10.2 Shades of Meaning

Where and when did I find it: I came across this phrase in Word Wise and Content Rich (2008) discussing visual approaches used to promote vocabulary learning. 

Full citation: Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2008). Word Wise and Content Rich: Five essential steps to teaching academic vocabulary. Portsmouth, NH: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 

What it means: Shades of Meaning is a strategy that promotes vocabulary learning with a visual approach that develops students' ability to understand “organized gradients of meaning....and allows students to talk and arrange words along a continuum” (Fisher & Frey, 2008, p. 82). The strategy uses paint chips with varying gradients of color, and “students identify a continuum of words,” (p. 82) and write the words on the colored paint chip. 

Level of familiarity: I am familiar and have used visual approaches to vocabulary learning in my classroom, but I am not familiar with this particular approach. I love the idea of this strategy and think it would be an effective strategy to add to in any content area classroom. 

Do I think I should know this word well and why? I definitely believe I should know this phrase and strategy well, since it’s a strategy I can add to my teaching “toolbox.” More importantly, I believe this is a strategy that develops students’ and my own word consciousness, which is what contributes to making learning new words purposeful and engaging. By providing a visual, teaching shades of meaning supports clarifying differences and can lesson confusion with new vocabulary learning.  I can see this strategy spurring a rich dialogue between students, since most  of our students will have background knowledge and experiences in art, and/or recognize variances in color. This strategy can provide an opportunity to create an environment of productive group work. 

Do I think others should know this word well, and if so, who and why? I think all learners, teachers, and literacy specialists should know this word well, since oral language and vocabulary learning is a part of our everyday lives. We should all be conscious of the subtleties of language. As teachers this is important since we are working with evolving, diverse student populations. Understanding and teaching the gradients of meaning develops readers ability to comprehend the writers’ ability to grow, and the speaker to choose their words purposefully.