TEACHING VOCABULARY

What should you do to teach vocabulary?

• Have students look up lists of words in a dictionary, write arbitrary sentences, or copy words multiple times.

• Help students to come up with their own definitions.

What should you do to teach vocabulary?

• Allow opportunities for wide reading so students are exposed to words all the time in a variety of books.

• Teach only whole class books/ texts with controlled vocabulary study.

What should you do to teach vocabulary?

• Model the use of academic language at all times, setting high expectations for language use.

• Use “kid” language around students and allow students to speak “kid” back.

What should you do to teach vocabulary?

• Give students matching tests that show only memorization of definitions.

• Assess student use of words in authentic writing and speaking.

What should you do to teach vocabulary?

• Use symbols and pictures to help bring vocabulary to life.

• Lack the use of visual cues in the classroom to assist with vocabulary instruction.

What should you do to teach vocabulary?

• Spend a large chunk of language arts time working on vocabulary in isolation.

• Use and apply vocabulary words regularly (versus isolated practice).

What should you do to teach vocabulary?

• Tell students to use only context clues to figure out unknown words.

• Teach students morphological strategies to figure out words they do not know, in addition to context-clue strategies.

What should you do to teach vocabulary?

• Use symbols and pictures to help bring vocabulary to life.

• Lack the use of visual cues in the classroom to assist with vocabulary instruction.