HIGH SCHOOL VOCABULARY
INSTRUCTION FOR THE UTAH
CORE: GRADES 7-12
Emily Sell, MEd
Jordan School District
OVERVIEW
1.
2.
3.
4.
Context and Background.
What we can avoid in vocabulary instruction.
Research based vocabulary principles.
Ideas for how to teach vocabulary:

Morphology

Semantic Word Analysis

Vocabulary Pictures

Word Sorts

Student Chosen Vocabulary Words
CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND
I’m a lover of words, and I retain them easily.
 Teaching vocabulary so that it sticks is hard, and
as young teacher, I was desperate.
 Took classes as professional development.
 I tried what I learned and it seemed to work.

VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION IS NOT…
1. Having students look up words in the dictionary
so they can copy the definition down verbatim
even though they still don’t know what it
means.


Supercilious: Having or showing arrogant
superiority to and disdain of those one views as
unworthy.
Vs.
Supercilious: Egotistical or full of one’s self.
Vocabulary.com
VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION IS NOT…
2. Overwhelming students with 50 new words per
week especially when they couldn’t possibly
retain everything.
For the novel A Separate Peace, I used to teach about
100 words for a unit that only took a few weeks.
 Last time I taught it, I focused on only 11 words.

VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION IS NOT…
3. Telling students the definitions to words without
giving them adequate practice using them.

Expect students to be actively involved in their
vocabulary learning. Don’t do all the work for them.
VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION IS NOT…
4. Believing that because a student does well on a
vocabulary test that knowledge transfers
immediately and remains permanent.
Many students can fake their way through a quiz or
test by parroting back information.
 Constant practice with the words helps students
retain words better.

VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION IS NOT…
5. Getting through a vocabulary unit so we can
check it off our list.
Teaching students vocabulary words that last should
be our goal—not blowing through a vocabulary unit
or workbook.
 It’s nice to check it off, but have we really
accomplished something?

RESEARCH BASED VOCABULARY PRINCIPLES
1. Use student friendly definitions that students
have paraphrased and simplified.


A simple meaning of the word is far easier to work
with over a strange or obscure definition copied
down from the dictionary.
Students are more likely to use words that are
simplified and make sense to them.
RESEARCH BASED VOCABULARY PRINCIPLES
2. Allow students active engagement in their
vocabulary learning.
Students need active engagement with the words to
learn them deeply.
 E.G. Hand and face gestures, pantomimes, drawing,
talking in small groups.
 Students learn more when they’re not looking at a
word passively.

RESEARCH BASED VOCABULARY PRINCIPLES
3. Give students a reasonable amount of words to
work with (no more than 5-7 per week).
A major problem in vocabulary teaching is that we
teach too many words at one time.
 For deeper vocabulary learning, teach a few.
 You have to make choices in what words to teach.
Choose words that are high utility and can be
incorporated easily in your students’ vocabulary(i.e.
Physiognomy is a cool word, but no one uses it
anymore).

RESEARCH BASED VOCABULARY PRINCIPLES
4. Teach students words for which they already
have a concept.
The easiest words to teach are those for which
students already have a concept.
 You can sell the new words as a sophisticated and
fancier way to use a word the student already knows.
 Teaching mortified or chagrined for the already
familiar concept embarrassed.

RESEARCH BASED VOCABULARY PRINCIPLES
5. Give students plenty of opportunities to practice,
practice, practice!
Have students practice using the words in context.
 Allow students to work with peers to practice the
words orally.
 Practice with word sorts or make a word wall as a
reminder.

IDEA FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY #1:
MORPHOLOGY
Teaching morphology (the study of roots) to
students is beneficial because when you teach a
root, you give the students the meaning to
hundreds of words in the process.
IDEAS FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY:
MORPHOLOGY
IDEAS FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY:
MORPHOLOGY
IDEAS FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY:
MORPHOLOGY
IDEA FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY #2: SEMANTIC
WORD ANALYSIS
Semantic word analyses can be used to teach
students the nuances of words and really get
them thinking about how one word differs from
another.
In my students’ case, their semantic word
analyses led to a powerful discussion about the
way we tend to view people that we don’t know.
This worked into background for the complicated
themes and issues of To Kill a Mockingbird.
IDEAS FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY: SEMANTIC
WORD ANALYSIS
Family
Prejudice
Hatred
Judgment
Negative
Bias
Dislike
Stereotype
Friends
Strangers
People
You
THINK
You
Know
Acquaintances
IDEAS FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY: SEMANTIC
WORD ANALYSIS
Student
Example
Family
Friends
Strangers
People
We
THINK
We
Know
Prejudice
-
-
-
-
-
Hatred
-
-
-
-
-
Judgment
-
-
+
+
-
Negative
Bias
-
-
-
+
-
Dislike
-
-
-
+
-
Stereotype
-
-
+
+
-
Acquaintances
IDEA FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY #3:
PICTURES
I like to use pictures as often as I can when
teaching vocabulary so that my students can
have a visual that aids them in remembering
what the word means.
I have students draw three pictures/contexts
where the word could be used and then include
the meaning of the word on the back of the page.
I often hang up their pictures on a classroom
word wall so students can refer to them later.
IDEAS FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY:
PICTURES
IDEAS FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY:
PICTURES
IDEAS FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY #4:
WORD SORTS
Once you’ve taught students a word, you can use
word sorts to help review the words to ensure
students remember them and to deepen
understanding.
I like to have my students divide the words we’re
working with into two separate piles—letting
them choose what two categories in which to put
the words.
After talking about the sorts as a class, I have
them re-sort the same words into two different
categories without using any categories that we
talked about as a class. This forces my students
to think about the words in a different way each
time.
IDEAS FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY: WORD
SORTS
Chided
 Surreptitiously
 Mortified
 Chagrined
 Lucrative
 Insatiable
 Gouged
 Prodigious
 Defunct
 Insidious
 Tipple


My students sorted
these words into
categories like
helpful/non helpful,
descriptive/nondescriptive, scary/ not
scary, good/bad, loud/
not loud describes
ninjas/ doesn’t
describe ninjas.
IDEAS FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY #5: STUDENT
CHOSEN WORDS
Research supports the fact that students retain
words better when they get to choose the
vocabulary words they study.
To do this, I have students choose one or two
words out of a few chapter selection of the piece
we’re reading. I have each student put their
word and its definition on the board, and then
they vote as a class for their three favorite words.
With my two other classes voting, we have nine
vocabulary words to work with.
REFERENCES
Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2005). Choosing
words to
teach. In Hiebert, E.H. & Kamil, M.L.(Eds.), Teaching
and Learning Vocabulary Bringing Research to Practice
(209-222). New York: Routledge.
Bromley, K. (2007). Nine things every teacher should know about
words and vocabulary instruction. Journal of
Adolescent &
Adult Literacy, 50(7), 528-537.
Greenwood, S.C. and Flanigan, K. (2007). Overlapping
vocabulary and comprehension: Context clues complement
semantic gradients.The Reading Teacher 61(3), 249-254.
Kieffer, M.J. & Lesaux, N.K. (2007). Breaking down words to
build meaning: Morphology, vocabulary and reading
comprehension in the urban classroom. The Reading Teacher,
61(2), 134-144.
Rosenbaum, C. (2001). A word map for middle school: A tool for
effective vocabulary instruction. Journal of Adolescent and
Adult Literacy, 45(1), 44-49.