1. Chapter 7: Vocabulary

2. How do Students Learn Vocabulary Words?
Students learn about 3,000 words a year, or roughly 7 to 10 new words every day.
By the time students graduate from high school, their vocabularies can reach 25,000 to 50,000 words.
Reading has the greatest impact on students’ vocabulary development.

3. Levels of Word Knowledge
Unknown Word- Students don’t recognize the word.
Initial Recognition- Students have seen or heard the word or can pr0nounce it, but they don’t know the meaning.
Partial Word Knowledge- Students know one meaning of the word and can use it in a sentence.
Full Word Knowledge- Students know more than one meaning of the word and can use it in several ways.

4. Independent Reading
Reading is the single largest source of vocabulary growth for students, especially after third grade.
The amount of time students spend reading independently is the best predictor of vocabulary growth between second and fifth grades.
Sustained Silent Reading is a way to encourage wide reading.

5. Reading Aloud to Students
Teachers provide for incidental word learning when they read aloud stories, poems, and informational books.
When using interactive read-aloud procedure, teachers focus on a few key words in the book, model how to use context clues to understand new words, and talk about the words after reading.
Teachers use think-alouds when they model using context clues and other word-identification strategies.

6. Why Vocabulary Knowledge is Important
Students with larger vocabularies are more capable readers, they know more strategies for figuring out the meaning of unfamiliar words than less capable readers.
Capable readers simply do more reading, both in school and out.

7. Components of Vocabulary Instruction
Immerse students in words through listening, talking, reading, and writing.
Teach specific words through active involvement and multiple encounters with words.
Teach words-learning strategies so students can figure out the meanings of unfamiliar words.
Develop students’ word consciousness, their awareness of and interest in words.

8. Multiple Meanings of Words
Many words have more than one meaning.
For some words, multiple meanings develop for the noun and verb forms, but sometimes additional meaning develop in other ways.
The text uses the word bank as an example. The word has many different meanings including-
to arrange things in a row
the slope of a road on a turn
a business establishment that receives and lends money
a container in which money is saved
to count on

9. Synonyms: Words With the Same Meaning
English has so many synonyms because numerous words have been borrowed from other languages.
Synonyms are useful because they’re so precise.
For example the word cold has many synonyms including: cool, chilly, frigid, icy, frosty, and freezing.
Cool means moderately cold
Chilly is uncomfortably cold
Frigid is intensely cold
Icy is very cold
Frosty means covered with frost
Freezing is so cold that water changes into ice

10. Antonyms: Words that Mean the Opposite
Words that express the opposite meanings are antonyms.
For the word loud, some antonyms are soft, subdued quiet, silent inaudible, sedate, somber, dull and colorless.

11. Homonyms: Words That Confuse
Homonyms are words that sound alike but are spelled differently, such as right-write, air-heir, to-too-two, and there-their-they’re.