Chatbots have caught the headlines recently with businesses starting to adopt them to stimulate conversation with customers. But what are chatbots? How do they work? What can they do for museums and their audiences?
Stefania Boiano, InvisibleStudio LTD, UK
Ann Borda, University of Melbourne, Australia,
Pietro Cuomo, Art in the City, Italy
Giuliano Gaia, InvisibleStudio LTD, UK
Stefania Rossi, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Italy
museums, chatbots, artificial intelligence, gamification, teenagers
Chatbots, also known as talkbots or chatterbots or bots, are growing exponentially in their use by marketers and online businesses in enhancing customer experiences, often as messaging applications that can personalise the interaction (e.g. recommender systems) (1). Simply put, chatbots are computer programs that mimic conversation using auditory or textual methods. More specifically the functionality of chatbots use natural language processing that has a history rooted in artificial intelligence (AI).
One of the earliest such natural language applications was a chatbot called ELIZA developed from 1964 to 1966 at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum. ELIZA originally was created to use simple pattern matching and a template-based response (prewritten scripts) to emulate the conversational style of a psychotherapist. ELIZA generated a wave of global community interest in building a conversational bot that could pass the Turing Test.
Published in 1950, Alan Turing’s Computing Machinery and Intelligence addresses the overarching question: Can machines think? (2)
The Turing test in its most simple form is carried out as a sort of imitation game. The test has a human interrogator speaking to a number of computers and humans through an interface. If the interrogator cannot distinguish between the computers and the humans then the Turing Test has been passed. This quest found an audience through the Loebner Prize (begun in 1991), which has taken the form of an annual competition designed to implement the Turing Test.
Building on the pattern-matching techniques used in ELIZA and advancing natural conversational language capabilities, American scientist Richard Wallace developed A.L.I.C.E. (Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity) in the late 1990s. A.L.I.C.E., also known as Alicebot, is acknowledged for its pioneering programming using Artificial Intelligence Markup Language (AIML) which is an XML schema for creating natural language software agents. Wallace released the first version of AIML in July 2001. He has since established Pandorabots Inc. – an AI company that is distinguished as one of the world’s earliest chatbot hosting services and publishes the Pandora API on which A.L.I.C.E. was based and which enabled it to become a three-time Loebner winner in 2000, 2001, and 2004.
Concurrent to A.L.I.C.E. developments, Jabberwacky was being conceived by British programmer, Rollo Carpenter. Jabberwacky was intended to simulate “natural human chat in an interesting, entertaining and humorous manner”. The emergence of the Internet provided Jabberwacky with a dynamic database of thousands of online human interactions from which to process responses. Jabberwacky under the guise of ‘George’ and ‘Joan’ won the Loebner Prize in 2005 and 2006 respectively.
In 2008, Jabberwacky launched a new iteration rebranded as Cleverbot. Like Jabberwacky, Cleverbot is designed to learn from its conversations with humans (more than 150 million to date according to Wikipedia).
It draws on past interactions to determine future questions and answers. To try out its capabilities, you can chat with Cleverbot on the official website: http://www.cleverbot.com/
In the endeavour to extend question answering (QA) capabilities posed in natural language, IBM Watson was conceived in 2006 as a QA computing system with the goal of outperforming human contestants on the U.S. TV game show Jeopardy! IBM Watson was developed as part of IBM’s DeepQA project by a research team led by David Ferrucci. Watson became the first computer to defeat contestants on the TV game show Jeopardy!, notably in a special match between Watson and Jeopardy! Champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. More recently, the Watson capabilities have evolved to take advantage of new deployment models (e.g. Watson on IBM Cloud) and new machine learning capabilities to “adapt and learn”.
Chatbots in general are reaching milestones in artificial intelligence capability, as well as their pervasiveness in consumer facing products and services. For example in 2014, a chatterbot called Eugene Goostman won an AI contest marking the 60th anniversary of Turing’s death (Turing Test 2014 organised by the University of Reading) in which 33% of the event’s judges thought that Goostman was human. In development since 2001 and originating from St Petersburg, Goostman is portrayed as a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy. The Goostman bot has competed in several Loebner Prize contests since its creation, finishing second in 2005 and 2008.
Created from AIML technology by programmer, Steve Worswick, Mitsuku is a web-based chatbot available on Kik Messenger. It is among a growing number of sophisticated bots that can answer questions, play games, and capable of basic reasoning in QA. Mitsuku is a three-time winner of the Loebner prize in 2013, 2016, and recently in 2017.
Generally, the term ‘chatbot’ has referred to a software application that engages in a dialogue with a human using natural language. Most early advances have been associated with written language, but with advances in speech recognition, there is a narrowing of these associations. An early example is Naturally Speaking which was developed in 1975 by Dr James Baker (Carnegie Mellon University), as a simple speech understanding system that was called Dragon. Dr Baker worked on the system until 1982 when he and his wife, Dr Janet Baker, evolved the software into Dragon Systems, a Voice Recognition System. Other advances in the speech recognition sector have been made possible by VoiceXML which has been published in a series of standards since the release of version 1.0 in the year 2000. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has recently announced a new W3C Community Group on Voice Interaction, which aims to explore beyond the system-initiated directed dialogs of VoiceXML applications.
In just a couple of years, there has been an exponential rise of voice assistants such as Apple Siri launched in 2010, Google Now in 2012, Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana in 2015, and Google Assistant in 2016. Using natural language processing and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms, these assistants connect to web services to answer questions and respond to user requests. Recently, Google Home and Amazon Echo have started becoming consumer features in the home.
Social media platforms are similarly incorporating chatbot functionality. The year 2017 witnessed a particular hype cycle as Facebook opened up its Messenger platform and API to developers, providing an opportunity for anyone to build a simple chatbot on Facebook with ease. Twitter followed suite in April 2017 by opening its direct messaging channel to chatbots. WeChat has had chatbot functionalities for a few years now, and Slack and other messenger services are coming on board with open APIs.
Museums and chatbots:
Within this informal history of chatbot developments, it may not be surprising that museums and galleries have a track record in experimenting with new ways of communicating and with the use of emergent technologies to reach their audiences (3), (4), (5). Emerging free chatbot-creating platforms (e.g. Chatfuel, Chatterbot Eliza, among others) and the availability of open APIs, for instance, can offer both large and smaller museums the opportunity of experimenting with chatbots with relatively low effort while keeping costs and staff resources at a low level (5), (6).
Museums already have precedence in piloting technologies encompassing artificial intelligence and natural language processing with few resources (4), (5). Combining in-house or simple production methods with design thinking practices, museums can be enabled to develop interesting products.
There are in fact a growing number of Museums currently going down this route, and using bots to engage their audiences.
Below is a selected list of cultural organisations, discoverable at the time of this publication, that are experimenting with bots as part of their audience engagement programming:
Selected List of Museums using Chatbot Applications for Audience Engagement:
The Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum in Paderborn Germany has an early experience of using an avator bot introduced as MAX. Developed in 2004, MAX is a conversational agent that directly engages with visitors through a screen as a virtual museum guide.
The Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York City:
The Cooper-Hewitt has been a pioneer in chatbot technologies with the creation of the Object Phone in 2013 – a service powered by Twillio that a visitor can text or call to ask for more information about a museum object in the collection. In 2016, Object Phone became a subscription service so that a visitor can receive a daily update. Anyone can participate in trialling the Object Phone: http://objectphone.cooperhewitt.org and signing up. In the words of Micah Walter, Director of Digital & Emerging Media:
“I think institutions like museums have a great opportunity in the chatbot space. If anything it represents a new way to broaden our reach and connect with people on the platforms they are already using. What’s more interesting to me is that chatbots themselves represent a way to interact with people that is by its very nature, bi-directional”.
