Chapter 10: Vocabulary

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Scenario
Mr. Jackson and Vocabulary Expansion

Mr. Jackson was feeling dismayed when one student in his sixth-grade reading class said to
him, “Mr. Jackson, I have a great amount of animosity toward you.”

Mr. Jackson was upset because he thought that he had very good rapport with the student, and
thought the student enjoyed being in his class. Because the student’s statement did not seem
right, Mr. Jackson decided to question him.

“Craig,” Mr. Jackson said, “is anything wrong? Have I done anything to offend you in any way?”

Craig appeared perplexed. He looked Mr. Jackson straight in the eye and said, “No, I like your
class. I look forward to coming to it.”

“If that is true,” said Mr. Jackson, “then why did you say you disliked me?”

“I didn’t,” said Craig. “I said that I like you a lot. I said just the opposite.”

What became clear to Mr. Jackson was that Craig did not know the meaning of animosity. When
Mr. Jackson asked Craig why he used the word animosity, Craig replied, “I like the way it looks
and sounds, so I use it a lot.” This encounter reminded Mr. Jackson that many students use
words they can pronounce yet may not fully understand.

Understanding Vocabulary Acquisition

As the opening scenario helps to illustrate, strong vocabulary and proficient reading go hand in
hand. Readers must know the meanings words go with if they are to understand what they are
reading. Readers need to know how word meanings function in sentences and paragraphs to
comprehend texts.

As children advance in concept development, their vocabulary development also advances,

because the two are interrelated. (See Chapter 8.) Years ago, MacGinitie noted that “vocabulary
is a key variable in reading comprehension and is a major feature of most tests of academic
aptitude.”1 Investigators continue to confirm this earlier finding.2 For example, Daneman
remarks: “Numerous researchers have noted that poor readers have smaller vocabularies than
good readers. Indeed, vocabulary knowledge is one of the best single predictors of reading
comprehension.”3 Current researchers point to the need for readers to have not only a wide
reading vocabulary, but also depth in meaning for those words, and strengths in relatedness
among meanings.4 Wide, deep, and connected vocabulary is positively correlated to
comprehension for a variety of texts.

Just how is it that readers acquire a reading vocabulary? The easiest answer to this question is
“through wide reading.” Readers who already have a deep vocabulary are much less troubled
by difficult text.6 But this kind of research leaves teachers with a puzzle. How do we help people
get this kind of rich background when they don’t already have it, and may even become
frustrated by failed attempts to succeed, or who do not read widely, because it is such hard
labor? Foundational research in cognitive science suggests that there are two central facts
about vocabulary that should shape assessment and teaching. The first is that meanings have
words, and not the other way around. The second is that words are used in three main ways in
life: for everyday social and personal use, for bookish academic use, and for specialist use.

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Meanings have Words

Why insist that meanings have words, and not the other way around? Imagine a coat rack
where kids hang things at the start of the day. Now imagine the coat rack without any hooks or
hangers. What will happen when kids try to hang up hoodies, coats, and backpacks on a bare
wall? Everything will fall to the ground. What will happen when kids go to collect their things at
the end of the day? Chaos. Nothing will be where they thought they left it, and coats and
backpacks will be mixed up and lost. Meanings are like hooks on a coat rack. Words are like
jackets, backpacks, and hoodies. Without a hook, these items have nowhere to go and simply
fall to the ground, and cannot be sorted or retrieved easily. All too frequently, young readers
experience vocabulary instruction that works like a hookless coat rack. Teachers might teach
words and give brief access to definitions (a suggestion that there should be a hook and maybe
a glimpse of what a hook looks like). The old standby vocabulary list, copying the word, and
copying its definition are familiar routines to most people who have gone through schools in the
United States.

By contrast, effective vocabulary instruction involves far more focus on meaning than on lists of
words. The teaching involves teachers either “installing the hooks” (teaching meaning) or finding
hooks learners already have in place (building on prior knowledge). Paul Bloom’s research
suggests that when meanings are developed well first, words are merely information or labels
that get associated with meaning. Meanings can gain deep and permanent places in long-term
memory, and when words get associated with meanings, they not only last longer but they also
function as a kind of index or mnemonic device to access meanings for use in the world. Words
help learners call up memories. Knowing vocabulary words across time depends on their
becoming associated with meaning. Without meanings, words have no place to go and will most
likely be flushed out of short-term memory. During sleep, the brain organizes and consolidates
short-term memories. Memories that cannot be organized and consolidated into existing
long-term mental structures (like stories or useful categories) usually get wiped clean during
sleep.

