Using E-Books to Acquire Foundational Academic Vocabulary

Abstract

Secondary students identified as English language learners or with learning disabilities present diverse vocabulary and academic challenges related to their exceptional language needs. Limited academic vocabulary may hinder students in accessing academic content and serve as a barrier to achievement. The literature has documented the use of multimedia-delivered instruction as a support in the development of content area academic vocabulary. One such tool, electronic books (i.e., e-books), can be an effective multimedia resource used to supplement standards-based instruction and preteach content area vocabulary specifically designed for students with exceptional language needs. This article describes methods for analyzing content standards and developing differentiated e-books to preteach academic vocabulary to support students with exceptional language needs in acquiring foundational academic vocabulary. The selection and use of specific tools based on students’ academic and linguistic needs will also be illustrated.

Keywords

academic vocabulary multimedia-based instruction accessing content standards

Classrooms in the United States have become increasingly diverse in the past few decades. In fact, it can be argued that diversity is the norm for the majority of U.S. public schools (Herrera & Murry, 2011). Individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds make up the fastest-growing segment of the school-age population (National Council for Teachers of English, 2008). The U.S. Department of Education (2015) projected diverse student populations to grow, estimating that by the year 2025, over 25% of students enrolled in U.S. schools will speak a native language other than English.

Adding to the cultural diversity of classrooms is the diversity of learning profiles that exist in classrooms. This includes students with disabilities, who are attending general education classes at greater rates (McLeskey, Landers, Williamson, & Hoppey, 2010). As diverse student populations within classrooms increase, both general and special education teachers in general education environments are tasked with addressing potential barriers to student success, including their academic and linguistic needs (Spies & Dema, 2014).

Educational research and federal mandates (i.e., Every Student Succeeds Act, 2015; Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, 2004) emphasize that all students, whether they have a disability or struggle with language, have access to the general education curriculum. These mandates hold schools and teachers accountable for demonstrating students’ growth in mastery of the curriculum. Of particular challenge are the academic language demands (i.e., acquisition and use of specific content vocabulary in discourse and writing) placed on students at the secondary level. The language demands of academic standards pose a specific challenge to students who are learning English and those with learning disabilities (LD; Spies & Dema, 2014). While barriers to learning related to language differ for students with LD and students learning English, both groups possess exceptional language needs for teachers to address.

Current trends in the placement of all students indicate that students tend to have the greatest access to instruction anchored in academic standards in the general education classroom (McLeskey et al., 2010). Addressing the learning needs of students with exceptional language needs (i.e., students with LD or who are learning English) in the general education classroom can be challenging (Spies & Dema, 2014). This article describes methods for secondary teachers that support the acquisition of foundational content knowledge through vocabulary instruction, with specific attention to (a) identifying key knowledge and essential vocabulary within content standards, (b) implementing best practices in teaching vocabulary, and (c) constructing e-books to aid students in acquiring academic vocabulary.

Common Core State Standards

Introduced in 2009, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS; National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010) outlined the necessary skills and knowledge students must have to be college and career ready upon graduation. These standards raise expectations for all students, and the task of making them accessible to diverse student populations is placed on teachers (Haager & Vaughn, 2013). Given growing diversity and learner variability (e.g., cognitive, academic, linguistic) in general education classrooms, teachers need tools to support all students’ learning and acquisition of knowledge outlined in the CCSS.

Foundational Content Knowledge

At the secondary level, student success is largely dependent on the ability to access content-specific knowledge presented across a diverse field of subjects. The CCSS places an increased focus on reading, writing, and other communication skills in all content areas (Scruggs, Brigham, & Mastropieri, 2013). This also includes the CCSS-aligned Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS; National Research Council, 2012). Interventions targeting specific academic vocabulary can serve as a strategy for teachers to support student access to content standards (Beach, Sanchez, Flynn, & O’Connor, 2015; Kennedy, Deshler, & Lloyd, 2013; Klingner, Boelé, Linan-Thompson, & Rodriguez, 2014).

Helman, Calhoon, and Kern (2014) agreed that vocabulary instruction is beneficial for students with exceptional language needs, as it aids comprehension and overall access to content delivered in a general education classroom. This being the case, it is important to find ways to use explicit and effective strategies to engage students in learning new content-specific vocabulary (Calderón, Slavin, & Sánchez, 2011; Sibold, 2011; Spies & Dema, 2014).

