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Teachers have responded with their effective vocabulary instruction. I will add this post and many more to come to the Improving Student Learning through Effective Vocabulary Instruction page.
I expose the students to the words multiple times before the test in different activities and games. I’m lucky enough to have a Smartboard this year and frequently use the Word Guess game; the students love it. I have students work in pairs to create posters for the words which we hang up as our word wall. – Teri
Please check back to view updated posts on our Improving Student Learning through Effective Vocabulary Instruction page.
How do you teach vocabulary? Email your ideas / instructional strategies to tips@road2teaching.com
The Freyer Model is a graphic organizer – an effective way to teach vocabulary at all grade levels. My students complete a Freyer Model for every vocabulary word we are learning, showing their understanding both linguistically and non-linguistically. There are five parts to this graphic organizer.
In the middle of the graphic organizer, in the circle, students enter their vocabulary word, e.g. cat. Then, students write the definition of their vocabulary word in the upper left hand box, e.g. a small domesticated carnivore.
In the upper right hand corner box, students write characteristics that come to mind about this word, e.g. furry, friendly, kittens, etc.
Students use the vocabulary word in a sentence in the lower left hand box, titled Example, e.g. My grandma breeds many types of cats.
Finally, students complete the last box, titled Non-Example. Students draw their representation of the vocabulary word. This graphic organizer is beneficial because it makes the students think about the vocabulary word in different ways, allowing the teacher to meet also the diverse learning styles in the classroom.
Resources
Improving Student Learning through Effective Vocabulary Instruction page
Regardless of grade level or content speciality, all teachers have a common focus to build students’ literacy, especially, in regards to expanding students’ vocabulary.
Road to Teaching is launching an effort to collect vocabulary instructional strategies, tips, and advice from teachers across the world, organizing them under the eight characteristics (derived from Marzano’s “Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement“) of effective vocabulary instruction. Aspiring and students teachers then can review the submitted strategies and apply them to their own classrooms.
How do you teach vocabulary? Please post your instructional strategy as a comment or email it to tips@road2teaching.com
Marzano’s characteristics of effective vocabulary instruction:
- Effective vocabulary instruction does not rely on definitions.
- Students represent their knowledge of words linguistic and non-linguistic ways.
- Effective vocabulary instruction involves the gradual shaping of word meanings through multiple exposures.
- Teaching word parts enhances students’ understanding of terms.
- Different types of words require different types of instruction.
- Students should discuss the terms they are learning.
- Students should play with words.
- Instruction should focus on terms that have a high probability of enhancing academic success.
Please check back to view updated posts on our Improving Student Learning through Effective Vocabulary Instruction page.
My school is rapidly moving towards aligning our instructional strategies and assessments around improving student literacy. We have adopted Marzano’s research as a guide in our reform.
As part of this we are focuing on using specific instructional strategies to teach academic vocabulary, e.g. graphic organizers. A colleague shared a great website that lists targeted academic vocabulary per grade level and subject areas. In addition, the U46 website has student samples that are really useful for modeling and guided practice. If literacy is a focus for your classroom, school, or district then definitely check out this resource.
Resource Links
District U46 – Academic Vocabulary Website
Road to Teaching: A Guide to Teacher Training, Student Teaching, and Finding a Job
Road to Teaching: Blog, Resources, and Interview Questions for Teachers 