As an example of vocabulary learning, the history curriculum in the West has much vocabulary
about gold mining. Two key vocabulary words show up in reading materials about gold mining:
placer and lode. But most elementary students have not spent much time in and around gold
mines. Saying these words and telling students the definitions is like trying to hang a coat on a
wall with no hooks. Teachers must discover which learners already have hooks: basic images
and ideas about what a gold mine is, how it works, what it looks like, and what people do there.
Learning about existing hooks–background knowledge–is the starting point for learning and
teaching vocabulary.7 Those who recognize images of gold panning have a place where they
can file the term “placer mining.” Those who recognize a shaft mine or pit mine (even if only
from a movie or game) have existing meaning for the term “lode mining.” Showing students
many pictures of gold mines and getting students talking about what they see can give teachers
a sense for existing meanings, meanings to which words can be added. Even a student who
has used a kitchen spoon to dig for pretend treasure in the yard has background knowledge to
awaken when looking at pictures of miners and mining. For students new to these meanings,
seeing pictures and videos, going on field trips, and handling mining equipment all would be
important ways to build meaning to which words can attach. For students without much
background knowledge, teaching a list of ten or twenty words without meanings would be
pointless. Words are more likely to have hooks to hang on when teachers spend time assessing
and teaching meaning.

Readers encounter unfamiliar words in all types of reading, and teachers certainly need to teach
new vocabulary for reading in general and for content learning in specific. What is essential is
that teachers not make the mistake of teaching words instead of meanings. Effective teachers
must assess and teach with the understanding that meanings provide us with more hope of
long-term memory for learned words. Building meaning is so much more than merely giving
definitions.

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Three Worlds of Words: Everyday,

Academic, and Specialized
The way dictionaries are organized promotes the fallacy that words come first and meanings
next. Dictionary definitions often depend on existing background knowledge. Good dictionary
writers try to write definitions that connect to everydaylanguage whenever possible. For
example, the first definition for “difficult” at [Link] reads “Hard, not easy, requiring much
effort.” The writer of this dictionary entry worked to find common concepts a reader might
already have available on which to hang the bookish academic word “difficult.” By contrast, the
mining definition for placer is third on its Wiktionary page: “occurring in a deposit of sand or
earth on a river-bed or bank, particularly with reference to precious metals such as gold or
silver.” The reader who already has an image of gold panning in mind may be able to assimilate
this specialized meaning and word. But to the reader without background knowledge in the
very narrow field of gold mining, the definition for placer is just something vaguely involved with
rivers and gold. Moreover, the definition depends on bookish academic words like particularly,
reference to and precious. This writer assumed anyone looking up the specialized word placer
must already have strengths in both gold mining and bookish academic words. Although
dictionaries can be useful tools, teachers cannot rely on them to teach vocabulary, because
access to meaning can be blocked by assumptions the writer makes about readers.

Direct Vocabulary Instruction and

Strategic Instruction
Certainly, explicit instruction is one way to develop vocabulary knowledge. In fact, the
development of vocabulary is too important to readers’ success to be left to chance. Teachers
need to provide readers with a vocabulary growth program in all grades. “Direct vocabulary
instruction is generally shown to result in an increase in both word knowledge and reading
comprehension.”8 But remember that there are only about 175 days in a school year. Knowing
that active readers may learn tens of thousands of meanings each year from free-choice
reading alone reminds educators that only an extremely limited number of words and meanings
can be taught directly by teachers. Because of these limits, selecting vocabulary meanings and
words for direct teaching should reflect the content and thinking teachers and students agree
they value the most.

For a vocabulary instruction program to be successful, teachers must recognize that individual
differences exist between the amounts and kinds of words learners have in their listening
vocabularies (i.e., the ability to understand a word when it is spoken). Some children come to
school with a rich and varied set of meanings and words, whereas others have a more limited
and narrow vocabulary.9 How much the speaking and listening vocabulary expands for all
readers in school depends on how much time is devoted to talking for a variety of purposes. In
fact, recent researchers found that learners are better at inferring new word meanings in
listening than in reading.10 Unfortunately very few schools embrace and develop a curriculum
for talk. So teachers should not be surprised when vocabulary gaps persist into intermediate
grades and middle school, or when these affect overall reading achievement. Young children’s
listening vocabulary is usually larger than their speaking vocabulary, and both of these are
usually much larger than reading and writing vocabularies. (See Figure 10.1.)

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Researchers suggest that people’s reading vocabulary is mostly also found in their speaking
and listening vocabularies.11All modes of language are strengthened by strengths in
vocabulary. However, since children first learn language through listening and speaking,
continuing to expand this oral-language vocabulary is necessary to build a foundation that can
be used as a strength in learning to read and write.

There are three basic ways teachers can help children to acquire words: (1) create a
meaning-rich environment; (2) facilitate independent word gathering; and (3) model the active
search for words that go with meanings.12 Taken together, all these routes to vocabulary
acquisition help children to develop vocabulary consciousness, a principal objective of
vocabulary instruction. Direct teaching of specific meanings and words is important and can be
effective, yet vocabulary teaching must also include strategic thinking tools that help students
gather and remember words on their own.13 In assessment, teachers want to learn not only
what kinds of meanings and words readers already know, but also about their strategies for
noticing, gathering, and remembering new meanings and words. This will go far in helping
students gain vocabulary knowledge from their free-choice and academic reading.
Gaps in vocabulary learning often form along the lines of academic and specialized language,
so learners’ awareness of these kinds of language is a fundamental area for assessment and
teaching. For example, the synonyms hard, difficult, complex, technical, and abstruse are not
experienced equally in life. People in general might have multiple daily encounters with the word
“hard,” fewer daily hits on “difficult,” and still fewer for academic and specialized synonyms.
English speakers and writers use academic and specialized words for two key reasons: First,
these words connote nuances and precision that everyday social words do not; second, these
forms of language are a way of assuming power or authority. Because teachers want young
learners to gain access to the language of power and also to go beyond the limits of everyday
social talk, teachers need to give them tools to help readers connect to academic and
specialized meanings and the words that go with them.

