Vocabulary Matters: Part 3: Introducing the Targeted Words

Last week I talked about Selecting the vocabulary words to explicitly teach-those Tier 2 Words.  Sometimes it is very difficult to decide if a word is a Tier 1 or Tier 2 word in the primary grades. There is a list of 3,000 words called the Dale-Chall list to identify "well known" words or Tier 1 Words by the average first or second grader. You can download it by clicking Here. If you are wondering whether a word is a Tier 2 Word, check it with the Dale-Chall list. If you find the word on the list than it is a Tier 1 word and should not be targeted for Explicit Instruction. However, if you are teaching Kindergarten, students with limited understanding of rich and robust words, or ESL students you may need to focus on several of those words. 

I want to focus today on Developing Word Meaning Through

• Student Friendly Explanations
• Teacher-Created Contexts
• Active Engagement With Words

Using your text is a great way to introduce targeted words. After introducing each word you want students to:

• repeat the word after you
• give them a student-friendly explanation of the word
• actively engage students in the word through:

           a. questions

           b. making choices

           c. finishing the idea- sentence starters

           d. choose an example and non- example of the word

• repeat the word again

Here (above) is an example of how I introduced the word "bulge" to my students. You can download  this document by clicking on either picture above. (d. is an example of "Finish the idea")

I found with my struggling readers and ESL students that making vocabulary word cards was helpful for them to have more in-depth word knowledge. Here are 2 examples below which are also included in the document with instructions.

Hopefully they will begin to see, hear, and use these words not just during reading time but beyond the classroom as well.

I hope you found some useful information and something new to try when teaching vocabulary.
If you missed the Introduction you can click HERE or Part 2, you can click HERE. You can follow my blog or by e-mail so you won't miss Part 4 next week. I will begin posting Vocabulary Matter on Thursdays starting January 31st. 

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.

What is something you may try in your vocabulary instruction that I wrote about today?