Description
Using your knowledge of formal and informal assessments, discuss and classify various forms of formal and informal domain-specific vocabulary assessments that would be appropriate for use with your students. Use the module, the text, and scholarly sources to support your ideas.
Because of the wide variation in vocabulary knowledge, it is difficult to find formal vocabulary assessments that measure complete vocabulary knowledge. The other factor to consider is what is meant by vocabulary knowledge. Do you want to know whether they can read the word, match the word with the definition, use the word in a sentence, or use it without support in written and spoken language?
Informal Assessments are often used in an attempt to determine the extent of vocabulary knowledge.
Students are asked to create a timed writing sample. The teacher gives the writing prompt. The students then have a minute to think about the prompt and three minutes to write their responses. An alternate method might be for the teacher to read a story. The students are then allowed to talk about the story, and after the discussion, the students have three minutes to write their response. The second approach provided for more developed ideas.
After the time is up, the teacher tallies the number of mature words that contain 8 or more letters. The number of words is then compared to the total number of words in the passage to generate a percent of mature words. This number is recorded. Progress can be monitored by using this method numerous times over the year. This allows you to see student growth.
Vocabulary Knowledge Scales
The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) is a form of self-assessment but with teacher evaluation as well. Students rather their knowledge, but they must demonstrate their knowledge rather than merely indicating it. The VKS can be used as a pre- and posttest to progress monitor. The use of numeric scores, allows the teacher to rank and/or compare student knowledge. A student’s score can be compared to the class average to provide additional information.
Students read the word in the first column and then select the column that matches their assessment of their personal knowledge. If they have never heard the word before they place a mark in the first column. If they have seen the word before, but don’t know what it means, then they should place a mark in column 2. If they think they know the meaning of the word they write the meaning in column 3. If they are sure of the meaning they write it in column four. If they can use the word in a sentence they add the sentence to column five.
The student earns the number of points as the highest column number that he has answered correctly.
1
2
3
4
5
Word
Never Seen Before
Have Seen but don’t know what it means
I think it means
I know it means
I can use in a sentence
Word Part Knowledge
All multisyllabic words have at least one base word or root word. The difference between root and base words can be confusing. A base is a complete word that can be used by itself, such as the word ride. A root word also carries meaning, but it is not a complete word; an example is struct in the word destruction (Bursuck & Damer, 2007).
The teacher creates a list of words containing prefixes, roots, and suffixes. The student divides each word into its parts and writes the meaning for each and the meaning for the entire word.
The student earns one point for each correct division and one point for each correct meaning. In addition, if he defines the entire word correctly he gets an additional point. For example, the word biography would be divided bio and graphy. If the student divided it that way he would get 2 points, one of each part. If he defined bio as life and graphy as a field of study, he would get another 2 points. Then if he defined biography correctly he would earn an additional point. So the entire word could be worth 5 points.
Conversation Vocabulary
This method would be effective if the teacher wanted to access the class’s ability to use vocabulary words in context. The words are written on the board and a discussion about the topic of study is generated. The teacher places a tally mark after the word each time it is used in conversations.