In review, foundational research on vocabulary learning suggests that meanings have words,
like hooks waiting for something to be hung on them. Time spent activating and building
meaning is central to teaching and learning vocabulary words. Moreover, teachers and learners
must understand and navigate three different worlds of vocabulary: the everyday social world,
the bookish academic world, and the specialist world. Designing effective teaching and learning
depends on these foundations.

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Vocabulary Consciousness
In primary grades, children encounter words spelled the same but with different meanings,
based on context in sentences. Students learn that the word saw in “I saw Jennifer” carries a
different meaning than in “Andrew will help his uncle saw the wood.” When children recognize
that saw, train, coat, and many other words have multiple meanings that are discernable based
on surrounding words, this is a sign they are building a reading vocabulary consciousness.
Another sign is when they begin to ask about meanings of new words they come across. When
teachers see these signs, they can be certain students are developing vocabulary
consciousness–known by researchers to be a promising lead toward increasing
comprehension.14 Purposeful talking with children is one way to help them develop vocabulary
consciousness.15Discussing word meanings every day is an important start to assessment,
because through ongoing discussions, we as teachers will become aware that students develop
word meanings through a developmental process.

Stages of Knowing a Word

Learners appear to go through several stages of knowing word meanings. We illustrate these
levels as a ladder in Figure 10.2. The figure also shows that to move up the ladder, children
need much meaningful practice and repeated exposure. The first level is where they display no
awareness of the word, neither recognizing it visually nor understanding it. Assuming learners
continue to work to acquire the word, they then move into the second level, which is where they
begin to be somewhat acquainted with the word. Learners recognize it as familiar, but with
difficulty recalling its meaning or pronunciation across contexts. This is similar to being
introduced to a new person and then seeing the person in another situation and not recognizing
them immediately. If we are fortunate to be with someone who can give us a hint, we might
remember the person. We recognize the person because we were prompted. Likewise, familiar
words can be remembered with prompts. The third level, the one learners strive to reach with
words they feel are important, is the identification stage. At this level, they can identify a word
instantaneously, have a working understanding of how and when to use it, and can develop
deeper meanings along with the word. Once learners are at this third stage, they continue to
deepen their mastery of meanings. Vocabulary acquisition is never truly “complete” for any
word.16 Take the word catastrophe, for example. While many are familiar with the word and can
identify it without difficulty, 9/11 certainly helped many readers develop a deeper meaning of the
word. Any life experience or new reading might lead to deeper meaning.

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Types of Words
When thinking of teaching reading vocabulary, teachers need to remember that not all words are
created equal. Try this exercise and see if you can determine which word in each group is the
easiest for a reader to learn:

Did you select ant from the first group and elephant from the second group? If so, you are
correct, because both are nouns. Nouns are easier to learn to read than other words because
readers can associate a concrete image with them. Even though elephant is a much longer
word, it is much easier to picture than of! Two reasons so many young children can identify the
word for nearly any kind of a dinosaur are that they are interested in knowing about dinosaurs
and that each name has a distinct image associated with it. Concrete words, such as action
verbs, nouns, and adjectives, are easy for students to learn and do not make high demands for
context. They can stand alone.

By contrast, grammatical function words (GFW) often are difficult to define and cannot be
understood well without the other words they ‘glue’ together. Do you have a good definition for
the word “the” that you could use to explain it to a person whose language does not have that
meaning? Often grammatical function words contain fewer letters, but they also make high
demands for context in order to be understood. For example, the preposition “to” is easy to
demonstrate with the verb “give” and a noun: Give the bag to Shawn. Without this context, it is
difficult to understand what “to” means. Linguistic terminology like “preposition” or “article” may
not be helpful in early stages of vocabulary learning, because these labels assume learners
have enough working knowledge of types of words to form a category.

Homophones and homographs–the two main kinds of homonyms–are other types of words
common to English that may be more difficult to learn. The meaning of one word can get in the
way of another word that sounds or looks the same.

Beyond these linguistic types of words, some of the most important categories for words are
based on usage. Some words might be used in many general situations and others only in
specific situations. For example, soap might be used in many different cleaning situations, but
detergent is a word we tend to use for specific situations, like dishwashing or laundry. A
specialized term like amphiphilic surfactant might be used only in a chemistry lab. Likewise,
some words might be used more in everyday social language and others only in academic,
bookish situations. Even when a word like stay might mean the same thing as remain, one is
more likely to come up in everyday social conversation and the other more likely to appear in
print. Both words can be used in both situations, but young learners need to develop awareness
that there is another set of vocabulary and grammar words that follow printed language. This
awareness will help learners to know how to pay attention to new words, connect them to known
language, and predict situations where each kind of word is likely to show up.

