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CHAPTER 1

A Culture of Word Learning

It seems natural to want to begin the process of fostering schoolwide vocabulary learning by digging right in and building a repertoire of effective instructional strategies. And as much as we love seeing teachers embrace research-based vocabulary strategies and integrate them into their daily instruction, the longer we work with teachers, the more we see that we need to first take a step back. Perhaps even more important than the beginning of the work around vocabulary strategies is to first create a culture of word learning—one in which everyone constantly becomes more literate. We concur with leading researchers who point to the importance of creating a schoolwide culture that supports and encourages students’ ongoing learning of new words (Blachowicz et al., 2006).

While the task of addressing students’ deficient vocabulary can seem overwhelming—especially in high-poverty schools—creating a culture that supports building vocabulary is a viable way to address the challenge because that’s where the power of word learning begins. We’ve found that when teachers and leaders take the time to build the culture first and work together to create an environment that supports developing a diverse vocabulary, it sets the stage for word learning to occur throughout the entire day in every classroom. In short, vocabulary instruction becomes part of the core instruction in every subject—not just English language arts—and for every student. In this chapter, we’ll examine how to develop a word-learning culture, avoid pitfalls, establish collaborative teams, address resistance to change, and select digital tools to help support collaboration and continual professional development. We’ll also describe school and district literacy leadership team exemplars. In the long term, we believe that a thoughtful and diverse literacy leadership team provides the necessary foundation for creating, supporting, and sustaining a culture of word learning that will make a positive difference in the lives of your students.

Avoiding Pitfalls

Schools that enthusiastically embrace vocabulary and literacy development have typically grappled with sagging student achievement for some time. They often have a clear idea of literacy strengths and gaps based on collecting and reviewing achievement data. By targeting defined areas for improvement, they have a road map to follow. Leaders are eager to begin tackling their short- and long-term goals. However, in our work with principals and teachers, we have found that enthusiasm for word learning can sometimes actually get in the way of moving forward.

The scenario might look something like this. A principal talks with a few key teachers, makes a general announcement at the staff meeting about the new literacy initiative, and schedules several targeted professional development days focused on building a repertoire of instructional vocabulary strategies. Though well intentioned, the principal in this scenario sets up a schoolwide vocabulary initiative to become just another initiative. Invariably, some teachers will wait it out and count on the enthusiasm and the initiative to disappear eventually. Resistance has already begun. More important, with enough resisters, no real change will occur.

Why does this approach fail? Because it treats a literacy improvement initiative as if it’s a procedural or structural change such as changing the bell times or bus schedule rather than a cultural change. Cultural changes are about transforming ways of thinking and doing. In contrast to simple procedural changes, cultural changes often meet with more resistance. However, recognizing and working toward developing a culture that supports word learning across classrooms will, in the long term, provide for continual and sustainable integration to support curricula and standards.

Developing a Literacy Leadership Team

Establishing a literacy leadership team helps ensure a strong start to provide the support teachers will need. Intentionality and planning will make a difference in whether the implementation plan will take hold and create the change necessary to reach long-term goals that result in improved student achievement. Therefore, a literacy leadership team that includes respected and influential teachers is critical.

While there is no one model of a literacy leadership team, we think that it should comprise a diverse group that includes teacher leaders from varied grade levels and content areas, an instructional or literacy coach, special education and EL teachers, a media specialist, a community outreach liaison, and a lead learner or administrator. Teams may be established in several ways. For example, team members may come from an existing school improvement team, or they may be members of a literacy or curriculum team. Establishing the team largely depends on the makeup of the school and how those groups are determined. In all cases, a diverse and inclusive team provides multiple perspectives and insights that range from how to best support teachers to reaching out to parents and community members who can also participate in the word-learning effort. As we see it, the primary purpose for the team is to communicate with, represent, and support teachers in their professional learning. The International Literacy Association’s (n.d.) Standards for Reading Professionals provides additional information for those who wish to further define the roles and responsibilities of team members.

