article I discovered is directly aligned with the research of Eric Jensen, right
down to the statistical numbers. My article states children in a professional family would
accumulate experience with almost 45 million words by age 3, whereas Jensen states
children from higher-SES would have experience with 46 million words by age 4. Despite
the word change describing the types of families and the slight difference in numbers, they
are almost identically aligned. Although, the statistics from children from lower and
middle-SES from both article are the same.
Jensens article did not discuss ways in which students can better their own future
based on what they learn from school. For example, my article discussed the importance of
teaching students to be independent and learn new vocabulary from their own experiences
within their lives. Once children become independent, they can gain access to more
opportunities for experience, according to the article.
Michelle Weber

My article supports Jensens argument about higher-SES being more exposed to

words than lower-SES. Vocabulary is a key predictor for school success and is a primary
reason low-SES children are at a higher risk of not succeeding in school (Rowe 2009).
Jensens article provided us a great visual of the vocabulary gap, that high-SES students
hears three times more words than low-SES.
Jensen also provided activities to help increase student vocabularies such as,
terms/definitions onto flashcards, and word of the day for students to get familiar with. I
think these are great easy ways for us as future educators to use. However, I feel that
Jensen could had given more activities that required more work or a longer process. For
example, a program like Text Talk. Text Talk helps provide students with sophisticated
words combined with rich talk about text (Scholastic 2004).
Xou Vang

In Jensens article, it provides the details and stats about the numbers and
differences between the classes and the amount of words each kid is exposed to by a
certain age. In the article, Jensen did a good job at showing the readers the importance of
why it is important to be exposed to a large amount of words at a young age. That in order
to develop and be super successful, they must be exposed to words upon words upon
words. It provides us, as teachers, ways to help increase our students knowledge and
vocabulary, and it gives us an idea of how to help our kids be successful.
The article, however, lacked the information of what they community or family, or
even child themselves can do. Giving these set of people ideas will help strengthen a childs
vocabulary and allow them to be successful and more literate in the classroom. This needs
to be worked on everywhere and not just in the schools because by the time the students
get to school, the word gap has already happened. As communities, we can help those low
income families to help their kids be successful, but without ideas or action, this gap will
remain. Examples of this in my article was to read with these children and support thier
misunderstanding. This could be a community thing at the local library or events
throughout the year.
Courtney Bergum