Book: Teaching Vocabulary 

Cathy Blanchfield

TEACHING VOCABULARY CREATIVELY

Imelda Blanchfield

Today’s researchers recommend integrating concept development with vocabulary teaching. Templeton and Pikulski (2000) have found that students learn concepts and vocabulary in the following four ways:

1. . Relating known words to concepts. For example, a student learns the word cat and can refer not only to the familiar family pet but also to a family of wild animals.
2. 2. Relating new words to existing concepts. For example, a student learns the new word gigantic and relates it to the familiar word or concept of size.
3. 3. Relating existing words to new concepts. For example, a student who knows what a column of numbers means in arithmetic learns that column also refers to a type of article in a newspaper.
4. 4. Learning both new words and new concepts. For example, a student learns the concept for the process of condensation and also learns a corresponding new word.

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Mastering words: making the most of a word wall

Kristi NcNeal

BUILDING THE WALL

The year begins with a blank word wall that has a 12 X 12-inch square for every letter of the alphabet. The letter and a picture of an object that begins with that letter are attached to each square. Words are added that students need for their writing, including sight words and words that students can use to make connections and analogies when reading and writing new words. A list of words to be added to the wall is kept on hand. Words are posted in different colors in order to help students visually search the wall. 

After about 10 words have been added to the wall, I begin directed daily instruction for 10 to 15 minutes each day. This instruction starts with very simple lessons that become more sophisticated as the year progresses. The first lesson of the week is always the introduction of the five new words. After the first day, instruction includes all words on the wall.

Students each have a dry-erase board and pen; they number I through 5 on the left side of the board. Each word is introduced, spelled, used in a sentence, and then written on the board. A sample lesson might go something like this

• Teacher: “The first word is he. Let’s snap and clap the word.”
  Students spell the word and snap their fingers as they say each letter. When they get to the end of the word they clap and say the whole word:
  “H-E, he.”
  Teacher: “Now write the word on your board.”
  snap-snap clap
  Students write word on their boards.
• The teacher then calls on one child to use the word in a sentence.
• This routine is repeated for all five words: he, like, my, play, and went.

After a word is added to the wall, the students are responsible for writing it correctly in their own writing. During writer’s workshop, a student who misspells a word wall word is sent to the wall to check the spelling.

1. Rhyme lesson. The students number their white boards from 1 to 5. The teacher gives clues to five words using initial sounds and rhymes. For example: The first word starts like paper and rhymes with may (play). Students search the word wall and write the word. Next the teacher chooses a child to point to the word on the word wall. Then students spell the word aloud and check their white boards to make sure that they have spelled it correctly. The game continues until five words have been found.

2. Clues. The students number their white boards from 1 to 5, and the teacher gives several clues for each word that use meaning and that structure information. For example: The first word ends like may. It means to have fun doing something. It fits in this sentence: I like to______outside. It starts like the word paper (play).

3. Guess my word. This game gives a set of five clues that lead to a one-word answer, and it requires students to use the process of elimination to solve the problem. First the students number their white boards from I to 5. Then the teacher begins giving clues. For each clue given, the students guess a word and write it. With each subsequent clue, the students may stick with the first word or guess a different one depending on whether the word fits the new clue that has been given. For example: My word has one syllable. (Students write a one-syllable word.) My word ends like the word may. (Students find and write a one-syllable word that ends like may.) My word has one vowel. My word means to have fun with someone. My word fits in the sentence I like to ______\outside

4. Finish the word. This game is played later in the year. The teacher models the game several times and then the students can direct it. The students number their white boards from 1 to 5. The teacher chooses a word and then spells part of it and claps the other letters. The teacher decides how many letters to say, but some must be left for the students to fill in. The students finish the word. For play; for example, the teacher might say p, I, clap-clap. This is repeated and the students supply the last two letters, a, y.

Cunningham, P. (2000). Phonics they use: Words for reading and writing (3rd ed.). New York: Longman.