Analyzing Content Standards

One place to begin identifying key vocabulary to preteach is with the academic content standards (i.e., CCSS, NGSS). Content standards provide a roadmap for teachers to determine the most important concepts to teach students for academic mastery. Unwrapping standards can aid in identifying key concepts and skills to teach (Morgan et al., 2014). Teachers can follow an analytical process (Morgan et al., 2014) of unwrapping academic content standards, wherein they circle any verbs and highlight or underline any nouns. The verbs in the academic content standard become the skills that students need to display; the nouns become the concepts that students must master in order to display this skill and can include vocabulary. To aid students in acquiring the foundational knowledge tied to these unwrapped standards, it is recommended that teachers consider identifying vocabulary words to supplement instruction that (a) are critical for mastering academic content standards, (b) are critical for students to develop a deep understanding of the course, (c) play a role in clarifying the context of other academic concepts, and (d) are generalizable across content areas.

Multimedia-Facilitated Interventions

To aid students in the identified foundational academic knowledge from the standard, teachers can utilize multimedia-facilitated interventions to preteach vocabulary to students with exceptional language needs to supplement standards-based and direct instruction. This supplementary vocabulary knowledge can provide students with requisite word and content knowledge related to content standards (Beach et al. 2015). There is a growing trend in the use of multimedia-based interventions to aid students in the acquisition of academic vocabulary (Kennedy & Deshler, 2010; Silverman & Hines, 2009). Multimedia-based interventions have great potential to align to tenets of universal design for learning (UDL) and address many of the barriers students face in acquiring vocabulary (Kennedy, Thomas, Meyer, Alves, & Lloyd, 2013). As mobile technologies (e.g., tablets, smartphones, laptops) become increasingly available in schools, e-books provide a tool for teachers to use in addressing the academic language needs of students with exceptional language needs.

Developing E-Books for Vocabulary Acquisition

Best practice suggests teaching specific content vocabulary in a direct and explicit manner (Beck & McKeown, 2007; Lesaux, Kieffer, Faller, & Kelley, 2010). Typically, this instruction has taken the form of teachers providing students basic definitions of terms. From a UDL perspective, the utilization of this singular teaching method does not always meet the needs of diverse learners (Rose & Meyer, 2002). Rather, UDL guidelines (CAST, 2011) suggest that multiple means of representation (e.g., visual, auditory, textual) be provided for content.

Utilization of e-books can provide students multiple sources of information or resources to use while working with words (e.g., concept maps, diagrams, embedded audio). These multiple and differentiated exposures to words tend to be more impactful in the development of vocabulary and student achievement overall (Graves, August, & Mancilla-Martinez, 2012). In general, vocabulary instruction that develops deep student understanding focuses on (a) introducing words through grade-level expository text, (b) providing definitions in student-friendly terms, (c) presenting questions that promote higher-level thinking, (d) providing supportive visuals that aid conceptual understanding, and (e) creating opportunities for repetition and reinforcement of key academic vocabulary (Soltero, 2004). Combined with UDL supports, tenets of effective vocabulary instruction can support student acquisition of academic vocabulary (Kennedy et al., 2013).

Embedding UDL Supports

To further students’ conceptual development and deep understanding of academic vocabulary, e-books allow authors to embed rich media features, such as videos, audio files, and picture galleries. These features enable e-books to align to UDL guidelines (CAST, 2011) and provide students multiple representations of terms and the concepts they represent. These media also provide robust information that engages students with dynamic multimedia features and provide additional information that promotes understanding and generalization of concepts.

It is important to embed more than just text on e-book pages in order to maximize its resourcefulness for students in building on basic definitional knowledge. Visuals can be included to accompany each term and provide additional support for the students’ development of academic vocabulary and conceptual understanding. Pictures and diagrams can support students’ foundational knowledge that is built through the provision of definitions, and provide an alternative representation of the topic being covered (CAST, 2011). To accompany visuals and definitional information, the next step in delivering language-rich instruction is to build students’ contextual knowledge and understanding so that terms may be generalized (Soltero, 2004). E-book pages can highlight how the term is used in and out of the specific academic context related to the instruction and can support generalization through information found in text boxes or media galleries. Figure 1 provides an example of how tenets of UDL and effective vocabulary instruction can be combined in an e-book page to aid students with exceptional language needs in acquiring academic vocabulary. Additionally, a brief explanation of how this page and others can be constructed is provided.

Figure 1.

Examples of how the term nucleus can be defined and taught to students at the varying complexity. From top to bottom, the figure represents differentiated pages prepared for the diverse needs of students with exceptional language needs.

Constructing E-Book Pages

An appealing feature of e-books is their ease of use. While multiple electronic publishing (EPUB) software exists (e.g., iBooks Author, Create Space, Adobe Digital Editions) to create e-books, iBooks Author will be used in this article to illustrate how e-book pages can be created. Table 1 also serves the purpose of providing guiding questions for teachers to use in the creation of e-book pages. These questions are designed for use with any EPUB software and are geared toward aiding teachers align pages to the tenets of UDL.