Regardless of a team’s makeup, it is very important that members have a foundational knowledge of direct and indirect strategies for teaching vocabulary. Direct (or explicit) strategies include intentional word-learning opportunities, and indirect strategies refer to incidental word learning that can occur independently in a literacy-rich and word-conscious environment. Teachers can review and practice with integrated digital tools, apps, and games. These two main categories are a great place to begin when laying the foundation for vocabulary instruction across classrooms, so it is essential that all members have clarity on these concepts. See chapter 4 for a more in-depth discussion of these methods, and refer to chapters 5 and 6 for examples of specific applications in the classroom.

The familiar adage “Go slow to go fast” applies in the case of literacy leadership teams. Slowing down and taking the time to develop a team may seem unimportant or time consuming. However, we believe the long-term benefits are worth the effort.

Addressing Resistance

It is normal to experience resistance and pushback. Leadership teams can neutralize the negativity of those teachers who may be less than enthusiastic by discussing, planning, and establishing support structures before the real work of improved instruction begins. In the early stages, the literacy leadership team should provide the necessary expertise and leadership to support teachers as they begin implementing effective word-learning strategies.

As learning and practices deepen, team members use the principles of tight and loose leadership (DuFour & Eaker, 1998) around specific parameters for vocabulary instruction across the school. For example, they may decide that every teacher must provide direct vocabulary instruction each day in some manner (tight parameter); however, teachers determine which strategies and tools work best to support word learning for their students (loose parameter). Finally, the literacy leadership team may provide additional support and feedback to teacher teams and encourage collaboration and sharing through the use of digital tools.

Using Collaborative Tools to Support Literacy Leadership Teams

Sharing among teams and teachers is a key ingredient, we think, to keep the momentum strong across schools and is also important for continual improvement. Our term blended vocabulary refers not only to blending direct instruction with digital tools that extend word learning but also to blending formats of professional learning and collaboration. Teams can collaborate more simply than they once could. Traditional forms of professional learning may include sharing in staff meetings, learning from a literacy expert during a professional development day, engaging in book studies, and collaborating within a structure such as professional learning communities. While sharing and collaborating occurs during these opportunities, it can sometimes be limited to face-to-face encounters. Digital tools that support collaboration, on the other hand, allow teachers and teams to share beyond the constraints of designated times and in-person meetings, and provide a host of advantages that more traditional formats do not easily achieve. The following sections describe several effective tools and their key collaborative features. Visit go.SolutionTree.com/literacy for live links to these resources.

Shared Notebooks

Evernote (https://evernote.com), OneNote (www.onenote.com), and LiveBinders (www.livebinders.com) are web-based note-taking tools with sharing capabilities. Individuals create their own accounts to which they can easily add notes and notebooks. These tools have many advantages over traditional paper notebooks. Think of these tools as virtual filing cabinets. You can store various folders (called notebooks in these tools), each containing files (notes or pages). Useful features include the ability to easily add hyperlinks, webpages, tags, audio notes, and much more.

These virtual notebooks are perfect tools for team collaboration. Team members can easily share notebooks and pages, and no saving is necessary—changes to notebooks and pages save and sync automatically. As teachers learn and explore vocabulary strategies, they can easily share websites, tools, lesson plans, word lists, and more.

Twitter

Teams can take advantage of online collaborative tools such as Twitter (https://twitter.com) to share ideas and celebrations along the journey. For example, we encourage teams to create a Twitter hashtag (#) using the name or initials of the school district, such as #Waynevocab or #ZSDvocab, to aggregate tweets from teachers. Across your school or district, teachers can tweet hyperlinks to strategies, vocabulary games, and digital tools. Additionally, they can tweet images of word walls and photos that show how they are integrating vocabulary learning across classrooms, schools, and the district.

Another way the leadership team can use this social media is to host a Twitter chat at a designated time. Leaders can use a hashtag such as #vocabchat to aggregate tweets, and facilitate the chat by posting questions such as, What is your number-one go-to vocabulary strategy for EL students? Participants introduce themselves at the beginning of the session and tweet responses to questions, including the hashtag #vocabchat following each response. Leaders can also invite vocabulary experts such as Kimberly or Angela to share insights, collaborate, and provide feedback to the instructional community. (Be sure to use the hashtag #blendedvocab to join in our ongoing discussion of this book and its concepts on Twitter.) If you are new to Twitter, we recommend downloading the popular Twitter Cheat Sheet (Tyson, 2012e) that helps teachers get up to speed quickly.

