Ensure that you write the part of speech, as each minilesson notes, alongside each word. The word meaning used in the minilesson is the one for the specific part of speech it notes. For example, if the target word is transmitted, the definition given will be for the verb transmit in the past tense. The definition or use of the word transmission would not be part of the lesson; the lesson would focus on transmitted, the verb. Seeing the parts of speech repeatedly helps students become increasingly familiar with how words work grammatically and syntactically and supports much of what happens in the next step of the protocol (noticing associations among words).
Lastly, each student needs to say the words aloud in this step. This can occur a number of ways. You could pronounce all the words first and have students then pronounce the entire list after you. This might be preferable at times if you attach a certain rhythm or cadence to the vocabulary list. Alternatively, you could pronounce a single word, have students repeat it, and then do the same with the other words. Or you could combine these methods. For example, you could say each word clearly and have them listen, then repeat each individual word, and have them repeat. You could do any of these things several times. The goal is for the majority of students to say each word correctly out loud so that their brains and their mouths have experience with producing the word.
If technology is readily available, you may want to have each student speak his or her work into a device and record it. Collecting words said aloud this way can help students even further if they periodically play the words back and listen to themselves. Rudimentary tools such as whisper phones (made of curved PVC pipe that students can speak quietly into to hear themselves read aloud) can also be employed to make the saying aloud of the words more dramatic and memorable.
Conducting Step N
Ideally, the first two steps (S and N) are always done together. They (and you!) provide a model to students of correct pronunciation and enunciation and allow students to form the words not only in their minds but with their mouths and while hearing their own voices. Seeing the words, pronouncing them oneself, and making initial connections to prior knowledge and personal experience are what the first two steps are all about.
If it takes more than ten minutes to accomplish those goals, then save the rest of the minilesson for another time. If you are in the middle of step S or N and see that the minilesson may take more than twenty minutes, stop and continue with the other two steps at a later time. Remember, each minilesson should be short and memorable. If a minilesson turns into more of a standard lesson, then the benefits of brevity and novelty may be lost, and the target vocabulary becomes just more information awash in the sea of words that bombard students each day.
Step N relies on brief, direct instruction, and describes the student cognition that teachers should facilitate. In this step, you will help students connect new information to familiar information by focusing on the parts of speech, word components, morphology, etymology, associations, and other connections. The teacher assumes the active role in the classroom during this step, explaining word categories and associations for students and presenting examples. How teachers present this information and what students do with it during the N step are at the teachers’ discretion—teachers will know best what is appropriate in their classrooms. You really have a wide variety of choices about the connections and associations you make for your students here, and you can encourage them to make their own associations as well. Susan Neuman and Tanya Wright (2013), vocabulary researchers who have created a complete vocabulary curriculum, note that “clustering words within categories facilitated children’s comprehension and provided promising evidence of accelerating word learning” (p. 12). Therefore, organizing words into groups that are semantically or conceptually related in step N should support student learning.
The strategies that you use to help students connect the new to the known in this step can certainly vary, but some methods are almost always appropriate. Using gestures, having students engage in kinesthetic activity, sketching out a quick visual, or showing images—you can employ all these methods successfully here to immediately improve depth of understanding. If you don’t feel that the suggested strategy in a given minilesson will work for you, substitute another that will. The most important consideration is that you feel confident presenting the associations and that you do so in an engaging enough way to help students build more context around the words.
Often in step N, you will give examples based on school, home, or community so that students can immediately get at least an initial idea of word meaning. This second step of each minilesson should take only about three minutes but can be incredibly worthwhile. The bulk of students’ active engagement in discussing the words and producing meaning will occur during the next two steps of the lesson to deepen students’ initially incomplete understanding.
Conducting Step A
A refers to acting on the words (engaging in a brief task or conversation about the words). This step is meant to be collaborative and engaging; it is a quick, guided practice piece. This part of the minilesson should last no longer than five minutes. During this step, the teacher should circulate, monitor, and support students as needed. Students are supposed to be talking about, writing about, or playing with new words in this part of the minilesson as a foundation for using the words independently in the final step.
In many of the minilessons, small groups of students will be asked to write something during this step. Be sure that you have the necessary materials ready to go before you begin the minilesson so that this step can be accomplished quickly. Anything written during this step (and in the next one) should be collected but not graded. What students do during the entire SNAP minilesson is formative practice designed not only to enhance vocabulary but to increase student enjoyment of learning about words. Giving a grade or score on any of the tasks would undermine the minilesson’s overall goals.
Conducting Step P
This step is the independent practice piece that follows the cooperative learning step (step A). During this step, each student should authentically use at least one target word (but ideally two or more). Each student may use the word or words in a sentence or paragraph or may perform some other task with them. This step should last about five minutes in most cases. It is usually done in writing but can be adapted to be done orally per teacher discretion. You can meaningfully incorporate digital tools during this step to enhance engagement and further support student learning and transfer of knowledge.
Conducting Scaffolding, Acceleration, and Beyond the Lesson
The lessons in the book offer ancillary suggestions for scaffolding and acceleration, and ideas for supporting word learning beyond the lesson also appear from time to time. There are no specific logistics for implementing these pieces. These are intended to be used flexibly as you best see fit for your students.
Final Thoughts
Nothing is hard and fast here; I encourage you to use the lessons in the ways that best fit you and the learners before you. The purpose remains that we are trying to familiarize students with as many academic words as possible. Keep the end in mind, and do the best you can do with the ideas here, but feel free to revise as you see fit. I hope you will find the SNAP minilesson framework and the specific minilessons in this book useful. The remaining chapters include brief introductions and then launch into dozens of minilessons that you can shape to fit your needs. Enjoy!
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Supportive Strategies and Technology Tools
Throughout the minilessons that the following chapters describe, I note instructional strategies that teachers may wish to use during steps A and P in specific minilessons.