Helping Students with Specific Learning Disabilities Learn Vocabulary

“The average adolescent encounters an average of 10,000 new words a year,” say Michael Kennedy (University of Virginia) and Jade Wexler (University of Maryland) in this article in Teaching Exceptional Children. “Most of these new and unfamiliar words are multisyllabic, and carry the meaning of the passages they appear in.” How are students supposed to learn all those words, especially students with specific learning disabilities who may be reading several grades below level? Certainly not through endless PowerPoint lectures by STEM teachers, and certainly not when content demands overwhelm students’ background knowledge and processing ability. 

Kennedy and Wexler recommend CAPs – Content Acquisition Podcasts. CAPs are short, multimedia instructional vignettes that teach one vocabulary term, concept, fact, event, or piece of information. Here is one example, followed by links to several explanatory videos:

• Photosynthesis: https://vimeo.com/49191997 

• How to create a CAP using PowerPoint (part 1): http://vimeo.com/24179998 

• How to create a CAP using PowerPoint (part 2): http://vimeo.com/24182724 

• A short video on how CAPs can work: http://www.vimeo.com/37764041 

• An example of the keyword mnemonic strategy: http://www.vimeo.com/37765820 

CAPs focus on one vocabulary word or concept at a time and deliver content using an explicit four-part strategy:

• Identify word parts that contribute to the term’s meaning (morphemes and any root words).
• Find student-friendly definitions for the word’s parts.
• Determine a student-friendly definition for the whole term in the STEM context.
• Find clear, vivid images students can use to remember the meanings of word parts and the term itself.

“Helping Students Succeed Within Secondary-Level STEM Content” by Michael Kennedy and Jade Wexler in Teaching Exceptional Children, March/April 2013 (Vol. 45, #4, p. 26-33); Kennedy can be reached at MKennedy@Virginia.edu. 

From the Marshall Memo #474