Vocabulary teaching

Some theory Words: vocabulary – morphological development. Words have different levels of utility. Tier 1 ? - happy, clock, man Tier 2 ? - endure, cunning, stealthily – how to test? Tier 3 ? - quite specific, part of a discourse community. Do the word choices match the meaning needed to be made – the field, tenor and mode?

Teaching vocabulary Direct Instruction: Explicit teaching of carefully selected words improves understanding and helps students’ vocabulary grow. Often, it is best to pre-teach key words. Wide reading: Reading of texts helps expose students to many words including rare words — not high in frequency but high in important meaning. “Time on text” will have the highest payoff in terms of helping students learn many, many words. Words In Context: Students will learn most new words in the context of reading and writing. The two best way is to enrich the context for word learning is to read and discuss books.

Teaching vocabulary Talk: Try to infuse formal and informal conversation to model effective use of language and to focus on the introduction of new vocabulary. Use your knowledge of vocabulary – don’t dumb down your language choice – use then explain/explore. “I am at the brink of my endurance!”

Word Study: When students learn about the parts of words, prefixes and suffixes, and about root words, they are able to figure out many new words. Also, looking at the origin of words — words from other languages — increases word and world knowledge. Word Consciousness: Being on the lookout for words, finding out what they mean, engaging in wordplay, looking for multiple meanings and looking up words in the dictionary all support the acquisition a powerful vocabulary. http://www.phschool.com/eteach/language_arts/2002_03/essay.html http://www.vocabulary.co.il/eighth-grade-vocabulary-games Genre project