Vocabulary Instruction in a Home Economics Class
Ms O’Connor is planning to start a unit on
food and nutrition with her second year
class. As part of planning the learning
objectives and content for the class, she
identified several terms that would be
critical for her students to understand:
function, nutrient, composition,
classification, source and deficiency.
These terms are principles that the students
will need to know and use when referring to all
nutrients. In their literacy plan her school had
chosen dictionary skills as a skill they wished
students to develop. Therefore, Ms O’Connor
decided to use a dictionary to introduce the
students to the definitions of the words as
they pertained to Home Economics.
On the day she began the unit, Ms O’Connor
introduced the topic of nutrition. She gave the
students a brief overview of the topic and
explained that there were some important
words they needed to understand for the
topic. She then wrote the terms function,
nutrient, composition, classification, source,
deficiency on the board.
She read the words out loud and, then, asked
her students “Have any of you used these
words before? If so, tell me when and how you
have used them.” As students offered some of
the ways in which they have used the terms,
Ms O’Connor recorded those meanings on the
board. For example, students identified that
they had met the word ‘source’ in both history
and geography and Ms O’Connor recorded this
beside the word on the board. For other words
e.g. nutrients, the students were able to
describe where it is used but could not explain
what it meant.
Afterwards, Ms O’Connor then told her
students, “You already know ways many of
these words can be used. For some of the
words, you can explain how it is used but not
what it means. You also know that the same
word can have a different meaning when it is
used in a different context or for a different
purpose for example source means something
different in history and geography. Let’s call
all of the meanings you have given me the
‘other meanings’ because these are the
meanings of the words in other situations.”
Ms O’Connor then began to introduce the
meanings of the words as they pertained to
the unit on nutrition. “For our unit on nutrition,
you are going to learn another way that each
of these terms can be used. In order to do
this, we are going to engage in a short activity
using our dictionaries.”
She divided the students into pairs and
distributed a student dictionary to every pair.
In a previous lesson, Ms O'Connor had
explicitly modelled the use of a dictionary. She
quickly revised the rules for using a dictionary
with the class. The pairs were then set the
task to look the words and find the
explanation that most matched its use when
speaking about nutrition. The students
recorded the definitions in their copybooks.
Ms O’ Connor took feedback from the class
about their choice of definitions. As the
students called out the definitions, she asked
clarifying questions about their choice of
definition and added to their knowledge by
giving supplementary information. She then
recorded the definitions on the board. “Let’s
call each of these the Home
Economics/nutrition meanings so that we know
they are the definitions we need to apply when
we are talking about nutrition.” These
meanings were then written into the students’
notes copy.
Ms O’Connor closed the activity that day by
reviewing the terms with students and reading
the passage in the textbook that
corresponded to the words covered. She reemphasised the importance of understanding
these terms and explained that tomorrow they
would be looking at the nutrient called protein,
its functions, sources, composition,
classification and deficiencies.
Maths Vignette – Vocabulary Instruction – Mr.Patten
Mr. Patten was planning to start a unit on data analysis with his first years. In reviewing the chapter on statistics and probability, he identified four
terms that would be critical for his students to understand: mean, median, mode, and range. He decided to pre-teach these words. These words
are also ones that students might use with different meanings in their everyday lives or in other classes.
Mr. Patten decided to implement two vocabulary instructional practices to support his students’ learning.
1. He planned to use a concept map to initially draw out the students’ understanding of the words in other contexts.
2. He planned to highlight the meaning of the word in the context of data analysis using an active investigation strategy. He then planned
to add the mathematical definition to the concept map based on the students’ understanding.
At the start of the lesson, Mr. Patten wrote the terms mean range, median and mode on the board and asked his students if they had
encountered the words before. He recorded their replies as ‘other meanings’
Mean
Range
Median
Mode
Other Meanings
Not nice, Intend to, Defined as
Area for practicing golf, The amount of musical notes someone can sing, For cooking
Edge of the road
Type of functioning for electronic devices. Method or type (eg transport)
He then pointed out that the same word can have a different meaning when it is used in a different context or for a different purpose. He
explained that the lesson was about statistics or how to organise and explain data. Mean, range, median and mode are all ways of organizing
and explaining data
To further explain this he used this activity:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Mean
Range
Median
Mode
5)




He distributed a few cent coins to every student. Some students had the same number of cents, but most students had a different
amount.
He then instructed the students to arrange themselves in an ascending line, so that the person with the fewest cents was at the end on
the left side of the room, and the person with the greatest number of cents was at the right side of the room.