Table 1.

Guiding Questions for E-Book Development.

Features Related to Definitions	Features Related to Concept Knowledge	Instructional Features
Does the page . . .	Does the page . . .	Does the page . . .
Use common or everyday social and instructional words and phrases to teach general vocabulary? Clarify cognates? Support cross curriculum generalization?	Use statements and questions revolving around a single idea? Incorporate a single idea with details?	Include illustrated depictions of the word? Include embedded videos to support students who speak other languages? Provide “read-to” technology? Provide examples and non-examples of the word? Connect to student background knowledge?

Prior to designing the e-books page, it is recommended that practitioners storyboard or plan the instructional content to be used in teaching the identified standard to students. The guiding questions in Table 1 can help facilitate this purposeful planning prior to the creation of the e-books page. Practitioners would then begin designing the e-books page (see sample in Figure 1). Beginning with the definition, iBooks Author app allows users to easily embed text boxes and place them on a page. In this space, the definition of the term nucleus is provided in simple language for students. The guiding questions are also meant to ensure that alternatives are provided for text-based information (i.e., pictures, audio, media galleries, video) to address any barriers to content students may face and to align to UDL guidelines. This is another easy task to complete in iBooks Author, as any JPEG graphic file can be put on a page by simply dragging and dropping the file onto the page, with the ability to resize the image within the program. Functions for media galleries are very similar, as iBooks Author has built-in tools (i.e., widgets) to embed galleries and other media on a page that allow pages to contain other rich representations (e.g., examples/non-examples, diagrams, video, audio) of a word. Similar to adding a JPEG, these items can be embedded on the page by dragging and dropping them in their desired location. Other items found in Figure 1 include audio and an embedded informal assessment. In iBooks Author, both can be embedded through the built-in tools or widgets. Audio files are meant to provide students a “read-to” option if reading is a barrier, and the assessment is meant to provide students a way to monitor their learning as they go through multiple pages. Practitioners could pilot the e-books page with a student before using it for instructional purposes to ensure ease of student use.

Utilizing E-Books in the Classroom

Once e-books have been created, it is equally important to implement them effectively in the classroom. Technology-based interventions, specifically in the area of accessing texts, have great promise in supporting students but hinge on effective creation and implementation (Morgan, Higgins, & Boone, 2013). It is also important to determine the role (e.g. content delivery, tool, supplement) technology will play in the classroom and monitor the effectiveness the technology has in meeting its designed purpose (Morgan et al., 2013). For the described e-books, it is suggested that they be implemented as a supplemental tool to aid the acquisition of content-specific vocabulary for diverse groups of students present in classrooms. Based on the learning and language characteristics of students with exceptional language needs, it is recommended that teachers allow students to use the e-books before instruction to preview essential vocabulary and after content area instruction has been delivered to review and provide additional exposures to the vocabulary.

For the specific example provided (see Figure 1), an e-book could be implemented before and after specific instruction related to the standard in order to expose students to key vocabulary they will see in the lesson and other follow-up activities. Additionally, if e-books are created and differentiated using the quality indicators provided, e-books can form the basis for Tier 1 instruction, where all students are able to self-navigate through the e-books to acquire vocabulary. They could also be used as Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions, where more direct language supports can be provided. Depending on classroom structure, implementation of e-books can be done in whole or small groups, while students are completing individual assignments, or in alternate environments students might be in during the day (e.g., resource rooms), aligning to classroom implementation of multitiered systems of support. A final caveat is that as e-books are implemented, it is also important to ensure that each e-book is serving its purpose in delivering vocabulary to students. This can be done when assessing overall student content mastery and ensuring that students using e-books are able to comprehend, generalize, and use the vocabulary provided in the e-books.

Conclusion

As the population of students served in schools becomes increasingly diverse, tools that support teachers in meeting the academic and linguistic needs of their students become increasingly important. For students with exceptional language needs, access to general education classes and content is pivotal for overall school success and postschool outcomes. To help preteach vocabulary to supplement standards-based instruction, e-books can serve as a medium through which students independently gather the necessary vocabulary to participate in general course discussions and instruction as well as gain access to the foundational knowledge of a content standard (Kennedy et al., 2013). While not meant to be a stand-alone method for enabling students to master and extend their content knowledge, the use of e-books to preteach vocabulary and supplement standards-based instruction can be a first step to increasing students’ access to content standards and their overall success in general education content courses.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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