Vocabulary Visit:
A vocabulary visit is a way to build meaning for a new word by connecting abstract concepts with tangible objects. Vocabulary visits focus on words that will be used on field trips or in a field experience. It can also be used to prepare students to conduct a lab or prepare for a guest speaker (Miller & Veatch, 2012). Vocabulary visits also can be "virtual fieldtrips" which appeal to the senses but also strengthen a students learning of new concepts and vocabulary (http://www.jstor.org/stable/20204345?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents).
How to use a Vocabulary Visit (Miller & Veatch, 2012):
- Identify focal topics to have a fieldtrip, laboratory or guest speaker.
- Collect any related texts and photos that represent the experience, fieldtrip, laboratory, or guest speaker.
- Prepare a large blank poster. Ask students to look at the pictures and text on the poster and have them list the vocabulary terms on the poster that they associate with the pictures and text.
- Go on the fieldtrip, do the lab, have the guest speaker and ask the students to add additional words to the poster.
- During or after the experience, have the students group the related words together and label the groups.
- Read sections of the text and have the students signal when they hear one of the vocabulary words. Add more words, if applicable and group new words accordingly.
- Use the poster to extend word studies and activities.
An example of a Vocabulary Visit:
As a biology class, we will study the human body and all of its systems. As a class, we may take a field trip to a local hospital or x-ray center, etc. To prepare the students for the field trip I would take some time to do a vocabulary visit. A vocabulary visit in this scenario make look like the following to begin with (before really grouping words together, etc):
Common Core Standards met using Pre-teaching Vocabulary(http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RST/6-8/#CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.1):
Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; provide an accurate summary of the text distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 6-8 texts and topics.
Analyze the author's purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text.
Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).
Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 6-8 texts and topics.
Analyze the author's purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text.
Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).
Why use Vocabulary Visits:
1. Vocabulary visits are motivating
(http://www.learningpt.org/pdfs/literacy/vocabulary.pdf)
2. Develop both written and oral vocabulary in students. (http://www.learningpt.org/pdfs/literacy/vocabulary.pdf)
3. Good field trips, guest speakers, labs are content focused and connect to the curriculum and its content, providing a context for learning that connects vocabulary in a tangible way. (Blachoowicz, C. & Obrochta, C., 2005).
(http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/imprint_downloads/merrill_professional/images/blachowicz3.pdf)
4. Field trips and Vocabulary visits involve exploration, talk, reading and writing by the students and a follow-up of new concepts and terms (Blachoowicz, C. & Obrochta, C. 2005).
(http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/imprint_downloads/merrill_professional/images/blachowicz3.pdf)
Variations and/or Additions to the Vocabulary Visit:
1. The vocabulary "visit" can precede a "real" field trip or it may be a visit to the library in the school or a virtual visit.
2. Virtual visits may consist of developing the students vocabulary by doing a read aloud with the students and having them participate in active learning. A read aloud would be reading a storybook to the students and having them participate in active learning. Active learning is the students hearing the vocabulary, using the words, manipulating them and playing with the words. Studies show that students who participate in active learning are more likely to learn and retain new vocabulary (http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/imprint_downloads/merrill_professional/images/blachowicz3.pdf).
2. Virtual visits may consist of developing the students vocabulary by doing a read aloud with the students and having them participate in active learning. A read aloud would be reading a storybook to the students and having them participate in active learning. Active learning is the students hearing the vocabulary, using the words, manipulating them and playing with the words. Studies show that students who participate in active learning are more likely to learn and retain new vocabulary (http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/imprint_downloads/merrill_professional/images/blachowicz3.pdf).
Video representing Vocabulary Visit:
Note: I could not find an exact teaching of using Vocabulary visits but this video shows how to used texts and photos to connect meaning with a word which is important in the first steps of a Vocabulary Visit.