Teaching Vocabulary:
Four Sure-Fire Ways
First, Get Selective
• Students cannot and will not “learn” 10, 15, or
20 vocabulary words that you give them on a
sheet of paper.
• And you can’t teach that many words and get
anything else done.
• Instead, do triage: Choose the 4-5 most critical
words over several days of reading/discussion
and teach those. These words are “keepers.”
What Makes a Keeper?
• It has to be a word you can use again
and again.
• It has to be a word that is big and
juicy and that kids don’t know.
• It has to be a word that kids can use
that will make them feel smart.
WARNING!
• DO NOT choose words that students
already know or think they know
• For example, “acid” or “harmony”
• You may think these are good words to
discuss with your class and you’re right;
but these are NOT vocabulary.
• If you choose easy words students
already know, they won’t pay attention
and they’ll be insulted or think you’re an
idiot.
Here is a Word Wall Full of Keepers:
2. Select Words One of Two Ways
•You choose the words
yourself before reading (4 or
5-NO MORE!!!)
•Students choose the words
themselves—NO KIDDING!!
Four Sure-Fire Ways to Teach
Vocabulary:
1.Word Walls!
2.Vocabulary SelfSelection (VSS)!
3.Concept Attainment!
4.Beat the Dictionary!
1. Word Walls Are Your
Best Friend as a Teacher
• A Word Wall is a bulletin board in your classroom that
you start at the beginning of the year and add words to
all year long.
• The words are all KEEPERS.
• The words are big and juicy and represent new and
important concepts learned in your curriculum.
• These words are the words that you will return to again
and again throughout the year. YES!! YES!!! To teach
vocabulary, you need to constantly and recursively
remind students of these words. This is the hardest part
of vocabulary instruction but it’s essential and the most
powerful thing you can do.
Revisit Your Word Wall Words
Frequently
• Make a point of using new words
DAILY.
• Revisit old words several times a
week.
• This is HARD because the tendency is
to put things up and forget about
them.
• DON’T FORGET!
Practice Activities
• Word Rallies (See hand-out)
• Treasure Hunt word finds (See hand-out)
• Games, recognition to students for using
vocabulary in speech and writing.
• Give EXTRA CREDIT for using vocabulary
words in writing assignments.
Leave Your Word Wall up All Year
• Keep adding to the Word Wall. Don’t take it
down ALL YEAR.
• If you do this, you’ll see huge improvements in:
• Reading comprehension
• Writing quality
• Students’ attitudes about themselves as
students
• Students’ attitudes about vocabulary.
2. Vocabulary Self-Selection (VSS)
• After reading, place students in groups of 3-4
• Either assign the class the whole reading passage or
break it up into sections, one per group (depending
on how long the passage was).
• Tell each group to select one vocabulary word (and
one alternate) they want the class to put on the
Word Wall. The students must then present the
word to the class and make an argument for why
this word should be included.
• You as the teacher also select a word and make an
argument to model the process for students.
• The class votes on each word.
VSS Works Wonders. Why?
• It empowers students
• It requires students to reread and review a passage after
they’ve read (And rereading is powerful and important
learning strategy!)
• It’s engaging and students will remember words they
suggest much better than words you give them.
• It requires students to study the word and make an
argument for why it’s important—this requires
discussion, processing of ideas, and real scholarship.
3. Concept Attainment
• This is a strategy used to introduce vocabulary words and
concepts that you have selected, usually before reading a
passage.
• The activity is engaging because it works like a guessing game.
• You select a word and think of examples and non-examples of
the word.
• You present each example/non-example as a pair.
• Over a series of pairs, you engage students in a discussion of
the characteristics of each pair.
• Finally, you provide the word.
• Concept Attainment words because it models the way that we
conceptualize and identify individual things in the world—by
comparing and contrasting them to other things.
Let’s look at an example
of Concept Attainment
This is an example:
This is NOT an example:
This is an example:
This is NOT an example:
This is an example:
This is NOT an example:
This is an example:
This is NOT an example:
This is an example:
This is NOT an example:
One of the best ways to use
Concept Attainment is to give
groups of students different
vocabulary words and have them
come up with examples and nonexamples to present to the class.
4. Beat the Dictionary!
• This is a great strategy if you’re reading a text with students
and you come to a word that no one knows.
• In this strategy, you challenge the students to come up with a
definition of the word based on the context of its use and
other clues (like roots and affixes) before another student
(who is given a big fat dictionary—NO computers on this one!)
can look it up.
• You entertain definitions as the student is thumbing through
the dictionary and then compare the class’s definition with the
one in the dictionary.
• Beat the Dictionary is a very engaging game to play with
students. It challenges them to use context clues and what
they know about the etymology of words and it MAKES
STUDENTS FEEL SMART.
This brings us to our last
reading strategy:
The Directed Reading
Activity (DRA)
Steps for DRA:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
As the teacher, you select the reading passage and the three or
four vocabulary words you want to teach BEFORE reading.
You prepare engaging ways to introduce these words (like Concept
Attainment or Beat the Dictionary, for example)
You write them on the board and “talk them up” one at a time
(BUT DON’T DEFINE THEM!)
After you’ve talked them up, get the students to generate a
definition (student-generated language is ALWAYS remembered
more than your droning).
Give the students a Purpose-Setting Question for reading the
passage. The PSQ is an interpretive question, not a factual one.
WRITE THE QUESTION ON THE BOARD.
Have the students read the passage, usually silently (although you
could use Shared Reading)
Conduct a summative discussion focused on the PSQ