Vocabulary instruction is key to any successful lesson. Having a solid plan for teaching job vocabulary in vocational units can make or break the learning experience. What does job vocabulary instruction look like for your students?
For us, we pull in a little Verbal Behavior.
Making Job Vocabulary Lessons more Meaningful
When we plan vocabulary lessons, we incorporate a behavior analytic view of language. Verbal Behavior (VB) gives us a way to look at how and why we use language. We’re not talking about nouns and verbs, we’re talking about the purpose of using a specific word within a situation. Long story short – we can analyze the different ways a student will need to use a vocab term and use this to create learning opportunities that ensure our student can use the term as both a speaker and a listener. We can even use verbal behavior to create engaging activities that increase the chances our students will want to use these new key terms, as well as use them within conversation and respond to certain words with an appropriate action.
Don’t worry – you don’t need to have a background in VB to follow this post. If you want to learn more about it, though, check the end of this post for links to more info on the topic.
Where do I start?
When it comes to teaching job vocabulary, we use a few different strategies that can be applied to lots of different vocabulary sets. This includes teaching new vocabulary at the table, creating mock activities, and putting our students in more realistic situations.
Our activities are based on two main ideas – can the student use these words as a listener and as a speaker? Employees are expected to listen to their managers and their customers. We want to be sure our students can respond to key vocabulary words or phrases when they are spoken by other people. Our students should also be able to use key vocabulary as a speaker when asking others questions, having conversations, or sharing their progress with their supervisors.
When selecting vocabulary, think through items students will come in contact with and actions they may need to follow.
How do I teach my student to use job vocabulary as a listener?
Communicating as a listener means our students can hear a word or phrase and respond appropriately. This may mean retrieving an item requested by a customer or finding an item from a list. If the boss tells your student to “stock the shelves” or “stock the soda machine” can the student respond in the right way?
How can I pre-teach vocabulary?
Pull vocabulary related to your vocational unit and teach it in the classroom during table instruction. We want to teach this in the place where traditional learning occurs and remove other variables that might cause distraction. Teaching students to respond to new vocabulary words within an actual vocational activity may be too much for the student. Mastering vocabulary first can set our students up for greater success.
Matching – Always say the vocabulary word when practicing matching! We want to pair the visual of the word/picture with us saying the word aloud.
It’s okay if your student isn’t ready for written words. Matching identical items while saying the name of the item aloud is also a great way to introduce vocabulary!
- Match a picture or object with the word, when the word is presented both orally and in writing.
- Find the word from an array when the matching item is held up as a sample. This is a step between matching and selecting.
- Match a written word to a definition or select the correct word when the definition is said aloud.
Selecting – Your student may or may not need a picture to remain paired with the written word.
- Identify a written word or picture when the word is said aloud.
How can I begin to incorporate the vocabulary into vocational activities?
How will the student be expected to respond to hearing this word used in real life situations? Present the word in a realistic way and teach the student what to do in response. List out the ways the student might encounter these words in a realistic situation. You may have already done this when creating your vocabulary list. Brainstorm ways you can set up situations to teach more realistic interactions with the words from the vocabulary list.
One way to do this is to create mock-activities using real life or digital scenarios. You can watch videos of others doing the job and narrate the language as the video plays. Perform the job yourself and narrate your actions and the items you use. Repeated exposure to the vocabulary in context of the activity can help your student make the connection between the activity and vocabulary.
For example
If you are teaching a vocabulary set related to making purchases, you will need to teach your student the word “Total” or “Owe” and what he or she should do when a cashier says this to him. Most likely he should learn to take out his wallet and pay.
If you are teaching a vocabulary set related to laws and community, you may be teaching your student street signs. In addition to being able to select the “walk” vs. “don’t walk” signs, your student should be able to walk or stop accordingly when he is crossing the street. Creating opportunities to respond to key vocabulary should be part of vocabulary instruction.
How do I teach my student to use job vocabulary as a speaker?
Requesting
When you introduce new vocabulary, create simple activities where a few of the new vocabulary terms can be used in the form of a request. How can you set up an activity where your student wants to learn to use these new words?
In the examples above, maybe you create a red light – green light activity as a movement activity to break up the day and teach social skills. Instead of red and green lights, your students give their peers directions to “walk” or “don’t walk.”
I’m sure you can think of lots of great examples where your students can tell you the “total” number of something that you “owe” them!
Finding motivating ways to get your students to use use new vocabulary can be challenging. Bounce ideas off of someone and brainstorm until you find something right for your classroom. This is how we make learning fun and engaging when introducing new activities. Don’t skip this step!
Labeling
This is an easy one, hold up a word card and see if you student can read it. Don’t stop there! Present the word in a way your students might actually see it in the real world. Can your student read the word “Friday” when the days of the week are presented on a weather chart?
Feature/Function/Class Information (FFC)
For some of our vocabulary terms, it will be important to teach our students associated information related to the words. This includes critical features, the class, and/or the function of the item or concept the word represents. Think how important it is to know the different between raw and cooked meat, and how we should respond differently to each. The feature of raw vs. cooked could be a critical component when learning about meat and food safety (e.g., when cooking or stocking grocery items).
Incorporating FFC’s might be as basic as the job titles, job locations, safety or informational signs associated with the job, and appropriate clothing or uniforms.
We will dive deeper into this down the road. If you can’t wait, check out this awesome post from iloveaba.com for more information.
What about my non-verbal students?
Our non-verbal learners should be learning to use this vocabulary, too.
First and foremost – students without a personalized system of communication need a team of professionals working with them. This team should work toward figuring out an appropriate communication system and developing a method for teaching that student to use it.
We can still teach our students to respond to these words as listeners. We can make-shift picture boards with target vocabulary and model use of the board for this student as much as possible – but we hesitate here as that student most likely needs highly trained professionals (for example an SLP & BCBA) to navigate the best way to move forward. Reach out and get someone in there to help you move forward in teaching your students to be master communicators!
Teaching vocabulary shouldn’t be limited to Language Arts activities. Set your students up for success by pre-teaching job vocabulary in a familiar learning environment.
Check out this presentation on Verbal Behavior and using these strategies in the classroom from two educators in Colorado.