Micah Walter, July 4, 2016.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
Send Me SFMOMA is an SMS service that provides an approachable, personal, and creative method of sharing the breadth of SFMOMA’s collection with the public. According to Jay Mollica, Creative Technologist, there are thousands of unseen artworks (only 5% are shown in Galleries at any one time) that can now be discovered through this application by texting 572-51 with the words “send me” followed by a keyword, a colour, or an emoji and the visitor will receive a related artwork image and caption via text message.
Carnegie Museum of Art – Carnegie Museums, Pittsburgh.
Similar to the SFMOMA application, Carnegie Museum of Art has developed an SMS-based interaction called Muse which aims to leverage the Carnegie Studio’s user-centered design process and to make use of leading-edge technologies like natural language processing and image recognition. Source: Jeffrey Inscho, Carnegie Museum of Art, May 19, 2017. Source: https://studio.carnegiemuseums.org/introducing-muse-20a6f11c7c35
Anne Frank House in Amsterdam
In March 2017, Anne Frank House in Amsterdam launched its own Facebook Messenger chatbot that allows users to discover the History of Anne Frank – both her personal history and practical visitor information. Not simply a collections discovery bot, this application offers various conversation paths, allowing users to follow different paths in the Anne Frank story with concise information and links to additioal content, for example, excerpts from her diary to the context of World War II at the time. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPH4vUWcN2U Anne Frank House – Published on Apr 3, 2017.
The National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus
The National Art Museum in Belarus has also utilised the Facebook Messenger chatbot capability to create a conversational digital guide released in May 2017. A visitor can interact with the bot at:
https://chatfuel.com/bot/The-National-Art-Museum-of-the-Republic-of-Belarus-1904070043163955 . Source: The first Facebook chatbot guide for the National art museum of the Republic of Belarus available on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/213855387 – published by NODUCK, May 2017.
The Museum of Australian Democracy
The Museum marked its 50th anniversary of a landmark 1967 referendum in which Australians voted overwhelmingly to amend the Constitution to include Aboriginal people in the census and to allow the Commonwealth government to create laws for them. This landmark year lead to the launch of a referendum chatbot that allows visitors to learn about the historic and current impacts of this vote through chatting with it on Facebook Messenger. Directed towards children and accessible to adults, it uses simple gamification and responses, including emojis.
“Using a chatbot as a visitor engagement tool is innovative amongst Australia’s cultural institutions. It acts like history in your pocket and is helping MoAD spark a conversation about the significance of the 1967 referendum. We’re hoping it will be an effective way for people to get the facts, hear Indigenous perspectives on the referendum and reflect on its continuing relevance today.”
Source: Marni Pilgrim, Digital Engagement Manager. When a nation votes Yes, history is written and a chatbot is born. Canberra Times Media Release 25 May 2017
Not unlike the quick adoption of Facebook Messenger among some of the Museum examples, there is a certain trend in Twitter bots such as the Museumbot that pulls open access images from a number of archives such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Other museum archive bots are steadily growing on Twitter, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art LACMA bot, New York Public Library NYPL postcards bot, and the Museum of Modern Art MoMaR bot. A more comprehensive list can be found on Twitter from John Emerson.
The House Museums of Milan Chatbot : Case Study
This snapshot of museum and gallery innovations in chatbot deployment provides the background for a more detailed Case Study about the chatbot work undertaken for The House Museums of Milan (7). Of interest to readers is the twofold consideration of the developers and curators in the creation of The House Museum chatbot – namely:
- to attract and engage teenage audiences to these sites – a notoriously difficult public to engage in museums who are identified with high levels of distraction and highly adapted to the use of social media (6),(7),(8) AND
- to consider interactivity, such as gamification, that can interest and sustain attention by teenage and visitor audiences. (7),(8)
Gamification of chatbot applications is not yet pervasive among museum developments. The Referendum Bot developed for the Museum of Australian Democracy is one example of a gamified bot. The challenges encountered in the House project are described further below as an insider view. The process of chatbot development in this case was also intended to be model for how to make best use of a technology that is still in its infancy, and how to consider promising applications supporting audience interaction, for example, in self-guided tours and education (6), (9), (10).
Goals of the chatbot project:
The House Museums of Milan is a group of 4 historical homes in Milan (Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, Necchi Campiglio Villa and Boschi Di Stefano House Museum). When the House Museums launched a strategic initiative in 2016 that aimed to motivate people to visit the four museums through a single digital guide, they approached InvisibleStudio LTD (a London-based cultural innovation studio) to introduce gamification into the engagement process, specifically to attract younger audiences.
The founders of InvisibleStudio, Stefania Boiano and Giuliano Gaia, had already experimented with earlier chatbot technology in 2002, while working at the Museum of Science and Technology “Leonardo da Vinci” in Milan. You can find more details about this chatbot development in the MW 2003 paper: Make Your Museum Talk: Natural Language Interfaces For Cultural Institutions. (11)
This pioneering work provided important lessons in the development of this first chatbot. A key problem was that the chatbot was developed to mimic a Leonardo da Vinci character with whom the user would interact/”chat”. This set high expectations for the user experience, and led to frustrations when the bot was not able to understand the user beyond simple introductory chat. Consequently, user issues occurred quite soon in the conversation. (11)
With these lessons in hand, InvisibleStudio decided to change their approach when creating a chatbot for the House Museums project. The chatbot would only be used as a tool to help users solve a game set in the real physical environment of the museum. Thus, this approach could shift the user’s focus from the conversation with the chatbot to the actual exploration of the Museum galleries.
The chatbot game was developed using Facebook Messenger, and is directed mainly to young users and teenagers to engage them in exploring the four homes. Exploration is encouraged by users in looking for hidden clues that lead to a final discovery. The gaming activity is set in the context of fighting a mysterious Renaissance magician (based on a real historical figure) that provides a further incentive to engage with the application.
In this way users’ attention are drawn away from the limited conversational skills of the chatbot and invited to observe the collections with more attention while using the chatbot as a “virtual companion” in the game. Other key features had to be tweaked before publishing the application, such as making conversations more realistic by studying real chats on Facebook Messenger, referencing objects which the user can actually see “here and now” in the galleries, and finding the perfect length for the game (11), (12).
Another key challenge is the necessity of keeping open a continuous online connection between users and the chatbot. This can prove tricky in historical house museums, where the older infrastructure is comprised of complex layouts and thick walls which can prevent wifi or an even distribution of wifi connections.
The chatbot was tested with teenagers aged 16-18. The pilot was conducted by InvisibleStudio with 80 teenaged students from local high schools in Milan. This pilot provided the following results:
- 90% of students managed to complete the game
- 30% had connection problems
- 34% were worried for their data traffic
- 88% found the length of the game was right
- 72% evaluated the game as highly entertaining
- 66% found it a useful learning tool, especially if it was used with another student or in a small group.
These results offered some clear directions for the final development stages. Especially interesting for the developers was the fact that students liked using the chatbot in small groups, rather than on their own, because the game triggered collaboration within the team and created a friendly competitive environment with other teams. (12)
Challenges still need to be addressed. These are mainly related to the Facebook Messenger platform itself. For instance, teenagers seem to be abandoning it at an increasing rate. WhatsApp appears to be much more popular, but WhatsApp has not opened its API to third-party software yet. Thus creating a chatbot in WhatsApp is much more difficult at this stage although industry rumours suggest that WhatsApp will open its API soon (13). When this happens, museum chatbots could be developed for a potentially larger audience (e.g. teenagers), and potentially a larger uptake which does not depend on a subscription (e.g. Facebook) as the situation exists currently.