In review, assessing and teaching vocabulary depends on teachers’ knowledge about types of
words. Teachers need to understand the difference between concrete words, with a clear
sensory meaning, and grammatical function words, which are used to create relationships
between other meanings. Food and table are concrete nouns. The word on in “The food is on
the table” tells how the two nouns relate to each other. Try replacing the word on with under,
around, in, or by. This makes it easy to visualize the way a grammatical function word changes
the relationship between food and table. Other types of words are determined by situations.
Teachers need to understand that some vocabulary learning depends on understanding general
versus specialized meanings, and on understanding the difference between everyday social
language and bookish academic language. Knowing these types of words will help teachers
understand and use many of the assessment and teaching techniques researchers suggest are
most important.
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Sight Vocabulary
Sight words are those words that readers can identify without conscious decoding; they know
them instantaneously. All readers have their own personalized sight vocabulary because they
have varied interests, which lead them to read texts associated with those interests. For
example, an individual who is interested in sports would have a different personalized sight
vocabulary than a person interested in music. That said, when teachers talk of helping children
to develop sight vocabulary, they are often really referring to high-frequency words. These are
words that occur most often in children’s books–hence the label high-frequency. Different
researchers have compiled high-frequency lists. Two of the most common lists are the Dolch list
and the Fry Instant Word List. Because the Fry Instant Word List is more current, we provide a
copy of the first 100 words in Figure 10.3. Teachers need to recognize that children may come
to school with a huge store of sight words because of interests and background knowledge, yet
few of these sight words might come from the high-frequency lists.

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Defining Word Part Terms

Discussing vocabulary with readers depends on being able to describe and recognize different
kinds of word parts. The subsections that follow define different word parts vital to assessment
and teaching.

Affixes are word parts that can be added to roots. You can combine a root word with a meaning
either at the beginning (prefix) or end (suffix) of the root word to form a new, related word–for
example, replay or played. Affix is a term used to refer either to a prefix or a suffix. In the word
replayed, play is a root or base, re- is a prefix, and -ed is a suffix. A root is the smallest part of a
word that holds its basic meaning. It cannot be divided any further by removing affixes. Replay
is simpler than replayed, but is not a root word, because it can still be subdivided into re- and
play. Play is a root word, because it cannot be divided further and still retain a meaning related
to the root word. When we divide pl and ay, we may find two useful phonics patterns, but not
two meanings. Understanding replayed with its two affixes depends on understanding the root
play. Many students experience confusion when they encounter words with multiple affixes in
reading. It is vital that teachers encourage the use of academic–bookish language and
specialized language in talking and listening throughout the school day.

Compound words are words made by combining roots, like football, grandfather or boardwalk.
These words may be confusing to young learners who expect them to have a space between
them. Teachers need to know and recognize compound words and how to help readers work
with them in reading and writing. The word understand is a compound so old its history is not
known, and breaking it into two parts does not automatically give away its meaning. But still,
reading this word correctly depends on readers seeing the two parts of the compound. Some
compounds that appear mostly in academic language are old compounds that are hard to
understand merely by separating the roots, like whatsoever, or inasmuch.

Derivatives are usually discussed when a root changes because of its affixes For example, the
word arrive loses its final ewhen it gets the suffix -al (as do all words with a silent final e in U.S.
English), and the new words formed with suffixes are pronounced with a short vowel sound
different from the root. The word jumping is not a derivative, because the root jump does not
change in spelling or vowel sound due to the affix -ing. Much academic language will involve
Latin, Greek, and English derivatives. For example, the word imperative (suggesting a
command) derives from the same Latin root as emperor (someone who gives commands).
Reading and spelling academic language depends less on full knowledge of Latin roots, and
more on a working awareness of how Latin and Greek words are written and pronounced in
today’s English. How would you pronounce the made-up word schimbational? What working
knowledge do you have of word parts that would help you make an educated guess rather than
a random one?

Combining forms are usually roots borrowed from another language that join together with
affixes or as compounds to form a new word. Electro- is a combining form, but cannot stand on
its own as a word. We expect to see electric when this meaning is not combined, but in words
like electronic, electroshock, or electromagnetic, we see the combining form. English uses a
predictable set of combining forms from Greek and Latin.17 Although we may understand the
words accelerate and decelerate, the combining form is not used on its own in English–there is
no word “celerate” or “celer” that stands on its own, even though English clearly has two words
that use this Latin combining form.

Affixes, compounds, derivatives, and combining forms explain much of the diversity and variety
in English vocabulary words. Language used in specialized situations or bookish academic
situations often rely on the flexibility we have for inventing new words using Latin, Greek, and
other roots. Before the 1800s, there was no such thing as a refrigerator. Before the 1990s, there
was no widely used Internet. As teachers work with students beyond the primary grades,
success in teaching reading and writing will depend on knowing when meanings of words
depend on predictable parts.
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Context Clues
Students need to learn that words have multiple meanings, and must understand how to
determine the correct meanings from sentence context. Context clues are a vital aid in learning
vocabulary and reading comprehension because there is such ambiguity in the English
language. There are eight types of context clues. Each type needs to be taught to students so
they have a variety of context-based strategies.

