Vocabulary
Observed Behaviors: Difficulty with vocabulary - Listening, Reading, Speaking, Writing
Possible Intervention and Explanation:
Context Clues (ESI)
Teach students to look at the words and sentences surrounding the unknown word to help decipher meaning.
Semantic Field (ESI, MC, RE)
Visually display the connections of words by selecting an unknown word, define the word, and identify other words/phrases that fit in with the meaning (e.g., synonyms, connotations, structural analysis, examples and non-examples, words in the family, etc.)
Structural Analysis (ESI)
Explicit instruction on how to use roots, bases, and affixes to determine word meaning
Vocabulary Notebooks/ Personal Dictionaries or Glossaries (ESI, MC, RE, OtU)
Students identify unknown words, define them and illustrate the new word in a notebook; can organize in a variety of meaningful ways (e.g., by text, topic, structural elements, etc.). Students should refer to notebook, dictionary or glossary when writing, speaking, and completing other academic tasks in order to use words in meaningful ways.
Marzano 6-steps (MC, RE, OtU)
The first 3 steps introduce and develop vocabulary:
Step 1: Provide a description, explanation or example of new term.
Step 2: Students restate explanation of new term in own words.
Step 3: Students create a nonlinguistic representation of term.
The next 3 steps shape and sharpen the student’s understanding of the term:
Step 4: Students periodically do activities that help add to knowledge of the vocabulary terms.
Step 5: Periodically students are asked to discuss terms with one another.
Step 6: Periodically students are involved in games that allow them to play with terms.
Selection of Words to Teach: 3 Tiers of Vocabulary
Word Sorts -- open and closed