Backchannels

Backchannels are another popular way to collaborate, share thoughts and links, and receive feedback during professional learning. Think of backchannels as a means for participants to have background conversations that take place at the same time as the professional development session. Teachers can ask the presenter or other participants a question during the session without interrupting the flow of the session. Within the backchannel, participants can also easily share links, as they think of them during the presentation, to websites that may benefit other participants. There are several websites you can use for backchanneling. TodaysMeet (www.todaysmeet.com) is free and easy to use, and it’s the one that we have used most frequently at conferences. Other similar sites include Chatzy (www.chatzy.com) and Backchannel Chat (www.backchannelchat.com). We encourage you to learn more about backchannels by viewing the YouTube video Todays Meet for Classroom Backchannels (Brent @ EdTech.tv, 2015) and setting up your own backchannel to support professional learning.

Pinterest

Pinterest (www.pinterest.com) is a social curation network that allows users to share and categorize images. Users “pin” images, videos, and other visual information to categorized boards. Users can browse and discover what other users have pinned as well. In its simplest form, Pinterest is a huge, online bulletin board. Teachers could save and share ideas about word walls and vocabulary strategies on the site to support implementing vocabulary across grade levels and content areas.

Wikis

Wikis are websites that allow all users to create, edit, and alter information; how it’s presented; and how it’s structured. A school or a system could create a wiki as a storage and collaborative space for instructional strategies, templates, and bulletin board ideas, all with the intent of improving vocabulary instruction.

Google Docs and Google Sites

Many teachers use Google Docs to create, edit, and collaborate among colleagues. While sharing and collaborating with Google Docs is simple, educators can quickly and easily set up a Google Site to support vocabulary implementation. The site can serve as a common place for embedding documents, lesson plans, presentations, videos, links to websites, and more.

Examining Literacy Leadership Team Exemplars

In the following sections, we provide examples of both a schoolwide literacy leadership team and a districtwide literacy leadership team we’ve worked with, detailing how they worked together and the success they were able to achieve.

Schoolwide Literacy Leadership Teams

A large, urban elementary school that Kimberly supported found that its literacy leadership team made all the difference in making word learning stick across the school. Garden City Elementary School, serving a culturally diverse and high-poverty student population in Indianapolis, created a team representing many grade levels and varied teaching and nonteaching positions to guide its vocabulary instruction efforts.

Through the team’s leadership, teachers created a common language and understanding of the importance of vocabulary acquisition and created a culture that supported word learning across the school day. With an all-in attitude, teachers and staff encouraged word learning in and out of classrooms. Word walls and bulletin boards featuring vocabulary were displayed across classrooms and peppered in hallways, the cafeteria, and the gymnasium. Partnering with school leadership, the team provided support to teachers and grade-level collaborative teams. They established expectations for vocabulary by targeting vocabulary strategies, modeling those strategies for teachers, and monitoring implementation across classrooms. They also encouraged teachers as they integrated vocabulary into their daily lessons and identified words to teach. By supporting and modeling, Garden City teachers were able to sustain their emphasis on schoolwide vocabulary development over five years, raising student achievement in the process. Additionally, the school’s state report card grade went from D to A during this time. Staff members continue to focus on vocabulary across classrooms and share their successes with their community and educators worldwide using the Twitter hashtag #WeAreWayne.

Districtwide Literacy Leadership Teams

In a midsize suburban district, vocabulary development was an integral part of an overall literacy implementation plan. This district tackled leadership in a more comprehensive manner—one that fit their needs and goals. In order to move vocabulary learning forward districtwide, district leaders developed literacy leadership teams at every school. In addition, they established a districtwide literacy implementation team made up of three or four members from each schoolwide team, a principal or assistant principal, media center specialists, and central office leaders.

The districtwide team met monthly for intensive professional development in a train-the-trainer fashion. During this time, the schoolwide teams unpacked the what, why, and how necessary for creating a culture and structures that support integrating word learning across schools. They learned how to implement a wide repertoire of both direct and indirect instructional strategies. Additionally, based on their data, they established districtwide goals as well as individual schoolwide goals.