1.​ Definition, Explanation, and Description Context Clues. There are times when you
can get the meaning of a word from context clues. By context, we mean the words
surrounding a word that can shed light on its meaning.​
If the writer wants to make sure that you get the meaning of a word, she will define,
explain, or describe the word in the sentence. The context clue in the form of definition,
description, or explanation is the specific item of information that helps the reader to
figure out the meaning of a particular word. For example, the word context has been
defined because it is a key word in this section. The definition is the context clue. In the
following examples, the writer actually gives the reader the definition of a word. (Authors
of textbooks or technical journals are often coached by editors to provide this kind of
definition context.)​
Examples
1.​ An axis is a straight line, real or imaginary, that passes through the center of
rotation of a revolving body at a right angle to the plane of rotation.
2.​ In geometry, a plane figure of six sides and six angles is called a hexagon.

In the next examples, notice how the writers describe the words they want readers to know.

1.​ Although my diligent friend works from morning to night, he never complains.
2.​ Interior paints no longer contain toxic materials that might endanger the health of infants
and small children.
3.​ The cryptic message—which looks as mysterious and secretive as it is—is difficult to
decode.
The word or may be used by the writer when he uses another word or words with a similar
meaning. Example: John said that he felt ill after having eaten rancid or spoiled butter.​
The words that is and its abbreviation i.e. usually signal that an explanation will follow. Example:
“A human is a biped—that is, an animal with only two feet,” or “A human is a biped (i.e., an
animal with only two feet).”

2. Example Context Clues. Many times, an author helps readers get the meaning of a word by
giving examplesillustrating the use of the word. Notice how the example that the writer gives in
the following sentence helps readers determine the meaning of the word illuminated.​
Example: The lantern illuminated the cave so well that we were able to see the crystal
formations and even spiders crawling on the rocks.​
(From the sentence, you can determine that illuminated means “lit up.”)

3. Comparison Context Clues. Another technique writers employ that can help readers gain
the meaning of a word is comparison. Comparison usually shows the similarities between
persons, ideas, and things. For example, in the following sentence, notice how readers can
determine the meaning of passive through the writer’s comparison of Paul to a bear in winter:​
Example: Paul is as passive as a bear sleeping away the winter.​
(From the sentence, you can determine that passive means “inactive.)

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4. Contrast Context Clues. Contrast is another method writers use that can help readers figure
out word meanings. Contrast is usually used to show differences between persons, ideas, and
things. In the following sentence, readers can determine the meaning of optimist because they
know that optimist is somehow the opposite of “one who is gloomy or one who expects the
worst.”​
Example: My sister Marie is an optimist, but her boyfriend is one who is always gloomy and
expects the worst to happen.​
(From the sentence, you can determine that optimist means “one who expects the best” or “one
who is cheerful.”)​
The writer may use the words for example or the abbreviation e.g. to signal that examples are to
follow. Example: Condiments—for example, pepper, salt, and mustard—make food taste better.
(From the examples of condiments, you can determine that condiments are seasonings.)​
An example is something that is representative of a whole or a group. It can be a particular
single item, incident, fact, or situation that typifies the whole.​
Many times such words as but, yet, although, however, and rather than signal that a contrast is
being illustrated. Example: My father thought he owned an authentic antique chest, but he was
told recently that it was a fake. (From the sentence, you can tell that authentic is the opposite of
fake; therefore, authentic means “not false but genuine or real.”)
5. Synonym and Antonym Context Clues. Often a word can be defined by another, more
familiar word having basically the same meaning. For example, void is defined as empty and
corpulent is defined as fat. Void and empty, and corpulentand fat, are synonyms. Synonyms are
different words that have the same or nearly the same meaning. Writers use synonyms to make
their writing clearer and more expressive.​
Examples

a.​ (1) The frightened child looked at the man.​

(2) The frightened child peered at the man.
b.​ (1) We walked through the park.​
(2) We strolled through the park.
c.​ (1) The noise brought the police to the scene.​
(2) The uproar brought the police to the scene.

Antonyms are words opposite in meaning to each other. Examples: tall–short; fat–thin;
least–most; worst–best. Antonyms, which are used to show contrast, help to make sentences
clearer and more informative.​
Examples

1.​ My biology professor gives succinct lectures, but his assistant is verbose.
2.​ My math professor claims that all the problems she gives us are simple ones, but we feel
that they are intricate and hard to solve.

6. Homonym Context Clues. Many words have multiple meanings, such as will, or orange.
These words are called homonyms. The usage-specific meaning of a homonym is determined
by the way it is used in a sentence. For example, see the multiple uses of the term run following.
In the sentences here, notice how the word’s placement in the sentence and the surrounding
words help readers to figure out the appropriate meaning.​

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Examples

1.​ Walk, don’t run.