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Animal, vegetable, or Mineral

Grade 7-9

Carol surabian

Some of my students in the seventh-grade history class enjoy looking up words in the glossary, but many consider it a chore that does nothing to further their understanding of the text. This is usually expressed to me by the expression “This bites!” For the most part, I agree with them. But I know my students cannot access the information in the text without a working definition of these vocabulary words. How best to help them as we work through the chapter?

l access my students’ prior knowledge of a chapter, for example “The Spread of Islam” (Cox, Greenblatt, & Seaberg, 1981), by having them do a quickwrite. For 5 minutes, they write everything they know about the topic, as well as associations they may have to it. Some students know a lot, but many know little or nothing.

I then give them a list of words that they will need to understand by the end of the chapter. I have them cut the words apart and sort them by People, Places, and Things. They work in groups of two or three and can argue among themselves as they try to sort out the words. Using the basic rules of grammar, I remind them that proper nouns (which are capitalized) name people and places, and that common nouns (lower case) name things or people and places in general. I divide the class into thirds if the review list is exceptionally long, and each group is responsible for one third of the words. Then I have them reorganize into three new groups, each new group consisting of one student who sorted the first third, one student who sorted the middle third, and one who sorted the last third. The “expert” student from each part then shares with the other two. This is called a “jigsaw.”

We have discussions on how to tell if a word is a proper (specific) noun or common (general) noun. I reiterate that words that are underlined or italicized are usually titles of books. Placement in the sentence can also aid them in deciding what part of speech the word is. At the beginning of a sentence, the noun is used as a subject. In our text, this is usually a person.

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Vocabulary graphics

• Harold handy 

Asking students to bring in magazines is an easy way to pique their interest in a new activity,. I know that when students read materials of their choosing, they are motivated to understand the content (Atwell, 1998). I also know that there will be words in the stories they choose to read that they do not understand. The vocabulary graphic is an excellent way to help students understand the words they don’t know, share these words with others, and maintain the positive enthusiasm that the magazine choice provides for Maribel and her classmates (Moline, 1995).

PROCEDURE

My students usually remember to bring their magazines, but I have a supply in the classroom for them to borrow, too. After I make sure that everyone has a magazine, I invite the students to read an article that interests them. As they are reading, they select at least five unfamiliar vocabulary words to study. They follow this procedure to study the word:

1. 1. Take an 8 ½ X 11 inch piece of paper for each word.
2. 2. Write the sentence that contains the vocabulary word on the paper.
3. 3. Under the sentence, write the unfamiliar word and its part of speech. Most students also need to write the meaning of the word.
4. 4. Write the word in the center of the paper, at least two inches high, making sure to visually represent the word in an artistic manner.

One student’s art vocabulary paper for magnify is shown in Figure 17. When all of my students complete their graphic, I can “wallpaper” an entire wall of my classroom in a collage of graphics. Students can readily find words to use in future writing lessons by scanning the wall.

I have dictionaries available for my students to consult as they work on this assignment, and I am always available to help students choose among definitions and to identify parts of speech.

CONCLUSION

What is unique about the vocabulary graphics is my focus on the study of vocabulary in functional text. My students select the magazine articles they read and the words they want to study. They create graphic designs that are meaningful to them.

Choice is very important to my middle school students, and through choice they are engaged in the study of important functional text vocabulary.

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Which meaning should I choose?

• Tamara harritt 

Imagine you’re only 7 years old and have come to love reading, but now the difficult task of figuring out words with multiple meanings comes into play. Perhaps the story become confusing as you struggle to make sense out of it, and you decide this reading business isn’t so much fun anymore. Discouragement haunts you as you keep trying to conquer comprehension, but in all honesty, you’d like to just grab some of those favorite books that drew you into reading for enjoyment and escape to a comfortable spot in the classroom reading corner.

As a nurturing teacher of these 7-year-olds, I see this discouragement in their eyes. I want to help them as they stand on the brink of tackling more difficult reading material; it is now my responsibility to recognize the apprehension of readers like the one just described, This lesson is intended to be a guide for teachers helping students develop vocabulary-building strategies they can use during non-instructional, independent reading times. In teaching new meanings for known words, this instruction focuses on basic or general utility words with multiple meanings. The word ring is the multiple meaning word in this lesson.

