Elvira Dimas
Language Arts: Context Clues
Objectives
The student will be able to use next-door clues by highlighting helpful context in a sentence to
determine meaning of unfamiliar words.
SOL:
3.4 The student will expand vocabulary when reading.
d) Use context to clarify meaning of unfamiliar words.
ACEI Standards
2.1 Reading, Writing, and Oral Language-Candidates demonstrate a high level of competence in
use of English language arts and they know, understand, and use concepts from reading,
language and child development, to teach reading, writing, speaking, viewing, listening, and
thinking skills and to help students successfully apply their developing skills to many different
situations, materials, and ideas.
I meet this standard by assessing the students’ literacy development of context clues. From that
assessment I gear my instruction to teach reading skills they can apply outside of language arts. I
connect the idea of using context clues to find meaning of unfamiliar words by modeling with
nonsense words to have students recognize that even when there is not real definition, next-door
clues are available to help make meaning that makes sense.
Materials
Paper
Reading Passages
Poster board
Markers
Highlighters
Preassessment
I will assess the students in the lowest reading levels. I will give each of them a worksheet with a
reading passage with unfamiliar vocabulary words underlined. These words will be defined by
the readers as they read through the passages. Throughout the passages there will be sentences in
which next-door clues and in the neighborhood clues will be used to understand the meaning of
the unfamiliar words. Before they read the passage, they will be told to use next-door clues and
in the neighborhood clues to find the meaning of the underlined words. They will also be told to
use highlighters or pencils to help them in any way they need. They will read the passages and
define the unfamiliar underlined words as they go along. As I grade the worksheet, I will be
looking for those who used highlighter or pencil to define the underlined, unfamiliar words using
next-door clues and in the neighborhood clues. Those who do not use context clues ineffectively
to correctly define the underlined words will become my focus group for the context clues
lesson.
Data
Student A (in the neighborhood clues)
Defined the underlined word correctly
Used highlighters or pencil to find helpful words
Found relevant helpful word to find meaning of
unfamiliar words
Student A (next door clues)
Defined the underlined word correctly
Used highlighters or pencil to find helpful words
Found relevant helpful word to find meaning of
unfamiliar words
Student B (in the neighborhood clues)
Defined the underlined word correctly
Used highlighters or pencil to find helpful words
Found relevant helpful word to find meaning of
unfamiliar words
Student B (next door clues)
Defined the underlined word correctly
Used highlighters or pencil to find helpful words
Found relevant helpful word to find meaning of
unfamiliar words
Student C (in the neighborhood clues)
Defined the underlined word correctly
Used highlighters or pencil to find helpful words
Found relevant helpful word to find meaning of
unfamiliar words
Student C (next door clues)
Defined the underlined word correctly
Used highlighters or pencil to find helpful words
Found relevant helpful word to find meaning of
unfamiliar words
Student D (in the neighborhood clues)
Defined the underlined word correctly
Used highlighters or pencil to find helpful words
Found relevant helpful word to find meaning of
unfamiliar words
Student D (next door clues)
Defined the underlined word correctly
✓
✓
X
✓
✓
✓
X
✓
X
X
✓
X
✓
✓
✓
X
✓
X
✓
✓
✓
✓
Used highlighters or pencil to find helpful words
Found relevant helpful word to find meaning of
unfamiliar words
✓
X
With this preassessment, I learned that these students have misconceptions on what helpful
words mean. Though I explained that helpful words are words that are useful in trying to
understand the meaning of unfamiliar word, Student B, C, and D circled and listed helpful words
that were not relevant in finding the meaning of the unfamiliar word. For example, Student A
and B listed movie as a helpful word when trying to understand the meaning of favorable. For his
credit, Student B’s meaning of the word favorable was a summary of the sentences, he wrote
“the movie was funny”. Student B did the same thing when trying to find the meaning of timid in
the next door clues example. Though Student A did find a relevant word to help him understand
timid, he did not apply it to comprehend the sentences. Students C and D did well with in the
neighborhood clues, but struggle with next door clues. Student C simply repeated timid as the
meaning and listed class as a helpful word. Student D correctly defined timid as thinking quietly
but he listed his helpful word as kept.
