Word Work with the Icons of Depth and Complexity

Preface:

Becoming comfortable with the Icons of Depth and Complexity has taken time. Yet, every year, I always find a way to incorporate the icons into something new and find that using the icons helps me to develop lessons and activities that are meaningful and effective. So if you are still struggling, stick with it, because it will "click." Using the icons with inductive reasoning to introduce new families of Greek and Latin Roots vocabulary was definitely an "Aha" moment in my teaching career (see a sample lesson here on my blog). My students love being introduced to new words using this strategy.

I use the word lists and assessments from the book below, primarily because it saves me the hassle to organize the basic essentials to carry out a unit. While these books (she has a few) are organized and provide a few good resources per word list/root family, any teacher would need to supplement this book with practice activities. Therefore I created some graphic organizers, available at my TPT store here, to help students practice using the words and build an understanding of the root word meaning.

Learning Works Greek and Latin Roots - Grade Level 4 to 8 Paperback – April, 2004 by Trisha Callella

My Graphic Organizers on TPT

How I use the 

Icons of Depth and Complexity 

within our Daily 5 Routine

As part of our Daily 5 Word Work, students have choices to study and practice their words using the Icons of Depth and Complexity. Our typical word list consists of about 10 words each, with a review of 2 sets of words each cycle. Therefore some weeks there are 20 words, with 10 being review.

During Word Work, students need to choose words from our word list(s) to study and practice using an assortment of activities, some using the Icons of Depth and Complexity.  They understand that their goal is to perform proficient on the vocabulary assessment, therefore they need to select words for each activity with which they need practice. As part of Daily 5's philosophy, students work independently toward personalized goals, and self selecting words from a specified list, helps them to build intrinsic motivation.

#1 Student Sample: Comic Strip Language of the Discipline

After completing the initial Inductive Reasoning Vocab Lesson, I usually have students select 2 - 4 words to incorporate into a comic strip.

For this list, our Greek/Latin Root was "spec." 

This student selected respect, inspect and spectacles from the word list. This activity solely focuses on the Language of the Discipline Icon, a great place to start within the hierarchy of icons.

Later on in the week, if a student chose to complete another comic strip during Daily 5, I would require that student to use other words besides the 3 selected here. 

#2 Student Sample: Big Idea Word Sort

Another activity I use is the Big Idea Word Sort.  Students look for patterns with the list words and sort the words based on the patterns. A word may be used more than once if it follows the rule or pattern the student selected.

#3 Student Sample: Word Detective Unanswered Questions

This is a spin off of "I have/Who has," which is already provided in the book I use for my actual word lists (see above). Here the students select a word from the word list and write a series of clues for other students to use as a study resource.  After students create their clues, these can be compiled as another Word Work activity.

#4 Teacher Sample: Details Study

In this activity, students select one word and identify several components within the detail petals. Here is a sample I generated.

#5 Teacher Sample: Patterns with Prefixes and Suffixes

With this organizer, students start with a word on the word list. Then they find words that relate to that word, changing the prefix or suffix, but keeping within the original meaning of the word. Students can generate these words by adding the suffix or prefix and then checking a resource to make sure the word they created is an actual word. Here I have a sample I generated.

#6 Student Sample: Multiple Perspectives Conversations

With this activity, students select one vocabulary word. Then, they create two sentences using the word from the perspective of 2 characters, disciplinarians or people.  Here my student chose the word "abduct."  

While I find it convenient to use the printed organizer I created (here), all of these can be generated by a student themselves!

Results:

Each time I test students using the summative assessment provided in the book, as a whole, the majority of my students score with 80%-100% accuracy, with a few students scoring within the 60%-70% accuracy. More authentically, throughout the year, students are able to identify meanings of words based on their acquired knowledge of learned Greek and Latin Roots.  

Vocabulary Acquisition and Use:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.4
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.