Before I begin this lesson, I gather together the following realia

• an inflatable plastic “swim” ring (noun)
• a piece of jewelry, a rina (noun)
• a bell with clapper for sound of rina (verb)
• • a cellular telephone (programmed to ring) (verb)

I also have a picture of each object and word cards, each with the word ring in large print.

PROCEDURE

During the introduction of this lesson, I display the objects, allowing the students to handle each and tell of their experiences with them. For example, students may have actually experienced floating in a swim ring in a swimming pool; they may have seen a piece of jewelry, a ring, or even worn a ring at some time. The bell with a clapper is especially fun for the students to handle and to be able to ring. At this point, I might have arranged for a friend to call my cellular telephone so it would really ring.

I direct the students to look at each picture. I ask them to volunteer to tell the other students what the picture is, to name the object. I do this for all four pictures representing the word ring. As each picture is placed in a sentence chart, I also place the word ring, printed on a separate card, below the picture. I point out that the words are spelled and pronounced the same, but their meanings are different. After all the pictures and word cards are displayed, the students practice reading the words, retelling the meaning of as many as they can.

During independent reading time, the students are encouraged to find the words that we have posted on the wall. When students point out that they have found the word ring in their story, they read the sentence to the class, and we all look at the cards on the wall to find the meaning that fits this sentence.

I use a direct instruction approach and explain these points:

1. 1. What they will learn: Some words have more than one meaning.
2. 2. Why they will learn it: To be able to clarify which meaning is needed to make sense of the text.
3. 3. How they will do it: Discuss each piece of realia and the multiple meanings of the word ring.
4. 4. When they will use it: During independent reading.

EXTENDED ACTIVITIES

I check for student understanding by giving each student a piece of paper folded into quarters and some colored pencils. I direct the students to draw a picture for each meaning, recalling the four meanings of the word.

This activity works with many other common words with multiple meanings; We can study words such as watch, bank, run, catch, and bark. After students see the pattern and learn a few of these high-frequency words, they identify new words in their reading with multiple meanings. We then make a word wall of all the words we know that have more than one meaning. Students add to the list as words emerge in their reading.

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Monster sentences 

• Lisa twiford

Grade 4-6

PROCEDURE

To begin our lesson on creating “monster sentences,” we first needed a skeleton on which to build our expanded sentences: I brought into class a Barbie-sized plastic skeleton to introduce the use of simple sentences as a “skeleton sentence ” had the students describe the skeleton. Their responses ranged from “It’s plain” and “It’s boring” to “It supports the body.”

Next I asked questions about the skeleton: “Is it male or female?” “What color are its eyes or hair?” Naturally, the students guessed at the answers, but finally they admitted they didn’t know because there wasn’t enough information available. Then I explained how a skeleton is like a simple sentence:

Both are needed for support; but when they are alone, both are boring and nondescript. To transform a plain skeleton into a unique human being, physical details must be added to the skeleton to form the body. With simple sentences, different parts of speech are used to transform them into longer, more interesting sentences. Like any good inventor, we practiced for a while, find in simple sentences in the story that could be used as skeletons for longer sentences. For instance, we liked the sentence: Deep in the forest was a cave (p. 49) as a skeleton.

Once we were able to recognize “skeleton sentences,” we designed a graveyard where we could go, like Dr. Frankenstein, to “dig up” words to add to our sentences. In small groups, the students cut out gray, traditional-looking RIP tombstones. Each group was assigned a part of speech: they wrote the name of the part of speech with its definition at the top of the tombstone. Below the definitions, the groups listed interesting words for use in their writing. Figures 54 and 55 show sample tombstones, one for adjectives, one for nouns. The tombstones were stapled on a Word Graveyard on the wall. Throughout the month, additional appealing words were written on the appropriate tombstones.