Introduction
Good morning! If you brought your noggin to think this morning, raise your snooble! I will
wait until someone raises their hand. If no one does, I will raise my hand.
That was strange wording, wasn’t it? Raise your hand if you understand what was I
saying? I will call on someone raising their hand.
You wanted us to raise our hand if we brought our head to think today.
Right! How did you know that was it? I will call on someone raising their hand.
Well you said ‘if we brought our noggin to think, I figured that was your brain or head because
that’s what we use to think. You said raise your snooble and we always raise our hand in class
so I guessed it was hand.
Very good! You know what you all used right now? Context clues!
Instruction and Activities
Today we will be learning about specific a context clue that are useful when reading
passages with words that we are not familiar with. With these context clues, we will begin
our jobs as context detectives! Oooooh!
Our first clue we will look for as context detectives is called next-door clue. Instead of
giving you the definition of this clue, I will show you a sentence with an unfamiliar word
underlined, on a loose leaf sheet of paper I want you to write what the underlined word
means and what word or words from the sentence helped you find the meaning.
I will have the following sentence on a big poster board/white board for the group to see:
The big yellow school gleek pulled to a stop at the corner.
Once students are done writing:
I’m going to think aloud to try to understand this sentence.
Sentence: The big, yellow, school gleek pulled to a stop at the corner.
I’ve never heard of gleek before, well not in this context anyways. Hmmm, whatever this
gleek thing is, it is big and yellow, I’m going to highlight these words because they seem
helpful. Then it says it stopped at the corner. When I think of stop, I think of the traffic
sign stop, so I think gleek is some type of transportation. It describes it as big and yellow so
that type of ride must be a bus! The words I used to make meaning of gleek were right next
to it.
Who can raise their hand to share their thought process for this sentence? I will call on
someone raising their hand.
It said the big, yellow school... BUS is what it means. Those words describes gleek and those
words are used to describe buses too!
You got it detective!
Did anyone have other words down as a clue for the meaning of gleek? I will hear other
answers, if they differ from the ones shared already.
Gleek is a nonsense word, but you used the words surrounding it, or words next door, as
clues to find the meaning. When you read and come across an unfamiliar word, the next
step is to look next door of that word and look for any words that can help you understand
the meaning. In your own words, I want you to write a short definition for next-door clues.
I will give them a few minutes to write down a definition. Then we will go around and share our
definition.
Let’s make one definition that includes the key words we all came up with. On the back of
the poster board with the example sentence, I will write down a definition using the key words
my group of students used to define next-door clues.
I will hand out the passage that follows the sentence we worked on together. In groups,
(which I assign), I want you to figure out the meaning of the rest of these words. Read the
sentences. You will see that there are unfamiliar words underlined already. After you come
across an underlined word, you will use next-door clues to highlight the word or words that
helped you make meaning of the unfamiliar word. I want you to think aloud so you and
your partner can share ideas that may not always be the same. For example, I could use the
words ‘big, yellow school’ to understand that gleek is a bus but my partner may have
thought of something that stops on a corner, like a city bus. It is important to try to find all
words that make it helpful to make meaning of new words.
Students will work with their partners to finish the worksheet.
Closure
Words like gleek and norjot are not used in everyday language but we got a sense of how
important it is to be great context detectives to find meaning to all words! The more we
understand words, the better readers we become! Together, let’s make a Next-Door clue
list of steps for using next-door clues so we can refer to them again tomorrow.
I will expect them to state steps like:
1. Read the whole sentence.
2. Underline unfamiliar word.
3. Highlight word(s) that are helpful next-door clues.
4. Use highlighted word to make meaning of the underlined word.
We will create a group list of steps using the key words the students used in their lists. These
steps will be written on a poster board for visuals. Later, I will make a bookmark with these steps
for their use during reading.
Accommodations
Student A will have a question within his worksheet asking him a comprehension question about
the passage.
Student B will be paired with Student A for comprehension support.