What emerged from this project is that the convergence of chatbots and gamification can be a powerful tool to involve younger, digital savvy generations visiting museums in novel and interesting ways (5), (6), (7), (9), (10). Our findings particularly suggest that users enjoy interacting with a chatbot in a game context, and this engagement can provide a smarter way of leading younger audiences to interact with objects and historic environments with greater attention. However with all the successes of this chatbot launch, there also remain challenges that need further consideration beyond the scope of this paper. As mentioned above, the availability of a wider range of chatbot platforms is one such challenge. A more involved issue is the pace and quality of the bot conversation which emerged as a critical aspect of this project. The present chatbot application required a bigger effort from the developing team to create engaging and realistic non-linear narrative lines, and this will be part of a continuing iteration in future developments.
Bibliography, References and Resources
(1) Dale, R. The return of the chatbots. Natural Language Engineering 22 (5) 2016 : 811–817. doi:10.1017/S1351324916000243
(2) Turing, A. M. (1950) Computing Machinery and Intelligence. Mind 49: 433-460.
(3) Borda, A. and Bowen, J. Smart Cities and Cultural Heritage: A Review of Developments and Future Opportunities. IN Proceedings. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA London 2017), BCS, London, pp 9-18.
(4) Bordoni, L., Mele, F. and Sorgente, A. (eds). Artificial Intelligence for Cultural Heritage. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2016.
(5) Boiano, S., Gaia, G. and Caldarini, M. Make Your Museum Talk: Natural Language Interfaces for Cultural Institutions. Museums and the Web 2003. URL: https://www.museumsandtheweb.com/mw2003/papers/gaia/gaia.html
(6) Boiano, S., Cuomo, P. and Gaia, G. Real-time Messaging Platforms for Storytelling and Gamification in Museums: A case history in Milan. IN Proceedings. Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2016), London, UK, 12 – 14 July 2016. doi.org/10.14236/ewic/EVA2016.60. URL: http://ewic.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/56302
(7) Fors, V. Teenagers’ Multisensory Routes for Learning in the Museum. The Senses and Society, 8:3, 2016, 268-289, DOI: 10.2752/174589313X13712175020479
(8) Endo, Tasia. “Teens use tech to talk art: Amplifying teen voice and art interpretation.” MW2016: Museums and the Web 2016. Published March 10, 2016. Consulted September 29, 2017.
(9) Kelly, L. and Russo, A. From Ladders of Participation to Networks of Participation: Social Media and the Museum Audiences. MW2008: Museum and the Web Conference, April 9–12, Montreal, Canada.
(10) Cawston, Rob, Daniel Efergan and Lindsey Green. “It’s in the game: can playful digital experiences help organisations connect with audiences in new ways?.” Museums and the Web: MW 2017. Published January 31, 2017. Consulted September 29, 2017.
(11) Boiano S. and Gaia G., 3 Lessons learnt from Building our first Museum Chatbot… 15 years ago! Invisible Studio website. Consulted February 28th, 2018. URL: https://medium.com/@invisiblestudio/3-lessons-learnt-from-building-our-first-museum-chatbot-15-years-ago-7189c8a8fe6
(12) Boiano S. and Gaia G., 5 Tips for Involving Teenagers in Your Museum Using a Chatbot. Invisible Studio website. Consulted February 28th, 2018. URL: https://medium.com/@invisiblestudio/5-tips-for-involving-teenagers-in-your-museum-using-a-chatbot-bf88ff3ad568
(13) Mool, T. (2018) Chatbot Trends: The Year of the VoiceBot, WhatsApp Bots, MaaP. NativeMSG. Consulted February 28th, 2018 URL: https://nativemsg.com/blog/2018-chatbot-trends-the-year-of-the-voicebot-whatsapp-bots-maap


School Libraries: Improving student mental and emotional health one book at a time
School libraries, like public libraries, provide a collection of up-to-date resources that inform and entertain. Many school libraries are benefitting from renewed spaces that welcome students by providing seating that is relaxing and grouped for conversing, while offering individual spaces for pondering and completing homework.
The American Library Association (2022) defines libraries as a “venue for exploring questions that arise out of individual curiosity and personal interest”. Ask any reader why books are engaging and the answer will be related to that individual’s ability to find a connection with the characters or content (Allyn, 2015). I remember when a 10th grader, who didn’t read much, came to the library just to get out of study-hall. After talking about his interests, of which one was fishing, he happily left with a non-fiction book on trout fishing with high-quality photographs of tips and tricks. The library and its collection should be a place where all students, faculty and staff are welcomed and affirmed, thus supporting mental and emotional health.
In studying college students’ psychological distress, Levine et al. (2022) found that “recreational reading was associated with reduced psychological distress” and “seemed to buffer against the frustration of one’s basic psychological needs which led to improved mental health”. Another study found that recreational reading can “support readers to deal with the daily emotional challenges they experience affecting their psychological well-being” (Yulia et al., 2021). And it doesn’t take much time! Taking just 6 minutes a day to read can “reduce stress levels by up to 60% by reducing your heartbeat and muscle tension and changing your state of mind” and can be more effective than listening to music (“Making Reading”, 2022).
School recognizing the relationship between stress and mental health are making efforts to create stress-free and welcoming environments via the school library (“Relationship Between”, 2022). Below are some pictures of several districts who have changed up their libraries with color, comfortable seating, new flooring, and new shelving.
By: Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources
Allyn, P. (2015, March-April). For the love of reading: five methods to instill a lifetime of good habits. Reading Today, 32(5), 26+
American Library Association. (2022, June 27). Definition of a library. Retrieved November 28, 2022, from https://libguides.ala.org/library-definition.
Make reading a habit for better mental & emotional health. (2022, October 6). Business World, NA
Relationship between stress and emotional self-efficacy. (2022, August 10). Business World, NA.
S. L. Levine, S. Cherrier, A. C. Holding & R. Koestner. (2022). For the love of reading: Recreational reading reduces psychological distress in college students and autonomous motivation is the key, Journal of American College Health, 70:1, 158-164.
Yulia, A., Joshi, R. M., & Husin, N. A. (2021). Assessing the effects of books on psychological wellbeing in Malaysia. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 19(1), 87+.
focused on the objective
The current school year can be considered anything but traditional and causes some to look forward to a time when things can go back to ‘normal’. Others see the current situation and departure from ‘normal’ as a way to continue personal growth and development regardless of the situation and demonstrate the ability to be innovative and responsive to any situation. One such individual is Andover High School Social Studies teacher Harold Brown. Having lived what some would consider a non-traditional life, Mr. Brown is well prepared to face challenges head on and accomplish the mission of educating his students regardless of the time, place, setting, or circumstances.
The ability to both recognize and respond to present situations is a hallmark of being able to succeed, and Mr. Brown possesses this ability in abundance. Maybe the awareness to positively respond and be dedicated to improvement is the result of the experiences he has had during his life. Growing up in a military family and contributing twenty years of his own life to military service, combined with almost two decades of teaching in both parochial and public schools, have enabled Mr. Brown to understand what it takes to adapt to situations and continue to push towards a clear objective. Regardless of where his experiences have come from, they have equipped him to be prepared for the current state of education today. His continual desire for personal learning and his attendance of multiple professional development opportunities are indicative of the growth mindset and the thirst for knowledge that Mr. Brown possesses and works each day to instill in his students. His teaching style is a true manifestation of his personal belief that one should go into education to enjoy the subject matter and his passion for history is easily recognized and displayed throughout his classroom. His willingness to learn things has been evident this year as he has worked to adapt his instruction in many ways, whether it be incorporating the use of Breakout rooms or using communication and chat platforms to keep his students learning and engaged. No matter the application or format he is, always seeking ways to help his students develop their skills while connecting to the content.
While this year has been anything but typical and has been subjected to so much change and expression of opposing viewpoints on multiple topics, the focus Mr. Brown has on preparing students for achievement and increasing their learning has not changed and remains a constant regardless of instructional model or format. This year may be viewed as a blessing since it has provided so much material and sources that can be examined for reliability, bias, and propaganda and given Mr. Brown the opportunity to be innovative and utilize various technologies to showcase to students the many aspects of the world in which they live. For a social studies teacher there is no better situation and circumstances than those which polarize our society providing opportunities to present students with the chance to learn the most desirable and pursued objective of Mr. Brown, for students to think for themselves!
