Vocabulary
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Teaching Strategies
Teacher-created Resources & Lessons
Teaching Strategies
Teacher-created Resources & Lessons
Why is it important?
Typical conversations in everyday life utilize a very small pool of common words in the English language. Academic writing pulls from a much larger pool of less frequently used words. These word choices allow for greater specificity and formality but can be a significant stumbling block for students in making meaning from text. ELL students, students of low socioeconomic status, and students who do not read much outside the classroom are often at the greatest disadvantage. Students may struggle with both general academic vocabulary (Tier II) and subject specific vocabulary (Tier III). (Link to summary document about types of vocab)
Why is is hard?
The sheer volume of new science words, in addition to less familiar academic words in textbooks (or less familiar academic words used by the teacher), creates difficulties for students. Some words may sound very similar but have different meanings (isotope, isomer, mitosis, meiosis). Many English words have multiple meanings and the more common meaning of the word is not the meaning in text. (For example, a table to eat on, a table of values, to table a topic, a distinguished person versus to distinguish among things). Some students may know a word when it is spoken but not in writing or vice versa. Many students do not have good strategies or habits for deciding what words are most essential to the meaning of the text and figuring out what those words mean.
What are advantages to teaching vocabulary strategies?
Teaching vocabulary strategies and creating a generally word-curious classroom helps build a foundation for improving reading, writing, and academic discussion. It helps students become more specific, accurate, and concise as well as to better communicate what they actually comprehend. In addition, students often get excited about making connections between words and thinking about roots and suffixes. Attention to general academic vocabulary in particular can benefit students across the curriculum.
How might you implement it in your classroom?
Teaching with attention to prefixes, suffixes and roots is an easy strategy to integrate and helps students make connections and develop curiosity about words. Other strategies include creating word walls with pictures to convey word meanings, creating reading guides that ask students to identify unknown vocabulary and categorize it, assigning writing with target words that students have to use in their explanations, creating partner or small-group activities that ask students to sort, classify, match terms, or build a concept map, and keeping key vocabulary words visible when having class discussions.
Typical conversations in everyday life utilize a very small pool of common words in the English language. Academic writing pulls from a much larger pool of less frequently used words. These word choices allow for greater specificity and formality but can be a significant stumbling block for students in making meaning from text. ELL students, students of low socioeconomic status, and students who do not read much outside the classroom are often at the greatest disadvantage. Students may struggle with both general academic vocabulary (Tier II) and subject specific vocabulary (Tier III). (Link to summary document about types of vocab)
Why is is hard?
The sheer volume of new science words, in addition to less familiar academic words in textbooks (or less familiar academic words used by the teacher), creates difficulties for students. Some words may sound very similar but have different meanings (isotope, isomer, mitosis, meiosis). Many English words have multiple meanings and the more common meaning of the word is not the meaning in text. (For example, a table to eat on, a table of values, to table a topic, a distinguished person versus to distinguish among things). Some students may know a word when it is spoken but not in writing or vice versa. Many students do not have good strategies or habits for deciding what words are most essential to the meaning of the text and figuring out what those words mean.
What are advantages to teaching vocabulary strategies?
Teaching vocabulary strategies and creating a generally word-curious classroom helps build a foundation for improving reading, writing, and academic discussion. It helps students become more specific, accurate, and concise as well as to better communicate what they actually comprehend. In addition, students often get excited about making connections between words and thinking about roots and suffixes. Attention to general academic vocabulary in particular can benefit students across the curriculum.
How might you implement it in your classroom?
Teaching with attention to prefixes, suffixes and roots is an easy strategy to integrate and helps students make connections and develop curiosity about words. Other strategies include creating word walls with pictures to convey word meanings, creating reading guides that ask students to identify unknown vocabulary and categorize it, assigning writing with target words that students have to use in their explanations, creating partner or small-group activities that ask students to sort, classify, match terms, or build a concept map, and keeping key vocabulary words visible when having class discussions.