2.​ I have a run in my stocking.
3.​ Senator Jones said that he would not run for another term.
4.​ The trucker finished his run to Detroit.
5.​ She is going to run a ten-mile race.
6.​ The play had a run of two years.
 ○​ In sentence 1, run means “go quickly by moving the legs more rapidly than at a
walk.”
○​ In sentence 2, run means “a tear or an unraveling of stitches.”
○​ In sentence 3, run means “campaign as a candidate for election.”
○​ In sentence 4, run means “route.”
○​ In sentence 5, run means “take part in a race.”
○​ In sentence 6, run means “continuous course of performances.”

7. Homograph Context Clues. Some pairs or groups of words are spelled the same but do not
sound the same. For example, refuse means “trash”; refuse means “to decline to accept.” In the
sentences below, refuse meaning “trash” is pronounced differently from refuse meaning “to
decline to accept.” Readers can determine the meaning of refuse from the way it is used in the
sentence—that is, from context clues.

1.​ During the garbage strike, there were tons of uncollected refuse on the streets of the city.
2.​ I refuse to go along with you on that project because it seems unethical to me.

8. Homophone Context Clues. Homophones are pairs or groups of words that sound alike but
have different spellings and meanings. Here are some examples of homonyms or homophones.
In the example sentences following, notice how the pronunciation of the words is the same, but
the meanings and spellings are different.

1.​ One way to stay healthy is to weigh oneself.

2.​ I ate plain yogurt while flying on a plane.

Categorization
The ability to divide items into categories is an important thinking skill. As children advance as
readers, they should be able to differentiate items and group them into increasingly more
complex categories. Primary-grade children should be able to categorize a cat as distinct from a
mouse or a rabbit. They should be able to group cat, dog, and cow together as animals. As
these children develop their thinking skills, they should be able to proceed from more
generalized classifications to more specialized ones. We provide assessment and teaching
strategies for categorization later in this chapter.

Analogies
Analogies represent inferential thinking. They transfer relationships from one subject to another.
Instead of comparing words directly, an analogy gets readers focused on the reasons for the
connections between words. Analogies actually help students focus on the nature of the
connection—why things compare, not just whether they do or do not compare. To make
analogies, students must have a good stock of vocabulary and the ability to see relationships.
Students who are able to classify often still need help understanding how analogies work.

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Teachers can begin to expose children to simple analogies based on familiar relationships.19 To
be able to make the best use of analogies or to complete an analogy statement (sometimes
called a proportion), children must (a) know the meanings of the words and (b) know the
relationships between words. For example: Sad is to happy as good is to . Students who
know the meanings of sad and happy may also know that sad is the opposite of happy;
consequently, we can help them learn to complete the analogy with a word like bad, evil, awful,
naughty, or rotten. (See Figure 10.4.)

Some of the relationships words may have to one another are similar meanings, opposite
meanings, members of a class, going from particular to general, going from general to
particular, degree of intensity, specialized labels, characteristics, cause and effect, function,
whole to part, and ratio. There is almost no end to the ways we might characterize relationships,
so the relationships mentioned above do not have to be memorized. Tell students they will gain
clues from the pairs making up the analogies; that is, the words express the relationship. For
example: with “pretty is to beautiful,“the relationship is degree of intensity (the state of being
stronger, greater, or more than); for “hot is to cold,” the relationship is one of opposites; and with
“car is to vehicle,” the relationship is classification.

To ensure students’ success, review the word lists of the analogy exercises to determine
whether students are familiar with the vocabulary. Encourage them to use dictionaries to look up
any unfamiliar words. Analogy activities can be done in small groups or with the entire class as
well as individually. If children work individually, review the answers together in a group so that
interaction and discussion can further enhance vocabulary development. These activities can be
done orally or with writing.
P. 229

Assessing Vocabulary
As we mention throughout this text, assessment drives instruction. This is true for vocabulary
instruction as for any other aspect of reading. Three questions continually surface: What do I
want to know? Why do I want to know? How can I best discover it? In terms of vocabulary, we
want to know about several dimensions. We can approach these questions in two main ways.

P. 230

First, assessment techniques mentioned in earlier chapters such as observing reading and
conferring with students are excellent tools for answering questions about word meanings.
Teachers can use checklists such as those shown in Figure 10.5 and Figure 10.6 to document
observations for primary- and middle-grade readers’ vocabulary development. Remember that
these observations need to occur in a variety of contexts while students are reading a variety of
texts.

Second, teachers can use teacher-created informal assessments such as the ones shown later
in this chapter. These can be used to help shed light on which students might need additional
help learning a given aspect of vocabulary.

