Vocabulary Building Strategies

Vocabulary Building Strategies

Integrating What We Know into Our Teaching

According to Blachowiz and Fisher (2000), there are four basic guidelines for vocabulary instruction. In order to integrate our knowledge of vocabulary instruction into our teaching, we must put theory to practice in our classrooms (McLaughlin, 2015).

• Be actively engaged in understanding words & related strategies
• Personalize vocabulary learning
• Be immersed in words
• Develop vocabulary through repeated exposure from multiple sources

Our students learn vocabulary best through explicit instruction.

• Context clues
• Definition clue-connections made between known words and unknown words
• example/illustration clue-model or picture that depicts the meaning of the word
• compare/contrast clue- providing information about word by using examples and nonexamples related to the unknown word
• Logic clue-the use of common sense or context connection to the word
• cause/effect clue-reason or result relationship of the word allows reader to predict a word’s meaning
• mood/tone clue- mood description related to the word that allows a reader to predict its meaning.

There are also organizational methods that enhance vocabulary instruction.

• Graphic organizers
• Semantic map
• Semantic question map
• Concept map
• Semantic feature analysis chart

As we study words, it is important to understand the structure of the word itself.

• Structural Analysis
• Word roots
• Affixes
• Prefixes
• Suffixes

There are some general principles to keep in mind when providing vocabulary instruction.

• Students should recognize our enthusiasm and excitement for words.
• Teaching should encourage students to make connections between other words.
• Teaching should promote the idea that words can have multiple meanings.
• Teaching should provide multiple exposures to a variety of vocabulary rich text.
• Students should have a variety of ways to incorporate vocabulary in content areas.
• Teaching should include explicit instruction in word structure analysis.
• Teaching should provide depth of context reading vocabulary rather than wide coverage.
• Students should be exposed to quality rather than quantity with regards to new vocabulary words.
• We should provide a variety of context relevant vocabulary opportunities.
• Teaching should acknowledge that changes must be made in instruction based on student needs.
• Teaching should work across curriculum content areas to provide consistency and support of all content areas.

McLaughlin, M. (2015). Content area reading: Teaching and learning for college and career readiness (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.