During the discussion about how Dr. Frankenstein learned the secret for “putting life into a lifeless thing” (p. 10), my students decided that he must have devised a formula for creating the monster. We decided that we also needed to MONSTER SENTENCES write a formula for creating our expanded monster sentences. Dr. Frankenstein knew what his perfect specimen would look like; “He was going to be big. Eight feet tall! And stronger than any man or woman on earth” (p. 1l). Like Dr. Frankenstein, we also needed to know what a good monster sentence looked like. We decided that it had to be a long sentence because the creature in the book was over 8 feet tall. The sentence must also include details that tell the how, why, when, what, and where; these details would add strength to sentences and make them powerful, like the monster. We used the book to find examples to fit our description:

• “I wanted to do what God himself had done when he created people.” (p. 10)
• “It was I who had thought my creature would be beautiful.” (p. 12)

Then we created some of our own examples and wrote them on a chart:

• Skeleton sentence: I love to skateboard.
• Monster Sentence: I love to do two different stances on my skateboard at home when I’m done with my homework.
• Skeleton Sentence: I like to read Harry Potter.
• Monster Sentence: I like to read the magical, interesting Harry Potter books whenever I have nothing to do.

With a clear vision of what a good monster sentence looks like, my students worked on writing interesting expanded sentences in their groups.

Each group shared its creations and the class chose the best ones, which were then displayed on the overhead projector. Here are some examples:

whenever have nothing to do.

With a clear vision of what a good monster sentence looks like, my students worked on writing interesting expanded sentences in their groups.

Each group shared its creations and the class chose the best ones, which were then displayed on the overhead projector. Here are some examples:

• The ugly green-faced monster wanted to make friends real bad with the villagers.
• The lonely, miserable, sad monster killed the scared little boy because he was mad at Dr. Frankenstein.

The class discussed the order of words used in each sentence until a formula slowly emerged from the lively debate. Students observed, “You need several describing words to make the monster seem real”; “You need to use prepositions to tell where the action happened”; “The sentences are real long but more

interesting.”

On a transparency, I wrote the “formula” and continually revised it until the class was satisfied with the final version.

Here are their steps for creating monster sentences:

1. Choose a “skeleton sentence.”

2. Go to the Word Graveyard to gather parts of speech to use in making your “monster sentence” more interesting.

3. Create a “monster sentence” by using the monster formula:

• • Add an article to the beginning of the sentence
• • Add one or two adjectives to describe the noun.
• • Use multisyllable verbs.
• • Use an adverb to tell more about the action.
• • Add a prepositional phrase to tell where the action is taking place.

After the whole class agreed on the formula, it was written on a chart and posted near the Word Graveyard. I made a copy of the formula for my students to keep in their binders and use as a reference for their home writing assignments.

EXPANDING WRITING VOCABULARY

CONCLUSION

Once the students finished this lesson, they loved to create longer, more interesting, sentences in their writing. While students conferenced with their partners, it was common to hear them tell each other that they needed to use more monster sentences in their stories. As a teacher, I discovered that my experiment with turning, my students into inventors was very successful. Our writing came alive, just like Dr. Frankenstein’ monster!

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Where in the world?

Gail Tompkins 

Grade 4-6

The focus of this lesson is to increase students’ awareness of the richness of the English language by exploring how words enter English and how a word’s etymology or history helps to explain its meaning and spelling. Most words that have entered English from Arabic, for example, begin with al, which in Arabic is similar to our article the; examples include alcohol, algebra, alfalfa, Allah, and alkali. Words with ch are interesting, too: Those where the ch is pronounced /ch/, as in church, are English.

But when ch is pronounced /sh/ as in chauffeur, the words are French, and when ch is pronounced /k/ as in chaos and chorus, the words are Greek.

Teachers begin by posting a large world map in the classroom and during the school year, they assist the students in making and adding small word cards to the country representing the language the word came from or the geographic area where the word was first used. On each card, students write the word, the language, and the original meaning.

Penguin is an interesting example;

Penguin

Welsh: White head

The word penguin is a Welsh word meaning “white head.” Perhaps Welsh sailors who explored Antarctica named another bird from the area-one with a white head–as a penguin. Or perhaps it was a long sea voyage home and the sailors became confused about the black and white animals, thinking they had white heads, not black heads. No matter what happened, the name we use for the black-headed marine birds of Antarctica actually means “white head.”