P. 231

Third, teachers can use a more formal tool such as the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
(PPVT) or the Expressive Vocabulary Test (EVT) to get information about a reader’s listening
and speaking vocabulary. Although these tests cannot assess the number of words a reader
knows, it can help teachers learn about specific categories of meaning and how strongly these
categories are associated with words. These picture tests work on two principles teachers can
adapt and use in the classroom for ongoing formative assessment: 1). Teachers can assess
receptive vocabulary (words readers understand when they hear them) by bringing pictures to
readers and asking them to point to specific things in the picture. By pointing, readers show they
understand a word’s meaning without needing to say it or read it; and 2). Teachers can assess
expressive vocabulary (words readers know how to use in talking) by bringing pictures to
readers and asking them to talk about what they see. In the EVT, a variety of prompts are
designed to get readers thinking about synonyms, categories, and labels for meanings. These
visual approaches do not guarantee children will have the same vocabulary for reading that they
have for speaking and listening. But it is well understood that strengths found in the listening
vocabulary are foundational for reading comprehension. Teachers can use pictures to learn
which areas of spoken language are already strengths for each reader.

Clearly, purpose dictates the selection of the most appropriate assessment measure (Table
10.1). keep in mind that measuring the number of words in a person’s vocabulary is nearly
impossible. So what is essential is to know whether students have a store of words they can call
on when reading, thereby enabling comprehension. Teachers must also find out about readers’
vocabulary consciousness, which has to do with their desire to explore and add breadth (new
words) and depth (added meanings) to their reading vocabulary.

P. 232

Teaching Vocabulary
Learning vocabulary can be a fun and rewarding experience.20 Remember that one goal of the
vocabulary program is to help children develop a vocabulary consciousness. To do so, teachers
need to integrate vocabulary instruction across all content areas so readers can see the
meaningful use of words in different contexts. Teachers also need to provide readers with
enough repetition so they can learn to identify many words. Finally, instruction should be
designed to use what students know to teach them something they need to learn. For example,
students might know car, and teachers can use that word to help them learn the word vehicle, a
broader category to which a car belongs.

Drawing on the research of those who study vocabulary development, we provide some general
guidelines for effective vocabulary instruction. Many of the teaching strategies that follow are
ways to put these guidelines into action.

Guidelines for Effective Vocabulary

Instruction
1.​ Create a word-rich environment.
○​ √ Promote wide reading.
○​ √ Provide time for discussion of new words and ideas.
 ○​ √ Intentionally focus on word learning in all content areas.
○​ √ Use time-effective strategies such as “word of the day.”
○​ √ Be enthusiastic about acquiring new words.
2.​ Create independent word learners.
○​ √ Select and teach words that are central to the understanding of a topic.
○​ √ Show students how to use context clues.
○​ √ Show students how to use word parts.
○​ √ Allow for some self-selection.
3.​ Model good word learning.
○​ √ Show active involvement.
○​ √ Use graphic displays with discussion.
○​ √ Personalize words.
○​ √ Gather information from different sources.
○​ √ Play and experiment with words.

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Teaching Strategies
There are several ways to teach vocabulary. Purpose is what guides selection of any specific
teaching strategy. Many of these strategies can be used when designing explicit vocabulary
instruction focused on helping students understand key vocabulary. Remember, though, that we
are teaching for independence; we want to equip students to employ several of these strategies
when they are on their own and come to unknown words. And remember the value of providing
time for children to read books and other print sources in class. Wide reading is one sure way to
help children acquire a large store of words.22 What follow are ten specific ways that teachers
can help children toward this goal.

1. Use Explicit Teaching.

When designing explicit instruction, you might find STAR23 helpful. Here are the steps:

●​ S (Select). Determine which words students need to know to better understand the
text at hand. Keep the number limited to no more than six words.
 ●​ T (Teach). Teach an appropriate strategy to help students learn the words. Some
strategies work best before students read, whereas others work best during or after
reading. For example, the Knowledge Rating (see page 238) is excellent to use
before students actually begin reading. Word Chain (see page 238) is a perfect fit
for review that takes place after reading. The Context-Use lesson (see page 226) is
a natural strategy to use both before and during reading.
●​ A (Activate). Connect the words with students’ writing. Think about creating a set of
words that contain some of the words they are learning. In other words, give them
many exposures to the words in different contexts to provide them with meaningful
repetition that will better ensure their understanding of the word(s).
●​ R (Revisit). Use review activities such as Word Chain to help students revisit words.
You might also ask students to use their words to create games such as crossword
puzzles.

2. Teach Students How to Use Context

Clues.
Below are two specific lesson structures that can be used across grade levels to help students
learn to use context clues. Following these lessons,24 we provide an extensive list of
stand-alone techniques you can use for vocabulary instruction at any time.

Three-Day Lesson for Teaching Students

to Use Context Clues
Day 1:

●​ Read a riddle aloud and ask students to guess the answer: “I am a color which
symbolizes wealth. I am often seen on the robes of queens and kings. I am also on
petals of flowers. What am I?” (Answer: purple)
●​ Have students point out any clues or cues that gave away the answer.
●​ Have students create a riddle to share with others.

Day 2:

●​ Provide time for students to share their riddles. As each is solved, ask students how the
clues in each helped them find the answer.
●​ Tell students that context clues, like clues in a riddle, are the clues in the text that can
help them understand a word they might not know.
P. 234

●​ Provide students with a short passage that contains an unknown word.​

Example: The werbert Sam brought for lunch looked delicious. It had layers of roast
beef, cheese, lettuce, and tomato piled between two slices of bread.
●​ Ask students to read the passage and underline the unknown word.
●​ Ask students to look for clues in the text that help reveal the meaning of the word.
●​ Using these clues, have students predict the meaning of the word.
●​ Repeat the procedure with other passages.