Assessment
Their assessment will be an exit slip with two sentences. These words will be everyday
vocabulary words that are not familiar to them. They will underline the unfamiliar word and
highlight the helpful, next-door clues, just like the steps we listed. I will collect them as they
return to the rest of the class.
Exit Slip
The monkeys' vociferous chatter made me wish I had earplugs.
Meat eaters, or carnivores, are at the top of the food chain.
Evaluation
As my first time working with a middle grade, I will work to strengthen my classroom
management. Because I do not know them well as student, I plan to set rules before starting my
lesson. Rules such as: raise your hand before you speak and listen to me and others when they
are speaking. Because I am working with third graders I will monitor the language used. I need
to recognize that they are not kindergartners and I can use for complex language because they
have more prior knowledge. With that being said, I will monitor the examples I use help them
understand next door clues. As students with low reading levels, I should not use words in
language or writing that they may not understand because I am evaluating their use of context
values not the definition of words that are not the ones I am using for context clues. Unlike last
lesson, where I had too many activities set up for my class to do, I have two sentences the group
will work on after I have modeled two by thinking aloud. I want to focus on quality of using next
door clues, not quantity. Lastly, I want to make sure my students know what they are learning
about so I will repeat the concept of the lesson numerous times and also have they tell me
numerous times.
Learning Evidence
The learning objective is that students will be able to use next-door clues by highlighting helpful
context in a sentence to determine meaning of unfamiliar words. To achieve this objective, I
gave students an exit slip with the task of using next door clues by highlighting helpful words
and then write a meaning of the unfamiliar word.
Main Goals
Highlighted next door, helpful words to find
meaning
Used helpful words to make acceptable
meaning to unfamiliar word
Student A
Highlighted next door, helpful words to find
meaning
Used helpful words to make acceptable meaning
to unfamiliar word
Student B
Highlighted next door, helpful words to find
meaning
Used helpful words to make acceptable meaning
to unfamiliar word
Student C
Highlighted next door, helpful words to find
meaning
Used helpful words to make acceptable meaning
to unfamiliar word
Student D
Highlighted next door, helpful words to find
meaning
Used helpful words to make acceptable meaning
to unfamiliar word
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
According to the data, all my students were able to use next-door clues. They showed me by
highlighting helpful words in the sentence and find meaning for the unfamiliar word. To make
the connection that words around the unfamiliar word are helpful in finding the meaning, I
modeled next-door clues using nonsense words. I explained how helpful, next-door clues can
help find meaning for words that are nonsense. As a group we made up a definition and list of
steps for next-door clues. Then I had them apply the same skills to words they have never seen or
have little idea what it means but that have real meanings. I chose two sentences as their exit slip
that reinforce the idea that helpful words are around and next door to the unfamiliar word. To
accomplish the task, the students read the whole sentence and highlighted words that may help
understand the meaning of the unfamiliar word. For the first sentence: “The monkey’s vociferous
chatter made me wish I had earplugs”, all students highlighted helpful words to understand
vociferous. They all had accurate meaning of vociferous. The only concern I had with Student A
was that his helpful word was monkey. During my lesson, I did explain helpful words were ones
that were related to the unfamiliar word. Student A’s choice of monkey was not too helpful. He
understood vociferous, but I would need to ask him how monkey helped him or if any other
words were helpful that he did not highlight. For the second sentence: “Meat eaters, or
carnivores, are at the top of the food chain”, all students highlighted helpful words, except
Student D. Student D wrote “no idea”. I would encourage this student to reread the sentence and
find any words that may seem helpful to understand carnivores. Students A, B, and C highlighted
and had a meaning for carnivores. They all highlighted meat eaters as helpful words, but Student
A thought that carnivores were plant eaters. For this student, it would be best to teach him
comma clues, so that he understands that sometimes the text defines unfamiliar words right in the
sentence.