Astronaut is an interesting Greek compound word:

Astronaut

Greek: star + sailor

Astronaut means “sailor to the stars,” and the two word parts are astro (or “star”) and naut (or “sailor”). It is interesting to compare the word astronaut to cosmonaut, the Russian equivalent meaning “sailor to the universe” which is also a Greek word.

Another fascinating word is umbrella:

Umbrella 

Italian: shade

Umbrella comes from the Italian word for “shade” and literally means”a little bit of shade,” Perhaps umbrellas were first used to protect people from the sun, not from the rain, Teachers and students can check the etymology or word history of any words, they are studying, but those that do not conform to English phonic rules or that look “foreign” are often the most interesting, High school- and college-level dictionaries provide etymological information, usually bracketed at the beginning or end of the entry, Here is the etymological information for penguin, astronaut, and umbrella:

penguin (<Welsh pen wyn, white head]

astronaut | Gr astro, star + naut, sailor <naus, ship|

umbrella (Ital, dim, of ombra, shadel

AMERICAN ENGLISH WORDS

or English words are American originals. Words such as canoe, skunk, and raccoon ewere Native American Words that Were Anglicized by the English-speaking and others were invented by the colonists. Yankee, for example, was cei ined in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, Linguists have speculated that Neeline began as the Dutch form of Johnny to refer to the English colonists of New England Other words have been coined by Americans throughout the history of the United States. Frombier, prairie, anderground railroad, immigrant, and cowboy are older examples, More recent examples are UFO, workaholic, filibuster, cafeteria, and hijack, and undoubtedly words made in America will continue to enrich the English language.

For more information about these and other American English words, check Metcalf and Bamhart’5 America in So Many Words Words That Have Shaped America (1997). Still other words have entered English from Mexico. The most familiar are Mexican food words such as chocolate, chili, taco, tomato, and tortilla. Other Mexican Spanish words associated with cowboys and the settlement of the southwestern Sates inclade ranch, cayole, lasso, mustang, canyon, corral, and palomino. Teachers who Reach American history might want to post a map of the United States and add American English words to the map as part of the study of American history.

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Word clusters: exploring the multiple meanings of words

• Gail Tompkins 

M..

primary grade students used noaaslovas data re alar meaNwydo we say thar

does hut and tière is hurt on a treen dinate beriver words incaneaThey asswither

har thain@understand that most wordejn Fens.onb.h anglish*g than one meanina didntsva mieanings oceur for several pease nor tinglis, h apeakers often iRan. noun shad vers forms of a word: for example; late, litt’e land, wail and price have Cate noun and vert forms: The car has a isheritaniota?,*toeemwinerpriced the Tenth? noun these multiple meaning words are intentionaldthesmeanings are relaters latter Wbrads wien mulitiple mean ines were create de fed intal’ These words beed othelterent words but the words came to be spelled the same way. Often (hean 25 dis entered English from different lanzuazes, for example, file, meaning a devise jokeeping papers and records (n) or to atranze in order (N), came into English Tore Anence,’around 1150. The word /ile, meaning, il ons; bartolieteedool for smoothing hard stufaces in/ or to rub or smooth with a file (v), jean older Old Enelish word tha? Was used before 900 AD. Other words come from the same language but were sep. waile words and originally spelled differently. Consider the two meanings of yard a what of linear measurement and the land that surrounds a house. Both of thesa words are English words that were originally spelled ditterentiy: The word meaning wore s ‘are English words that were orieinallyspelled differently; The word meaning ä’ unit of measurement was spelled gerd in Old English and meant a “straight twig; and the word meaning the land surrounding a house came from a different Old Engish word spelled geard, meaning “enclosure “It is not surprising that over time, the words came to be spelled the same even though their meanings are not related.