By: Rob Griffith, CA BOCES Professional Development
Robotics: a tool to teach Stem
The ROBOTC for VEX training at Pioneer High School was led by Jesse Flot, a Research Programmer & Senior Software Engineer for the Robotics Academy at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and Josh Jarvis, the lead developer for CMUs CS-STEM Network. In attendance were nearly thirty participants from various districts across the region (Allegany-Limestone CSC, Andover CSD, Belfast CSD, Bolivar-Richburg CSD, CA-BOCES Belmont CTE, CA-BOCES ISS, CA-BOCES ISS, Cattaraugus-Little Valley CSD, Cuba-Rushford CSD, Ellicottville CSD, Franklinville CSD, Fillmore CSD, Genesee Valley CSD, Hinsdale CSD, Pioneer CSD, Salamanca City SD, Scio CSD, and Whitesville CSD).
What is a robot, and what can we can we teach with it? These were the first two questions that Jesse Flot used to open the ROBOTC for VEX training. The first question is fairly direct: what is a robot? Perhaps you define a robot as something like Wall-E, or maybe to you a robot is Arnold Schwarzenegger from the Terminator. The definition is as simple as SPA: a robot is a device that has the ability to sense, plan, and act. What can we teach with a robot? This second question is more difficult to answer unless we first reflect on how we teach rather than the content of our teaching.
When teaching Algebra 1, my students would struggle with the concept of completing the square to rewrite quadratic expressions. Rather than using the skill of completing the square as a tool to accomplish a goal, I made the skill the learning goal; ultimately, it was not until I provided students with the necessary tools and shift my focus (using GeoGebra) that they were able to better understand the process of completing the square, how to use it, and when to use it. Similarly, “project-based learning (PBL) involves learning through projects rather than just doing projects,” says John Spencer. In other words, the goal of PBL is to focus on the learning process rather than a culminating project. Jesse explained what can be taught with robotics in the same way; he said, “the Robotics Academy at CMU uses robotics as a tool to teach programming; however, you can use robots to teach many other subjects and skills such as mathematics, physics, communication, teamwork, and time management.”
With these questions answered and an understanding that the VEX robots were a tool used to help teach programming, Jesse and Josh led participants through two days of hands-on training with the programming of ROBOTC as well as the hardware of VEX robots. Participants explored intuitive and basic commands using the block coding features of ROBOTC in conjunction with the physical features of the VEX robot the first day, and on day two, participants made the progression to virtual reality with Robot Virtual World software (RVW) and explored how the text commands of ROBOTC differ from its block coding commands.
In addition to Jesse’s 16 years of experience at CMU (12 of which being in professional development), the Robotics Academy’s research-based practices helped guide the hybrid training model. From anticipating participant questions to providing examples of student questions that participants should anticipate, Jesse and Josh led participants through a highly productive two days of learning. Jesse and Josh will continue this hybrid training online from mid-February through March in which participants will gain additional knowledge of the ROBOTC language, continue to track their progress with CMUs learning management system, and explore additional features of VEX robotics.
By: Mark Beckwith, CA BOCES Professional Development
As the new school year approaches, teachers in several districts (Cuba Rushford, Andover, Franklinville, Whitesville, Olean, Fillmore and Cattaraugus – Little Valley) learn the importance of helping students improve a set of thinking skills known as executive function skills. “Human beings have a built in capacity to meet challenges and accomplish goals through the use of high-level cognitive functions called executive skills. These are the skills that help us to decide what activities or tasks we will pay attention to and which ones we’ll choose to do.” (Hart & Jacobs, 1993) These functions are a set of cognitive processes, such as focus, memory and self-control, which enable us to manage information and complete tasks.
CA BOCES provided professional development opportunities for teachers to improve how students learn and develop executive function skills during their K-12 education and beyond. Teachers were informed how to recognize students who struggle with executive weakness, and what strategies can assist students in developing these skills.
Knowing Cognitive Capacities
In order for teachers to target specific executive function skills, they must first be able to identify them. Our teachers researched and developed strategies for the following list of executive function skills:
Teachers reflected on how these skills might exist in the classroom. For example, Students with weak working memory are unable to remember and apply crucial information in order to move to the next step of a task. They often struggle when a task requires them to remember a series of directions, generate ideas in response to the directions and then express their ideas. Information just doesn’t “stick” for them. Once the teacher recognizes a student needs to work on working memory, they can develop a list of strategies to address this learning problem.
Teachers realize it’s important to recognize that the same strategy won’t work for each student. Some students work better with visual cues than verbal cues, for instance. Teachers must differentiate thinking strategies for each student to help them meet full learning potential.
Exercises for Executive Function Skills
There are a number of exercises to help students develop thinking skills. Practices can range from computer games to improve memory skills to physical tasks such as balancing. Here are just a few examples of how teachers in our district have worked with students to improve their executive function skills.
Organization and Planning
Teachers can help students to master these tasks by encouraging students to write down important assignments in a calendar and to allocate time accordingly. Students can be taught how to make lists of homework assignments. Students can be encouraged to use brightly colored folders to take home important papers (like homework and permission slips) to and from school, so those items don’t get lost.
For short-term assignments, encourage students to picture the end result of completing the task and the positive emotion that may be attached to it. Students and teachers can brainstorm ways to make assignments more interesting.
Feeling vocabulary can be taught through books by discussing the feelings the characters had and asking the student to make connections to his own experiences. When the student begins to experience strong emotions, allow them to identify it, validate it and provide a clear direction about what could be done instead of the negative behavior.
When it comes to improving executive function skills during the school day, a step in the right direction is to set up time and programs that are devoted to these strategies. It can take as little as two minutes before class or a full 30-minute session.
The group concluded that students with well-developed executive function skills really hold the foundation to success in school, with their peers, in college and for a career. These skills are what provide individuals with the capacity to meet challenges and accomplish goals! Collaboratively we recognized the responsibility educators have to build these skills in ALL students.
If you are interested in learning more about how to enhance these skills and promoting school and social success for ALL students, please contact CA BOCES (Laurie Sledge at 716-376-8357).
By: Marguerite Andrews and Deanna Wilkinson, CA BOCES Professional Development
Tenth graders from Andover, Belfast, Bolivar-Richburg, Cuba-Rushford, Fillmore, Portville, Scio, and Wellsville explored careers at Alfred State College. Over 40 businesses shared about careers in Allegany County. Student spent the day answering the question, "What's my next step?"
Over the past six months, I’ve had the pleasure of serving as a mentor for Patrick Coyle as he wrote his way through an online English credit recovery course. Patrick is an intelligent young man who loves fishing, hunting and working on engines. We studied together once or twice a week to help hone his English skills as he worked on his class. Patrick had a study hall set aside for his course, but was also willing to meet me after school to work on specific areas he was struggling to understand.
Jamie is Patrick’s mother and she is rightfully proud of her son and his accomplishments. I got to know them both over the time that I spent at Andover and enjoyed that time immensely. I sat down with Jamie and Patrick at our last tutoring session to find out how they felt about Patrick’s online experience. I wanted to know how Patrick felt as a student taking an online course and how Jamie felt as a parent of a student taking the course. Patrick said, “It was pretty straight forward, not very difficult. It was a lot easier for me to work on my own than it was to sit in a classroom. I’m easily distracted.” He laughed a little then.
“Thinking back, how did you feel about the program going into it?” I asked.
“I wasn’t really sure. I was kind of nervous because I hadn’t really done an online class before. I don’t know. I knew I was going to need help because I usually tend to get off track. I just wasn’t sure about it at first.”
