5 Activities for Teaching Vocabulary with Any Word
How do we teach vocabulary in a way that makes words stick for our students? For starters, we need to think of teaching vocabulary as going deeper than just giving students words and dictionary definitions. We also need to be smart about the words we choose to teach, because it is impossible to teach every word in the English language during the short and precious time we have with our students. The words we choose to teach should be useful words that will carry into the lives of our students. To determine words to teach, it is helpful to look at words in three tiers:
Tier 1: These are common words that students can usually acquire the meaning of through incidental exposure.
Ex) lose, silent, exist, safe, middle
Tier 2: These are useful words that students will encounter throughout their lives and in texts frequently and should be the primary focus of our vocabulary instruction. We should teach tier 2 words directly.
Ex) culture, opposite, invitation, unusual, predict
Tier 3: These are academic terms that are specific to the content being taught and may need to be taught directly.
Ex) molecule, tundra, legislature, isotope, hyperbole
The tiers shift based on grade level, so I recommend looking to your knowledge building or comprehension curriculum texts to select terms from and gauge the tiers. This is best practice: the words we choose to teach to our students should come from the texts we are reading to our students.
The number of words you choose to teach each week depends on the amount of instructional time you have, as well as what your administration requires. However, I recommend teaching no less than five and no more than ten words each week. Then, it is important to spiral the previously taught words into the following weeks so that students continue to have experience and exposure using these words– as that is how we really make words stick.
After introducing the word and giving a student friendly definition, there are ways we can help kids familiarize with the target words we teach. The 5 activities below encourage students to go beyond the surface of words and gain a deeper understanding of how words are related. These activities can be adapted for K-2 or 3-5. In K-2, do these activities orally. I use the templates shown in the pictures for my planning purposes, but if I taught 3-5 I would use the sentence stems and word connections activities to incorporate writing.
1. Examples & Non-examples
Our students really need an opportunity to be able to identify examples and non-examples of words. This is not to say they need to write them or create them on their own, simply identifying the difference will help words stick for kids. With the target word, create 2-3 statements that consist of examples and non-examples which represent the meaning of the word.
For example, let’s look at the word “inspiring”. Say to kids:
If I say something that would inspire you, say "I am inspired!" If not, say nothing. Then, read the examples and non-examples:
I cooked dinner and then watched a show. (kids should say nothing)
The woman climbed to the top of a mountain in record time. (kids should say “I am inspired!”)
She traveled alone to a remote island in the jungle to explore a rare ecosystem. (kids should say “I am inspired!”)
2. Word Connections
In this activity, give your students two target words and ask them how the two words are related to each other.
Let’s look at the words “conserve & volunteer”.
Say to kids: Turn and talk to your partner about how the two words might be related to each other.
Then, you might have kids write a sentence linking the two words together.
For example:
One might volunteer to support a charity that stands for conserving Earth's natural resources.
3. Sentence Stems
How many times have you asked your students to write a sentence using a target word and received a response like the one below:
Teacher: Gabe, can you write a sentence using the word “advocate”?
Gabe: (writes sentence)
Teacher: Can you read your sentence to me, Gabe?
Gabe: “I am an advocate”.
Instead, use open-ended sentence stems that require students to have a deeper understanding of the word in order to complete the stem.
Here is a sentence stem I could use with Gabe to get him thinking deeper about the meaning of the word:
When you advocate for something you_________________________.
This sentence requires him to really understand what the word means. I might also give him a sentence such as the one below:
When I advocate for myself I feel___________________________.
You can have students fill turn and talk to complete the sentence stems in K-2, or in writing in K-3.
4. The Vocabulary Map
The vocabulary map is a great way to introduce vocabulary terms. I like to use this template before my reading comprehension lessons to introduce high-utility words from the text I read to my students. These are terms that are necessary to understand in order to understand the text itself. These are not words that I can just teach on the fly, or words that I believe students can determine the meaning of using the context of the text.
In K-2 you can use this map orally for your vocabulary lesson prior to a read aloud. In 3-5 you can pre fill this map, give students a copy, and follow the steps below:
Say the word, ask students to repeat it aloud.
Ask students to write the word.
Show a picture that helps students understand the meaning of the word.
Give a student friendly definition
Give synonyms
Create 3 sentences using the target word. Read the sentences aloud, pausing at the blanks for students to fill in the word- either orally or in writing.
Ask students to discuss examples by giving them two context questions- one that relates to their lives and one that connects to the text you are reading. You can use the question that connects to students’ lives before the text, and the text connection question as a way to review after reading the text.
5. Example Matching
For this activity, the teacher generates an example of each target word. Students are expected to match the target words with the correct examples. The examples aren’t sentences using the target word, they are sentences that represent the meaning of the target word.
One way you could do this is to say the following sentences aloud and have students write the correct word on a whiteboard and hold it up. You might also do call and response, read the sentence and ask students to generate the correct word, or type these into a graphic organizer for students to match up with partners.
For example:
The three target words are “accessible”, “volunteer”, and “conserve”.
We are cutting down on central heating to save energy. (conserve)
Once retired, she spent most of her weekends reading to patients at the children's hospital. (volunteer)
Course registration opens on July 29th. (accessible)
The National Reading Panel (2020) concluded there is no one optimal way to teach vocabulary, which is why I like to incorporate a number of these activities each week with my students. Which one of these activities will you try? I’d love to hear how it goes!