Figurative uses of words, such as in idioms, create additional meanings for words. My students would have been amazed to learn that the word bark has other meanings, too. The Doling Kindersley Merriam-Webster Children’s Dictionary (2000) lists these six meanings for bark:

I. to make the short, loud cry of a dog

2, to shout or speak sharply

3, the sound made by a barking dog

4, the outside covering of the trunk and branches of a tree

5, to rub or scrape the skin off

4. the outside covering of the trunk and branches ot a tree

5. to rub or scrape the skin off

6. a sailing boat

These six meanings came into English as three words with separate spellings that over the centuries have come to be spelled the same. The first three meanings relate to the sound that dogs make; the first and second meanings are verbs and the third is a noun. The Old English word that is now spelled bart is related to the old Norse word for “bluster” The second meaning is figurative: When a serpeant for example, barks orders to the troops, he is speaking sharply and gruffly, in the manner of a dog. The fourth and fifth meanings relate to the covering of the trunk of a tree; one is a noun and one is a verb. This word bark entered English late around 1300, and also came from an Old Norse word. The sixth meaning is different this noun refers to a specific type of boat. This word bark (also spelled bareue) comes from an Egyptian word and didn’t enter English until the 1400s, in addition, hart is used in idioms, such as “to bark at the moon” and to bark up the wrong tree If you are interested in learning about the meanings of words and how the words entered English, you need to check an unabridged dictionary: a separate entry is provided for each word with a unique word history: The Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (1997) lists three entries for bark, for example, one for each word history. The meanings are presented and then etymological informaton, enclosed in brackets, is provided at the end of the entry: The etymological information explains how and when the word entered English Word clusters are a good way to focus students’ attention on the multiple meanings of a word. The word is written at the top or in the center of a box or circle and then the meanings written next to rays drawn out from the box or circle, Students can use a combination of drawings and words to explain the meanings. To word clusters are shown in Figure 74; the first sample is a first grader’s word cluster for bark showing two meanings for the word, and the second is a fourth grader’s word cluster for current, showing three meanings for the word.

Procedure

The steps in making a word cluster with multiple meanings are:

1. Choose a word to study and write it at the top or in the center of a sheet of paper or on a poster. Put a box or circle around the word.

2. Review the meanings of the word in a dictionary and decide which meanings to represent on the word cluster.

3. Draw out rays from the word box or circle and write the definition and/or draw a picture to illustrate the meaning. Sometimes students also identify the part of speech of each meaning or explain the etymology (or word history) of the meaning.

4. Add a sentence to illustrate each meaning.

5. Share completed word clusters with classmates and display in the classroom.

EXTENSION

Many words have 5, 10, or even 20 or more meanings. Think about the word bad and its meanings; how many meanings can you think of? Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (1997) lists 47 meanings for bad, and the Dorling Kindersley Merriam Webster Children’s Dictionary (2000) lists these 11 meanings:

• not good, as in bad weather
• • not favorable, as in a bad impression
• • not fresh, as in bad fish
• • morally evil, as in a bad person
• • not enough, as in bad lighting
• • unpleasant, as in bad news
• • harmful, as in bad for your health
• • severe, as in a bad cold
• • not correct, as in bad spelling
• • sick, as in a cold makes you feel bad
• • sorry, as in feeling bad about a mistake

Other common words with more than five meanings, such as around, count, measure, and sharp, are shown in Figure 75. Older students often know two or three meanings of these words, but when they make a word cluster, they learn about additional meanings. A seventh-grade word cluster for hot is shown in Figure 76. The three students made the cluster on a large poster and drew pictures to illustrate 10 meanings of the word.

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“YOU WILL THANK ME FOR THIS SOME DAY”.

A REFLECTION ON DIRECT VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION

Faith Nitschke

TEACHING STRATEGIES

One practice that the students strongly recommended is having the students teach their words, rather than having a teacher just assign words for students to study independently. Students felt that posters were not very valuable as a teaching aid, and that they best remembered words that were delivered the most memorably.

Students the previous year were still talking about Vanessa’s teaching of the word vehement, where she was so loud and forceful during her presentation that the teacher next door came into the room to see if everything was okay! The students felt that the presentation should be worth more than a few points (more than just a homework grade, more like a quiz grade) to “push” students past the mere poster stage. They felt anyone who just made a poster should get a C. Different methods of teaching words were used, but the students felt the interactive methods were superior to more sedate deliveries; teachers know, of course, that variation in methodology is important to provide a stimulating classroom. Fortunately, the focus of this book is to present many successful vocabulary teaching strategies that will appeal to the various learning styles of students.