Reflection
Unlike my prior lesson, I emphasized the concepts the students were learning about that
lesson. Along with repeating next-door clues, I created a visual that hung behind me while I
taught the lesson. Numerous times, I asked the students what we were learning about and if they
didn’t remember, they would look behind me and know: next-door clues! It was great to listen
students know and understand what the lesson was about and why we were learning it. I also
think the examples and the passages made the lesson a success. I tried to connect student’s
confusion with new vocabulary words by using nonsense words as my examples. I thought aloud
and emphasized how I was also confused and had no idea the meaning of the words but how
useful the words next door were to find the meaning of the unfamiliar word. Because of the small
group environment, I think the students were very engaged. During modeling, I had the
sentences written big on a poster board that I placed on the c-shaped table we sat at. I had them
write helpful words and meanings on their loose-leaf papers. They were able to share their
responses in the whole group. Working in pairs was also engaging, especially when I picked the
groups according to how well they could work together and according to learning levels. Aside
from working with partners, I shared my time observing and questioning the students so I was
aware of their learning process and any misconceptions they may have. I made sure to
communicate with each student to know how well they grasping the material.
The students interacted well with each other and with me. My voice was not too loud but
not soft. I think I could have been a little louder, but I think I felt comfortable with a small group
that I didn’t find the need to raise my voice because they could all hear me clearly. As a personal
idiosyncrasies, I would change my demeanor as in how professional I act. Like I mentioned, I
was very comfortable with the small group, but because it was my first time with them I should
have been a bit more strict or serious. A serious persona is needed to establish a respectful
relationship with students. Now if I had taught my own students, my lax persona would have
been acceptable because I have already establish a respectful relationship. The persona change
would only be to have better classroom management. Because it was their first time working
with me, they were a bit chatty and shared ideas irrelevant to the lesson. Those side
conversations had some of them lose focus of the lesson. That is one rule I should have set from
the beginning: no side conversations unless it is about next-door clues or reading. With that rule,
conversations would revolve only around the lesson.
The questions and responses I received from the students let me know if they were
grasping the concept of next-door clues. When they told me the helpful words they highlighted, I
would ask them why they choose that word and what meaning came from it. The learning
objective is that students will be able to use next-door clues by highlighting helpful context in a
sentence to determine meaning of unfamiliar words. To achieve this objective, I gave students an
exit slip with the task of using next door clues by highlighting helpful words and then write a
meaning of the unfamiliar word. As evidence, I collected all their work: the notes they made in
response to the sentences I modeled, the passage they worked in groups, and their exit slip. It
was important that they highlighted their helpful words so that I knew that they learned to find
meaning of unfamiliar word from next-door clues and they were successful in meeting the
objective. I had one student highlight helpful words, but he did not use those words to help him
make an accurate meaning of the unfamiliar word. For this student, it would be best to teach him
comma clues, so that he understands that sometimes the text defines unfamiliar words right in the
sentence.
I think I achieved my goal of having students know exactly what they are learning about
and why it is important. I repeated myself a lot and they repeated the concept a lot too. I’m glad I
made a visual they could clearly see and read to remind themselves what they will be learning
and practicing that day. I did choose passages that they found comfortable in reading and to
practice next-door clues. Again, classroom management was not perfect, but I have learned that
setting all expectations and rules are important before teaching a lesson, especially with a group I
am working with for the first time. I did a better job at choosing a smaller amount of activities
for them to compete. The activities were developmentally appropriate for them to learn
effectively.
For the future, I would keep track of time better. To attain this goal, I could use a timer
that can help me pace my lesson accordingly. If I timer gets distracting for my students, I could
simply have reminder to watch the clock to keep track of how much more time I have left. I
spent more time than I planned, it wasn’t a problem because the lesson took place outside of their
classroom, but it is important for lessons to be in schedule. Another goal I would like to reach
next time is to let the student know what the objective of the day is. I think I did well with letting
them know what concept they will be learning, but if I told them the objective of the day, they
can learn the concept with the application in mind. To achieve this goal, I may have a visual like
I did with this lesson, but I will also repeat the objectives for the students to know exactly what
they are expected to learn that day. If I taught a lesson like this again, I would also use more
examples. For this, I would have at least three models. The first time they would just listen and I
will do all the think aloud on my own. The second time they can help out a little more, such as
answering one question. The last time they could help me step by step with think aloud. There
can never be enough modeling!