When they were in order, he used this line of students to demonstrate how these words also had a mathematical meaning. He asked
specific questions of the students to answer which revealed the intended mathematical meaning of each of the words to the students.
He called each of these the mathematical meaning as they are the relevant definitions applied when talking about data analysis
Other Meaning
Not nice, Intend to, Defined as
Mathematical Meaning
Average
Area for practicing golf
The amount of musical notes someone can sing
For cooking
Edge of the road
The difference between the highest and lowest
values
Type of functioning for electronic devices
Method or type (eg transport)
Middle most value when the numbers are in value
order
Most frequently occurring value
Mr. Patten closed the activity that day by reviewing the terms with students through a series of questions, such as:
Sandra wants everyone to have the same amount of cents so she needs to know what?
Mark wants two things to be equal: the number of people who have fewer cents than he has, and the number of people who have
more cents than he has. So, what does he need to know?
Tom doesn’t care if he has only a couple cents as long as he is part of the group with the most people in it, so he needs to know what?
Claire wants to know who has (a) the least coins and (b) the most coins, so what does she need to find out?
These questions tested the students’ knowledge of the mathematical meanings of the new concept vocabulary. It also provided the students with
opportunities for further exposures to the vocabulary.
p. 11
Mrs. Rice History Teacher
The Enlightenment:
Mrs. Rice is about to introduce the topic
of the American war of independence to
her second year class.
Mrs. Rice had identified fifteen possibly
new but important words related to the
topic. Of those fifteen words, she
identified eight that were concept words
and that would need extra work. She
decided to use a group work activity to
pre-teach these words. The other words
were specific terms- names of battles,
places etc. that she could teach in
context.
The concept words that Mrs. Rice decided
to pre teach were: Democracy, Monarchy,
Divinity, Enlightenment, Revolution, Colony,
Taxation, and Constitution.
Mrs. Rice began by activating the
students’ prior knowledge on the topic
‘The American War of Independence’. She
asked the students a series of questions
relating to previous chapters and to their
own prior knowledge of the War of
Independence from books, films and other
sources. Mrs. Rice jotted some of their
ideas on the board. She then began to
introduce the topic herself: “Today we
are going to consider some important
factors that led up to the American war
of independence. We are not only going to
learn what happened but consider how and
why it happened”
Mrs. Rice then divided the class into small
groups of three or four and gave each
student a role (leader, recorder, timekeeper, presenter). She gave the groups a
hand-out with each of the key concept
terms, a simple definition and a sentence
using the term in a way that would be
accessible to the students.
Definition: A time when people began to question
things they may have accepted in the past. A time
when people started to look for more fairness in
society.
Sentence: During the Enlightenment, people began
to question what gave kings authority to rule over
ordinary people.
She then gave the following instructions:
“As a team, I want each of you to read
each word and its definition, and then I
want you to think about how each of the
words might apply to why the American
War of Independence might have
happened.
I want you to think about the context we
discussed at the beginning but also the
meanings of some of these words. I then
want you, as a group, to use the vocabulary
to tell the story of why you think the war
might have happened.”
While the groups were working, Mrs. Rice
circulated the room checking in with the
students to see if they were all
participating and to answer any clarifying
questions. She then reconvened the groups
and listened to their accounts. She asked
the other students to comment on the
accounts- did they agree/ disagree,
emphasising, all the while, the importance
of using the vocabulary of the text.
Finally for homework, Mrs. Rice asked the
class to read the four pages of the text
book where the lead up to the War of
Independence is introduced. She asked
them to adjust their own accounts as
necessary. She also asked that every
student come to class the next day with at
least one question about what they had
read.
p. 12
Construction Lesson Vignette
Mrs. McKeon was about to read a complex text which presented unfamiliar technical vocabulary to
her Construction Studies class. The reading was in preparation for the essay style question in the
exam. This reading exercise demanded the following suite of strategies.
1. Pre-teaching before beginning the text
a) She tapped into her students’ prior experience of dividing words into parts i.e. prefixes, roots
and suffixes. This was part of an agreed literacy core team approach across a range of subject
departments. Students all had a list of common prefixes and suffixes in their journals and could
refer to this list as they read in different subject areas. In cases where the list was insufficient, she
taught the students to refer to a dictionary. Each student also had access to a student dictionary.
2. She also encouraged students to keep a record of the new words in their copybooks. Students
were obliged to record at least five new words in this way, which they would subsequently use in
writing assignments on the topic.