Jamie said almost the same thing when I asked her how she felt as a parent, “I wasn’t sure, going into it. I didn’t know what all it involved.” But as the course progressed and she saw how it worked, she began to really like it. She said, “Well, what I really liked was him being able to do the work here in the computer lab. It was such a help. The biggest benefit for me was being able to do the online part here.”
Patrick said it was beneficial to him for a different reason. He said, “It gave me an opportunity to work on it by myself. Whenever I could work on it, I could go and work on it. It was a lot easier for me to sit at a computer to do it than to sit in a classroom and do it.” He would also recommend it to other students who have a similar learning style – students who are self-motivated, able to push themselves, prefer working at their own pace and are willing to ask for help, if needed.
I then asked them both how they felt about feedback they received from their online teachers and coordinators. Patrick said, “My feedback from my teacher, she always gave me feedback. It would take a day or two, but she always gave me good feedback on what I wrote about. And you always gave me good feedback when we were working and it was always a great help to have you here and help me through this.”
Jamie said, “Yes, I mean with the emails saying this is how he did, he needs to work on this, he needs to add more to this, and you know, with somebody correcting it and then saying, you did well, but it could be better if you do these things, and then he could take that and then add more and take their constructive criticism and build on that to make it a better paper.”
Finally, I asked them whether they would recommend online classes to other students, teachers, and administration and I received a big and wonderful yes. In Jamie’s words, “I would. Actually, administration, the superintendent who is no longer here – he retired last year, he actually suggested it to us because Patrick got hired by BOCES last year to work during the summer and he was so excited about that, so he couldn’t go to summer school and work at BOCES, so the superintendant actually told us about this program. I had no idea. Yes, I would recommend it, especially for someone who has plans for the summer, whether it be a job or traveling or whatever. It worked out great.”
Then Jamie went on to say that the program was very beneficial for Patrick, “I’ve told you that with Patrick getting constructive criticism from you, it meant so much more to him than coming from mom. In the way that you presented it to him, saying, you did good with this, but we need to work on this and here are some suggestions, now you go do it and you take the suggestions and do what you think you need to do. I could see, and my mother-in-law mentioned that she could see, such a difference in Patrick with his self esteem, saying, you know, I can do this. He just has a whole different attitude.”
And that is what online learning opportunities are about – helping students feel successful and achieve their goals.
By: Christina McGee, CA BOCES
Jennifer Smith, Speech Therapist, Andover, collaborates with a very flexible 3rd grade teacher, Faye Shay, to login to the student publishing program, Voicethread, and integrate her custom-designed therapy for one particular student with the whole class of students.
Students practice vocabulary, spelling and creative writing during this lesson on the meaning and use of the word, exaggeration. Ms. Smith had a picture of “Pecos Bill” in the Old West projected on the screen in Voicethread and each student could choose his or her method of commenting on the picture (microphone or typing) and begin a story (an exaggeration) of how the “Andover Ponds” were formed. What Ms. Shay noticed was that the students who have very little to say in class, were very involved and lengthy in their explanations of how the ponds were formed – all based upon background knowledge from class and checked later for spelling and punctuation. Creative stories about the ponds and their formation were anywhere from Pecos Bill lassoing animals to push the dirt away to the digging of holes one after another with intervention from a magical being. Ms. Smith also had the students owning their own learning as she communicated to them and displayed on the big screen how their individual comments come to her in an email from Voicethread.
By: Maggie Jensen, CA BOCES Learning Resources
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Religion and Leadership
Core religious and philosophical worldviews have a strong bearing on leadership style and effectiveness. Religious and philosophical worldviews provide the ethical and moral foundations for decision-making, which is a critical component of leadership. Moreover, religious and philosophical worldviews impact the ways leaders guide, teach, and serve others.
Worldview extends beyond religion. Defined loosely as “visions of life,” worldviews encompass the “beliefs, values, and principles” that guide behavior and motivate change (Valk, 2010, p. 83). A worldview is a set of mental constructs that impacts the formation of biases and stereotypes. Biases and stereotypes can come in the way of effective leadership. On the other hand, worldviews are influenced by religious beliefs. Religious beliefs impact the formation of ethical codes that define both individual and organizational behavior. A worldview is a paradigm of life. Although a worldview affects more than leadership effectiveness, there are few areas in which worldviews are less palpable than in a social or organizational context. The worldviews of a leader have the potential to impact a whole organization, community, or even a culture. Worldviews that are materialistic in theory will theoretically lead to decisions that do not take spiritual values into account; whereas worldviews that are spiritual in theory will lead to decisions that are more holistic.
In addition to core religious and philosophical worldviews, psychological stances impact leadership abilities and effectiveness. For instance, inner maturity and emotional intelligence are linked strongly to ethical and effective leadership. Emotional intelligence also neatly complements religious and philosophical integrity. Emotional intelligence, inner maturity, and religious worldviews form a leadership matrix that highlights the interconnectedness of psychological and philosophical concepts.
Describe how a person’s worldview and inner maturity can influence the ability to lead effectively
A person’s worldview and inner maturity will influence the ability to lead effectively. Worldview shapes values, ethics, beliefs, biases, and behaviors. Inner maturity comes from self-awareness, self-honesty, and self-esteem. Although it can be tied to biological age, inner maturity is generally unrelated to either age or actual leadership experience. Rather, inner maturity stems from psychological, social, and spiritual health. A young leader with a solid, confident sense of self is more likely to develop a cohesive leadership vision and plan than a senior with a set of disjointed and conflicting values.
Worldview and inner maturity together influence the ability to lead effectively. One reason why worldview and inner maturity work in tandem is that both encourage strong character development. “People of character who operate in a principle-centered fashion and use highly developed moral reasoning as the basis for ethical decision-making are sometimes also referred to as virtuous,” (Sipe & Frick, 2009, p. 19). Virtuous individuals are defined by their inner maturity. Their decisions and actions reflect personal integrity. A virtuous attitude toward leadership entails both “self-oriented values” and “other-oriented values” that, when combined, makes for a particularly effective leader (Sipe & Frick, 2009, p. 20).
Specific ways in which worldview and inner maturity work together to create not just virtuous character but also effective leadership include the following. First, a leader’s managerial style is influenced by attitudes about issues such as diversity, gender, and environmental ethics. Worldviews will determine whether the input of females and non-whites is valued or under-valued in an organization. A worldview will also determine whether the leader views the environment as disposable and value-neutral, versus the environment as sacred and inherently valuable. Inner maturity determines whether the leader remains true to the core value system that has been established via the formation of worldviews.
Identify and explain two philosophical worldviews and one religious worldview that can support servant leadership.
Servant leadership is an evolving concept rooted in the Christian worldview. Although Christian values and ethics comprise the foundation of servant leadership, servant leaders hail from religious backgrounds other than Christianity. In fact, the concept of servant leadership is rooted in non-denominational religious ethics and universal philosophical morals. In addition to Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism also support the concept of servant leadership. As an atheistic religion, Buddhism can easily fall under the rubric of philosophical tradition. Christianity, however, is the fundamental underpinning of servant leadership. Agosto (2005) outlines the mission of Jesus as embodying servant leadership. Thus, a religious worldview with Jesus Christ at its center will draw heavily from gospel tradition and allegory. The gospels will provide the ethical foundation for leadership decisions, and also determine how the leader interacts with others.
