Vocabulary

Vocabulary Instruction

                When I was a kid in elementary and high school, vocabulary was taught in one way as far as I can remember. We had vocab books and those books gave us 10 words and their definitions for every week. At the end of every week we had a test on those ten words. In the younger grades, it was commonly a matching activity. We had a word bank and had to match the word with the correct definition. In the older grades, we had to write the definition of selected words and show which syllable the accent fell on. It never occurred to me that there could be so many, and such interesting, fun ways to learn vocabulary.

                While I understand teaching and introducing words in the preparation and assistance phases, it surprises me to find that word introduction and instruction after a reading has been completed is so effective. I imagine as long as most words in the selection are familiar to students, a few foreign words should not prevent the student from understanding the reading. I think the Directed Reading-Thinking Activity for vocabulary makes the most sense for me as far as teaching words in the reflection phase. If students are asked to jot down words that they do not understand from a reading, it is likely that other students will not understand the same word or words. Using these student-generated suggestions gives the benefit of the students designing their own learning. In addition, these vocabulary terms are not like the terms I was given as a kid: straight from a list with not context. The student has already seen these terms in a sentence and, therefore, may be able to guess at its meaning even before it is defined.

                Most of the words we talk about are very concrete. The vocabulary illustrations activity is a great idea and it makes sense that it would be effective, as is the keyword idea. But these activities are commonly used with very concrete words that are easy to picture. Are there any ideas on strategies for teaching more abstract words, especially in elementary school? Words like classic, sympathy, and progress are difficult to picture. What are some good ways to teach students words that they can’t see to understand?