3. When teaching this strategy, Mrs. McKeon used the explicit model of instruction. The purpose of
this was so that students could eventually apply the strategies they had learned from her, when
working by themselves.
4. First Mrs. McKeon modelled how she would work out the meaning of a word using a ‘think aloud’.
This is the sample sentence which Mrs. McKeon used to model her thought process: ’The most
remarkable feature of this multipartite development, the Titanic signature building in Belfast, is the
unusual design that represents the bow of the boat.’
First, she considered the word’s place in the sentence and the context– “In the sentence the word
comes before development therefore must describe the building.” She then broke the word in to its
different parts. She modelled her thought process aloud for the students. “Multi is a prefix which
I’ve seen in another context, multi -purpose, meaning many purposes. The root word is part. I know
what this means. So now I can guess the word means many parts. I wonder what the suffix ‘ite’
means. I will check my list. The list tell me that ‘ite ‘ as a suffix turns a word into an adjective. It
adds nothing to the meaning. Putting all my learning together I now can guess that a multipartite
development means a development that has many parts” Mrs. McKeon then checked the dictionary to
confirm the meaning.
The next time she came across a difficult word, Mrs. McKeon encouraged the students to help her to
work out the meaning of the word using the prefixes, the root and suffixes. She did this with a few
words and when she felt the students were ready, she encouraged them to try the method
themselves with other new words they saw in the text. The students worked together and wrote the
new words in their copybooks and Mrs. McKeon was available to help them when they needed it.
Eventually the students were able to use the strategy independently when they met words that they
did not know in a text.
p. 13
Mr. Stack and Ms. Long – 1st Year Junior Certificate Science Class
Ms. Long and Mr. Stack were working on
teaching a unit of work on the topic ‘Force
and Motion’.
In reviewing the text book and the
PowerPoint presentation that she would be
using to teach the topic, Ms. Long identified
21 technical terms that were unique to
her topic and necessary for students to
understand the text.
In addition, she
identified that there were 11 more nontechnical
academic
terms
that
she
anticipated would be unfamiliar and
challenging to some her students. Mr. Stack
and Ms. Long agreed that their students
would be overwhelmed if presented with a
list of 32 unfamiliar terms prior to beginning
the topic.
Ms. Long and Mr. Stack examined the
students’ texts and saw that several of the
words had sufficient contextual support. Ms.
Long and Mr. Stack agreed that when the
book provided additional contextual support,
they would: 1. Explicitly teach the students
(in advance and during) how to use and apply
the additional contextual information and 2.
Check that students were doing this and
provide additional supporting information
where necessary.
Mr. Stack felt that a couple of words on the
list only required superficial instruction.
After separating the words that needed
contextual support and those that only
needed a simplified definition, Ms. Long and
Mr. Stack were left with 13 words. These
thirteen words were the key concepts and
academic
language
that
would
be
encountered and used frequently when
reading, completing activities, engaging in
discussion, and making connections to
other units of work. The teachers,
therefore, planned several methods of
building students’ knowledge of these terms
recursively.
throughout the unit. They also decided it
was important to pre teach some of the
key concept vocabulary prior to reading
the text.
The first activity involved an active
investigative activity designed to build
background knowledge by providing a
concrete example of force and motion. Ms.
Long introduced this to her students by
saying “We are going to be studying
motion- or a physical change in the
position or location of an object. To help
you explore what happens when an object
begins or ends its motion, we are going to
engage in a short activity.”
Ms. Long gave pairs of students a tennis
ball and a 3kg exercise ball each. She
asked the students to perform a series of
actions that involved tapping, rolling and
stopping the balls on the floor. After each
experiment, she asked the students a
series of questions that guided them in
talking informally about Newton’s laws of
motion. As students explained target
vocabulary in their own words, Ms. Long
provided the scientific term for what was
being described. For example, when one
student said it was harder to make the
heavier exercise ball roll than the lighter
tennis ball, Ms. Long recast the response
“So it took more force for you to
accelerate an object of greater mass?”
Each time a term was introduced Ms. Long
wrote it on the board along with a basic
definition. She then asked her students to
record the term in their notebooks along
with their observations of the tennis and
exercise balls that demonstrated that
concept. She ended the lesson by
explaining that the next day they would
use the definitions as a reference tool
when reading a passage explaining
Newton’s first law of motion.
p. 14
Vocabulary Vignette Activity Sheet
What the teacher did...
What the students did...