This approach allowed schools to work on individual schoolwide goals while keeping district targets in mind. Teams were accountable to share progress and strategies both within schools and districtwide. Each time the districtwide team met, members of school teams shared their targeted schoolwide strategies, specific goals, and progress toward achieving those goals. In this case, having both schoolwide and districtwide teams kept momentum going across the many moving parts associated with large-scale implementation. Intentionally aligning the system and building goals is almost always a precursor to increased achievement in any content area, and so it is in this case.

Recap

Vocabulary work is vital in our students’ lives. To ensure you implement vocabulary instruction well, it’s important to take the time to step back, perhaps before you begin the work, to think about developing a culture that supports word learning, establishing collaborative teams, and selecting digital tools that will help sustain your work. Creating a school- or districtwide culture that generates word consciousness, provides professional learning opportunities, and uses digital tools that support collaboration as teachers implement a blended vocabulary approach is an ambitious but worthwhile goal. We suggest that schools and districts resist the urge to jump into learning instructional strategies, and instead, begin by developing literacy leadership teams that can provide the support, modeling, feedback, and collaboration necessary to create systematic and sustainable vocabulary improvement. In the long term, we believe that a thoughtful and diverse literacy leadership team provides the necessary foundation for creating, supporting, and sustaining a culture of word learning that will make a positive difference in the lives of your students.

Digital Tools for Literacy Leadership Team Collaboration

Backchannel Chat (www.backchannelchat.com): Backchannel site

Chatzy (www.chatzy.com): Backchannel site

Evernote (https://evernote.com): Digital notebook

LiveBinders (www.livebinders.com): Digital notebook

OneNote (www.onenote.com): Digital notebook

TodaysMeet (www.todaysmeet.com): Backchannel site

Twitter (https://twitter.com): Social media

NEXT STEPS

Consider the following questions individually or discuss them with colleagues or in literacy leadership team settings.

Teachers

• Do you think your school culture values and supports word learning? What could you do to encourage colleagues to promote word acquisition and word consciousness?

• How could you convince coworkers who teach nonacademic subjects or serve in another capacity in the school to become more active in teaching vocabulary?

• Think about direct and indirect instructional strategies you currently use in the classroom. How could you improve the use of indirect means to promote word consciousness?

• Which digital tools are you most interested in learning how to use to collaborate and share with colleagues?

• If you’re not familiar with Evernote and OneNote, consider learning more about their flexibility and utility to capture notes and websites. Try sharing a notebook with a colleague for collaboration and further learning.

Literacy Leadership Teams

• Gain a general idea of where your school is with vocabulary development. Discuss this with your grade-level teams, academic leadership team, collaborative teams, or building leadership team.

• Think about who you should include in a schoolwide literacy leadership team in your building. Why did you include each individual? How about in your district?

• As a team, discuss an initiative currently underway in your school and district. How does vocabulary align with this initiative? How can you help colleagues see that this is not just one more thing added to the plate?

• How could your team provide ongoing professional learning specific to vocabulary? Consider who would provide the training and what resources (time and financial) you have for training and ongoing support.

• Do you see teachers and staff using indirect opportunities to encourage word learning? If not, why not? If so, what strategies do they most commonly use?

• How can the literacy leadership team support incidental word learning across the school? What about across the entire system?

• Do you currently use digital tools that support collaboration and professional learning? Which tools do you think would best support sharing and collaborating among teachers in your school or across the district?

• Consider using digital tools for collaborating and creating a Twitter hashtag for your school or district to promote collaboration around word learning. Consider hosting a Twitter chat to foster deeper discussion of frameworks, content, and strategies.

• Become familiar with a backchannel such as TodaysMeet, and begin incorporating it into a professional development session to encourage collaboration and sharing during the learning session.

• Think about creating a shared vocabulary notebook in Evernote or OneNote. Grade-level or academic teams may wish to create their own notebooks and collaborate within them. Invite teachers to add lesson plans, videos, websites, and more to the notebook. The YouTube video Evernote Tips: The 11 Amazing Features That Make Using Evernote So Freaking Awesome (Evernote Scott, 2012) provides great tips for new users. Microsoft OneNote Tutorial (Cox, 2014) will similarly get teams up to speed with OneNote. Visit go.SolutionTree.com/literacy for live links to these resources.

• What digital tools described here do you currently use? Which tools do you think would best support sharing and collaborating among teachers in your school or across the district?