Moreover, servant leadership encompasses philosophical worldview. “Philosophy is a system in which the ontology, epistemology and axiology informs and impacts ones view of the world,” (Boyum, 2006, p. 5). When Greenleaf first developed the concept of servant leadership, Christianity might have formed the foundation of the theory. Yet servant leadership extends beyond Christianity to draw on philosophy as well. A servant-leader makes “insightful, ethical, and principle-centered decisions,” (Sipe & Frick, 2009, p. 15). Moreover, “servant leadership was derived through analogical or interpretive reasoning,” (Boyum, 2006, p. 9). A philosophical worldview that values interpretive reasoning is one that supports servant leadership. Philosophical traditions related to the nature of God, human nature, and epistemology all support servant leadership. If an individual believes that service to others is a necessary prerequisite for spiritual harmony, then that individual is a servant-leader. One philosophical worldview that would not be compatible with servant-leadership might be utilitarianism. Utilitarian worldviews can easily denigrate the concept of selfless service.
Describe the importance of inner maturity and awareness such as emotional intelligence and the role they play in enabling the leader to model the capacities or characteristics of servant leadership.
Antonakis, Ashkenasy & Dashborough (2009) found that emotional intelligence can indeed be empirically linked to leadership effectiveness. Servant leadership underscores the importance of emotional intelligence. For this reason, servant leadership can be compared with transformational leadership in that both empower and value the input of others. Rosete & Ciarrochi (2005) found that emotional intelligence is directly linked to performance outcomes in the workplace. Thus, servant leadership can be considered an effective leadership model.
Inner maturity and awareness of emotional intelligence must be applied conscientiously in the workplace. Emotional intelligence enables the leader to model the specific characteristics that are unique to servant leadership such as moral authority. The qualities that define servant leadership include moral authority, which is built on emotional intelligence. A leader that is aware of the social and emotional contexts of the workplace will be more likely to serve well in a position of power. Servant leadership is also a systems model, in that it encompasses strategic thinking and acting (Sipe & Frick, 2009).
Values, beliefs, and behaviors will impact leadership styles and ultimately, the success of an organization. Worldview impacts the way a leader manages teams, ascribes to ethical codes, and deals with the rigors of the global marketplace. When a leader’s worldview is rooted in Christian values or the ethics of a similar religious code, that individual is more likely to apply emotional intelligence to organizational decision-making.
Servant leadership draws from religious and philosophical traditions such as Christianity, epistemology, and ontology. In fact, servant leadership draws on multiple philosophical and religious worldviews that include but are not limited to Christianity. Ethics, morals, and worldviews converge in the servant-leader. Drawing from various philosophical and religious traditions can help inspire a servant-leader perspective: one that values both emotional intelligence and inner maturity. Moreover, the gospel stories of Christ can illuminate the pathways toward developing servant leaders. An attitude of love, compassion, and goodwill towards others are components of service leadership. A leader can use a position of power to affect positive change.
Inner maturity is necessary to develop the unique qualities of servant leadership, which depends on integrity and compassion. Maturity can be measured in behaviors as well as attitudes. Communication skills are also a key component of inner maturity. Yet emotional intelligence also comprises good communication skills. An individual who is emotionally intelligent is likely to also be emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually mature. Regardless of the philosophical or religious tradition from which an individual hails, servant-leadership will ensure organizational success. Research shows that emotional intelligence is linked to measurable results in an organization, which is why servant leadership may also ensure the fulfillment of both personal and organizational goals.
The concept of servant leadership is one that is holistic and multifaceted. Servant leadership and transformational leadership go hand in hand. For this reason also, systems theory and servant leadership go hand in hand. Organizations seeking stronger ethical foundations would be wise to cultivate servant leaders. Regardless of whether an organization is a Christian — or any other type of religious — one, servant leadership will ensure a harmonious, cooperative workplace environment. Supporting team members, inspiring positive change and growth, and developing future leaders through mentoring are all components of servant leadership. Behaviors associated with servant leadership are measurable, too. Future research shall elucidate the concrete ways servant leaders promote organizational success.
Agosto, E. (2005). Servant Leadership. Danvers, MA: Chalice.
Antonakis, J., Ashkanasy, N.M. & Dasborough, M.T. (2009). Does leadership need emotional intelligence? The Leadership Quarterly 20(2): 241-261.
Boyum, G. (2006). The Historical and Philosophical Influences on Greenleaf’s Concept of Servant Leadership. Servant Leadership Research Roundtable. Aug 2006. Retrieved online: http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/sl_proceedings/2006/boyum.pdf
Fry, L.F. (2009). Towards a theory of being-centered leadership: Multiple levels of being as context for effective leadership. Human Relations 62(11):1667-1696
Kamalini, K. (2010). A new culture of leadership: service over self. Journal of Christian Nursing 27(1): 46-50.
Rosete, D. & Ciarochi, J. (2005). Emotional intelligence and its relationship to workplace performance outcomes of leadership effectiveness. Leadership and Organization Development Journal 26(5): 388-399.
Sipe, J.W. & Frick, D.M. (2009). Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership. Mahway, NJ: Paulist.
Valk, J. (2010). Leadership for transformation: The impact of a Christian worldview. Journal of Leadership Studies 4(3):83-86.
Wallace, J.R. (2007). Servant leadership: A worldview perspective. International Journal of Leadership Studies 2(2): 114-132. Retrieved online: http://22.214.171.124/acad/global/publications/ijls/new/vol2iss2/Wallace/WallaceV2Is2.pdf
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To be effective, a program of vocabulary instruction should provide students with opportunities for word learning by:
- encouraging wide reading;
- exposing students to high-quality oral language;
- promoting word consciousness;
- providing explicit instruction of specific words; and
- providing modeling and instruction in independent word-learning strategies.
Each of these components contributes to helping students overcome the major obstacles to vocabulary growth.
What to do about the size of the task
We know that the volume of students' reading is strongly related to their vocabulary knowledge.1 Students learn new words by encountering them in text, either through their own reading or by being read to. Increasing the opportunities for such encounters improves students' vocabulary knowledge, which, in turn, improves their ability to read more and more complex text. In short, the single most important thing you can do to improve students' vocabularies is to get them to read more.
Remember, to keep up, students need to learn at a rate of 2,000-3,000 words per year; to catch up, they need to exceed this rate. Can wide reading really be enough to help students learn so many words? Evidence indicates that it can. First, there is the evidence of those avid readers who acquire large vocabularies largely apart from any type of explicit instruction in vocabulary. Second, there is a growing body of research showing that, although the odds of learning any particular word from context are small, the cumulative effects of learning from reading can be large. Consider the following argument for the effects of wide reading:2
- If, over a school year, a fifth-grade student reads for an hour each day, five days a week (in and out of school), at a conservative rate of 150 words per minute, the student will encounter 2,250,000 words in the course of reading.
- If 2% to 5% of the words the student encounters are unknown words, he or she will encounter from 45,000 to 112,500 such words.
- We know that students learn between 5% 10% of previously unknown words from a single reading. This accounts for at least 2,250 new words the student learns from context each year.
The figure 2,250 new words learned a year is based on the lowest points of the estimated ranges. Even this conservative figure suggests that reading is a powerful influence on students' vocabulary growth.
What kinds of reading are necessary to produce such vocabulary growth? Whereas some argue that almost any reading ultimately will have powerful benefits for students,3 others say that if students consistently select texts below their current reading levels, even wide reading will not result in measurable vocabulary growth.4 Nor is reading text that is full of unfamiliar words likely to produce large gains in word knowledge.5
To help students get the most out of reading, you should encourage them to read at a variety of levels — some text simply for enjoyment, which should benefit their fluency if nothing else — and some text that challenges them. You should also help students develop reading strategies that will allow them to read more challenging texts with lower levels of frustration. When students have been taught comprehension strategies, they tend to do more reading.6
Increasing their motivation to read is another critical factor in helping students make the most of wide reading. One powerful motivating factor associated with more reading is a classroom environment that encourages and promotes social interactions related to reading.7 Making available a variety of books and setting aside ample time for reading also motivate increased reading.
As is true for any method of promoting vocabulary growth, wide reading has some limitations. One is that it obviously cannot be effective with very young students who are not yet able to read very much on their own. Another limitation is that, although wide reading may be effective in producing general vocabulary growth, it is not an effective method for teaching the words that students need to master a particular selection or a concept related to a specific content area. Finally, it is important to acknowledge that, as important as it is, wide reading does not produce immediate, magic results; its effects are cumulative, and emerge over time.
You can encourage wide reading in a number of ways. You might, for example, recommend or provide lists of books for students to read outside of class, and make time in class for students to discuss what they have read. You can set aside a time each day for independent reading. And, of course, you can model the value you place on reading as they read, by telling students about the books you are reading.
What to do about the differences between spoken and written English
High Quality Oral Language
As we discussed earlier, both English language learners and English-speaking students may achieve fluency in the language of face-to-face conversation and still have little exposure to or knowledge of the kind of language they encounter in school textbooks. Clearly these students need more exposure to written English, and wide reading is the most effective way of increasing exposure to this kind of language. But what can be done with students who are in the process of learning to read, and who cannot do a great deal of reading on their own? Here is one solution: Increase the quality of the oral language to which students are exposed — let them hear spoken English that incorporates more of the vocabulary and syntax typical of written, and particularly literate English.
A very effective way to expose children to literate vocabulary is to read to them from storybooks, especially when the reading is accompanied with discussion.8 Authors of good children's literature have always found ways to talk "over children's heads" — using big words and other aspects of literate language — without decreasing children's interest or enjoyment. Both younger and older students appear to benefit from read-aloud activities, and older students can learn the meanings of new words as efficiently from hearing stories read to them as they can from reading the stories themselves.9 Making available (either in the classroom or school library) a selection of quality audio books and players that students can use on their own can also be a good way to expose them to a variety of good books and broad language experiences.
Storytelling is yet another way to increase the quality of students' oral language experiences. Even when no text is involved, storytelling still exposes students to richer language than does normal conversation. Pretend play likewise involves rich language use. The quality of preschool children's conversations, and teachers' use of a more sophisticated vocabulary also have been found to affect students' language and literacy development.10
Asked what they could do to use more sophisticated vocabulary without intimidating or confusing their students, a group of teachers responded enthusiastically, "Make it fun!" We definitely agree. Playing with language is an essential component of language development. Word consciousness is the knowledge of and interest in words. Word-conscious students enjoy learning new words and engaging in word play. They know and use many words, and are aware of the subtleties of word meaning and of the power words can have.11
To become word conscious, students first need to develop a feel for how written language is different from everyday conversation. To this end, it is valuable to draw their attention to the distinctive characteristics of written language, even when reading aloud, and to help them learn to read like a writer, and to write with an audience in mind.
Having students copy in their journals phrases or sentences from their reading that are examples of especially effective language use — vivid descriptions, striking metaphors, interesting similes, plays on words-can help make language more alive for them. Students can share their examples with the class, or they can post them in the classroom to serve as inspiration or models for others.
Reading and discussing two versions of the same story — ideally, one with rich language and one with language that is less interesting — can promote word consciousness in younger students.
Word consciousness can be promoted in a way that helps students become aware of differences between Standard English and non-standard varieties, without stigmatizing the latter. Shirley Brice Heath describes classrooms in which students learned to be "language detectives," studying how people speak differently in different groups and in different situations. She believes that this awareness made an important contribution to the students' academic success.12 It may be especially important to make such differences explicit for students less familiar with standard English.
A number of oral and written word games can serve to promote word consciousness, including puns, limericks, Hink-Pinks, crossword puzzles, jokes, riddles, and anagrams.13 Encouraging students to play with words can create an interest in knowing more about them, and thus, can become a strategy for independent word learning.
What to do about the limitations of sources of information about words
Independent Word-Learning Strategies
Techniques that teachers can model and teach to students so as to help them figure out the meanings of unknown words on their own. Because students learn most new words incidentally, through wide reading, helping students to acquire a set of word-learning strategies is important to their vocabulary development. Key word-learning strategies include:
- the efficient use of the dictionary;
- the use of word parts (prefixes, suffixes, roots, compounds) to unlock a word's meaning; and
- the use of context clues.
Instruction in dictionary use that focuses on having students look up words and use information from their definitions to write sentences does not provide students with the guidance they need to make dictionary use an efficient independent word-learning strategy.
This is not to say, however, that dictionaries are not important aids to word learning. In fact, the more students are exposed to dictionary definitions, the better their word learning.14 The crucial point here is that students receive instruction in how to use what they find in a dictionary entry so that they are able to translate the cryptic and conventionalized content of definitions into usable word knowledge.15 This instruction includes modeling how to look up the meaning of an unknown word, thinking-aloud about the various definitions in an entry, and deciding which is the most appropriate definition for a particular context.16
Teaching students how to use information about word parts can be very valuable in promoting vocabulary growth. Many students, however, are not aware of this strategy. Even students who have learned to break words into parts in their decoding instruction may not understand that they can use this knowledge to figure out word meanings. Teacher modeling helps to make the strategy's value clear to students.17
Using word-part information can be especially helpful in learning certain content-area concepts. (See Teaching Word Meaning as Concepts)
Context clues are clues to the meaning of a word contained in the text that surrounds it. These clues include definitions, examples, and restatements. Teaching students strategies for identifying and using context clues has been suggested as a major instructional technique for vocabulary development.18 A student learns a new word from context by making connections between the word and the text in which it appears. When a new word is first encountered, the student stores in memory some information about how it fits into what is being read. In subsequent encounters with the word, this information is reinforced, and more information about the word's role in particular contexts is added until the word is understood and used appropriately. As in teaching other kinds of strategies, teaching students to use context clues to develop vocabulary is an extended process that involves: modeling the strategy; providing explicit explanations of how, why, and when to use it; providing guided practice; gradually holding students accountable for independently using the strategy; and then providing intermittent reminders to apply it to reading across content areas.
As we noted earlier, learning words from context is a long-term process, one that involves multiple encounters with words. The challenge is to create vocabulary instruction that compresses this process to enable students to learn more words in a shorter period of time.19
What to do about the complexity of word knowledge
Explicit Instruction of Specific Words
Although students gain most of their word knowledge through wide reading, explicit instruction of specific words and their meanings also can contribute greatly to their vocabulary development. Explicit instruction is especially important for students whose exposure to the vocabulary of literate English is limited. To be most effective, explicit vocabulary instruction should be dynamic and involve a variety of techniques. Specifically, instruction should:
- Use both definitional and contextual information about word meanings,
- Involve students actively in word learning, and
- Use discussion to teach the meanings of new words and to provide meaningful information about the words.
Use Definitional and Contextual Information
In the past, vocabulary instruction most often consisted of learning lists of words and definitions (with a test on Friday). We now know that such instruction is of limited value, particularly in improving students' reading comprehension.20 Students need to know how a word functions in various contexts. Therefore, instructional methods that provide students with both definitional and contextual information do improve comprehension, and do so significantly.
Some instructional activities that provide students with definitional information include:
- Teach synonyms.
Often a synonym is all students need to understand a new word in context.
- Teach antonyms.
Not all words have antonyms, but thinking about antonyms requires students to identify the crucial aspects of a word. For example, the word chaos implies an abyss, a void, or clutter, but its antonym, order, narrows the focus to the "clutter" part of the word's meaning.
- Rewrite definitions.
As we noted earlier, dictionary definitions can often confuse or mislead students. Asking students to restate a dictionary definition in their own words can be more effective than requiring them to remember the exact wording of the definition.
- Provide example sentences.
A good way to ascertain whether students understand a word's definitions is to have them provide example sentences in which they use the word. They may draw these examples from personal experiences ("Mom's kitchen is chaos.") or from textbooks ("After the great flood of 1937, there was chaos all over the Tennessee Valley.").
- Provide non-examples.
Another way to find out if students truly understand the meaning of a new word is to have them supply words that are not examples of the word's meaning. For example, point out to them that cry is not an example of the word guffaw, then ask them to think of other non-examples of the word (bawl, sniffle, whine, whimper). Coming up with non-examples requires students to think about the critical attributes of a word, much like providing antonyms.
- Discuss the difference between the new word and related words.
A discussion of the word debris, defined as "trash," "garbage," or "waste," might include a discussion of the differences between debris and trash, garbage, and waste. For example, debris might be the result of some sort of accident or disaster, whereas trash might include anything. Garbage generally refers to organic material, such as food leftovers, and waste implies something left over, rather than something resulting from a disaster. Such a thorough discussion encourages students to focus on the meanings of words.
Some activities that provide students with contextual information include:
- Have students create sentences that contain the new word.
Encourage students to create sentences that show a clear understanding of the meaning of the word — not just "I like chaos." More acceptable sentences are those that include the definition, such as, "Chaos is when everything is in disorder." Even more acceptable are sentences that extend the definition, such as, "The scene was complete chaos — desks were turned over, paint was splashed on the floor, and the trash can was upside down." Of course, to write sentences containing a new word, students need examples of how it is used correctly. Definitions, even those that give brief examples, rarely provide enough information to guarantee that students have a real sense of how words are used. One way to scaffold students' use of new words is to have them complete sentence stems containing the word, e.g., "John thought it would pacify the teacher if "21
- Use more than one new word in a sentence.
Asking students to use more than one new word in each sentence they create can force them to look for relations among words.
- Discuss the meaning of the same word in different sentences.
Many words have multiple meanings, which depend on the context in which the words appear. To prevent students from limiting word meanings to one particular context, have them use a new word in several different and varied sentences. For the word chaos, their sentences might include topics such as chaos in classroom behavior, chaos as clutter and mess, chaos in personal relations, and so forth.
- Create a scenario.
Invite students to make up a story in which a new word features prominently. If students are too young for this activity, have them draw a picture story for a new word.
- Create silly questions.
You might have students pair new words and use each pair to make a silly question.22 For the words actuary, hermit, philanthropist, and villain, their questions might include "Can an actuary be a hermit?" "Can an actuary be a philanthropist?" "Can a philanthropist be a hermit?" "Can a philanthropist be a villain?"
Involve Students Actively in Word Learning
Students remember more when they relate new information to known information, transforming it in their own words, generating examples and non-examples, producing antonyms and synonyms, and so forth.
Instruction that works
In one study of exemplary vocabulary instruction, activities were conducted in a five-day cycle. On the first day, the new words were defined, and students discussed the use of each word in context. This discussion took different forms, including discussion of examples and non-examples, pantomimes, and having students say "Yay" if the word was used correctly in a sentence and "Boo" if it was not. On the second day, after a review of the definitions, students might work on log sheets, completing sentences for each word. On the third day, they completed another log sheet, then worked on a timed activity in which pairs of students attempted in the shortest amount of time to match words with their definitions. This activity was repeated on the fourth day. After completion of the second timed activity, students were asked silly questions. On the fifth day, they took a post-test.
These activities varied somewhat with different units. For example, students also completed a "Word Wizard" chart activity each day. A Word Wizard chart is a chart that contains new vocabulary words. These words can be taken from a storybook, from a text, or just be words that are encountered in some way. Every time a child in the class found one of these words in context, the teacher attached an adhesive note with the child's name and the context next to the word. The first child who received 5, 10, or some other number of notes became the Word Wizard. Students were given credit toward becoming a "Word Wizard" by finding examples of each word used outside of class.
This program, or variations of it, significantly improved students' comprehension of texts containing words that were taught. As part of the program, it was revealed that twelve encounters with a word reliably improved comprehension, but four encounters did not. The instructional approach, which involved active processing of each words' meaning, had significantly greater effects than did a definition-only approach on measures of comprehension but not on measures involving the recall of definitions. These findings suggest that vocabulary instruction can improve comprehension, but only if the instruction is rich and extensive, and includes a great many encounters with to-be-learned words.
Use discussion to teach word meanings. Discussion adds an important dimension to vocabulary instruction. Students with little or no knowledge of some new words they encounter in a vocabulary lesson are often able to construct a good idea of a word's meaning from the bits of partial knowledge contributed by their classmates. (When the class as a whole does not know much about a particular word, however, you may have to help. Perhaps supplying some information about the word, such as a quick definition.)
Discussion can clarify misunderstandings of words by making the misunderstandings public. For words that a student knows partially, or knows in one particular context, the give-and-take of discussion can clarify meanings. When misunderstandings are public, the teacher can shape them into the conventional meaning.
Discussion involves students in other ways. As they wait to be called on, students practice covertly, or silently prepare a response. Therefore, even though you call on only one student, many other students anticipate that they will have to come up with an answer. As a result, discussion leads to increased vocabulary learning.23 Without the practiced response, discussion is not likely to be valuable as a learning experience.
Bringing instruction together
This sample lesson illustrates how a teacher can bring together the three components of explicit vocabulary instruction to teach words that are key to understanding the story The Talking Eggs by Robert San Soucil. The words chosen for instruction are backwoods, contrary, dawdled, groping, rubies, and silver.24
For the key word backwoods, read the following sentence from the story: "Then the old woman took her by the hand and led her deep into the backwoods." Ask students to predict what backwoods means. Backwoods is a compound, and, when the information from the word parts is combined with some information from the context, its meaning should be fairly clear. Next, ask students to describe the backwoods briefly.
The key word contrary can be taught the same way, beginning with reading this sentence from the book: "You do as I say and don't be so contrary," and asking students to predict the meaning of the word from context. For this word, have students discuss a definition for the word, such as "disagreeable, raising objections," and encourage them to explain how the definition fits in the context of the sentence. As a follow up, you have them create some sentences that contain contrary. This can lead to a discussion of another, related meaning for contrary, that of "from another point of view," as in the expression "to the contrary."
For dawdled and groping, begin once again by reading sentences in the story that contain the words. Because these words are verbs, however, you might want to pantomime the meaning of each, rather than supply a conventional definition. Then ask students to create sentences that use the words. You might define dawdled with some non-examples, because it is a word that has some clear antonyms, such as hustled, ran, went quickly, and so on.
For rubies and silver, begin by having the class discuss what precious things are. You might illustrate the words by providing pictures that show rubies and things made of silver. Next, work with the class to make a list of precious things, including rubies and silver, as well as gold, diamonds, and so forth.
The words used in the sample lesson are highly dissimilar. They were selected for instruction only because they happen to come from the story they students were reading. The techniques used to teach the words, however, are somewhat similar. For four of the six words, the teacher starts with sentences from the text, then asks students to create additional sentences to extend the meaning of the word beyond the text. Finally, the teacher also includes a definition, either a conventional verbal one or a gestural one, for each of the words.
The instruction this lesson illustrates is relatively minimal, designed to support the reading of the text. More elaborate instruction would shift the focus from the story to the vocabulary words, and might be useful in a classroom with many English language learners, or in any classroom when a greater emphasis on vocabulary is appropriate. More elaborate instruction also might include using additional sentence contexts for each word, a "yea or nay" activity ("Would you dawdle in the backwoods?"), or having students write a scenario, or story that contains these words.
Explicit vocabulary instruction does seem to improve comprehension significantly, at least when the words taught come from the text students are reading. Nevertheless, some cautions are in order. First, teaching vocabulary as students read can, under certain circumstances, distract them from the main ideas of the text. Second, teaching words that are not important to understanding the text leads students to focus on individual word meanings rather than on the overall meaning of what they read. The more effort students expend focusing on word meanings, the less effort they will have available to recall information that is important to comprehension.25 Thus, to be effective, pre-reading vocabulary instruction should focus on words that relate to the major ideas in a text, rather than on words that are interesting or unusual.
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