Day 3:

●​ Review the steps that can be used to find context clues in a passage.
●​ Have students find an unknown word in the dictionary and write a short passage using it.
Make sure they add clues as to the meaning.
●​ Have students exchange passages with others and use the process described on Day 2
to figure out unknown words.

Context-Use Lesson25
●​ Write a passage on a chart or on an overhead transparency, omitting a contextually
explained word.
●​ Show students how they can use context using the following steps. Actually go through
the process yourself and think aloud so that they can better understand how to use the
process:
○​ LOOK before, at, and after the word.
○​ REASON. Connect what you know with what the author has written.
○​ PREDICT a possible meaning.
○​ RESOLVE OR REDO. Decide if you know enough or should keep going.
●​ Insert the omitted word.
●​ Display another passage, and have the students go through the process with your
guidance.
●​ Allow for discussion.
●​ Reveal the author’s word choice.

Additional Techniques for Teaching

Context Clues
 ●​ Present to your students the following sentence, which should have an unfamiliar word in
it:​
Mary is usually a prudent person. However, yesterday she was very foolish.​
Ask students how they can use the second sentence to figure out the meaning of
prudent.​
Discuss how the second sentence gives a clue to the word prudent. From the second
sentence, we want readers to realize that prudent means the opposite of foolish.
●​ Put the following sentences on the chalkboard, and have the students use the context
clues to help them figure out the meanings of each underlined word. Tell them that
sometimes the clue that will help them figure out the word meaning is in the next
sentence. Review each sentence with the students.
○​ My kitten is very tame. She will not hurt anyone.
○​ Everyone seems to know her. She must be a famous writer.
○​ That is such an enormous ice cream cone. You will have to get lots of people
to help you eat some of it.

P. 235

○​ That street is so broad that we can all walk side by side.

○​ The lion is a fierce animal that devours its prey.
●​ Hold up two pictures—one of a train, and another of a boy trying to train his dog. Ask
what the two pictures have in common. Try to get students to make up sentences about
what is taking place. Write the sentences about the two pictures on the board. Ask
students to use the word train for both pictures.
●​ Ask students to construct sentences using a homograph, homophone, or homonym. Ask
them to make an illustration to coincide with the sentence. Collected sentences can be
made into a class book demonstrating how all three types of context clues are used by
authors.
●​ Give students a sentence that uses comparison and ask them to see if they can figure
out the meaning of an unfamiliar word:

Fred is as obstinate as a mule.

Ask the students to give you the meaning of obstinate. Since a mule is an animal that is
considered stubborn, your students should get an idea of obstinate as meaning “stubborn.”

●​ Present students with a number of phrases. Tell them that the same word can fit in each
set of phrases. The meaning of the word changes based on the words surrounding it
(context). For example: a brush with the law; brush your teeth; a brush for your hair.
●​ State a word such as run. Present sentences to your students and ask them to give the
meaning of run in each sentence. Have them note that the meaning is different for each.
 Have them write four other sentences using run in different ways. Show them multiple
definitions for run in the dictionary.

3. Teach Students to Use Word Part Clues.

Vocabulary expansion depends on students’ past reading, past experiences, and interests. If
students are curious about sea life and you have an aquarium in the classroom, combining
forms such as aqua, meaning “water,” and mare (meaning “sea”) could help them develop
meaningful associations. A reader could combine the form aqua to generate such terms as
aquaplane, aqueduct, and aquanaut. Since mare means “sea,” students could be given the term
marine for discussion. Students also need to be aware of how they can break words apart using
affixes and root words. For example, when coming to the word discontinued, students can be
taught how to break the prefix “dis” away from the word “continue,” and to understand the
meaning of the prefix.

We might present combining forms in a chart or diagram. Following, the forms cardio, tele,
graph, and gram are organized together:

After students know that cardio means “heart” and tele means “from a distance,” ask them to try
to determine the meaning of graph, as used in cardiograph and telegraph. Have them try to
figure out the meaning of gram, as used in telegram and cardiogram.

These types of word-combining activities are designed to help students increase their
vocabulary consciousness. They come to realize that words are human-made, that language is
living and changing, and that as people develop new concepts, they create new words to
identify them. Astronaut and aquanaut are good examples of this last idea: words that came into
being because of space and undersea exploration.

Next we present information and sample lessons for combining forms and for breaking forms
apart.
P. 236

Combining Affixes and Roots Lesson

●​ State and write the combining form bi on the board.
●​ Challenge the students to generate any words that they can think of that have this
combining form—for example, bicycle, bimonthly, and biweekly.
●​ Since the most common word is bicycle, ask the students if they can figure out the
meaning of bi from [Link] will probably volunteer two because a bicycle is a
two-wheeler.
●​ Ask for volunteers to state other bi words and write them on the board. For example,
biped; say “We know that bimeans two; let’s see if we can figure out what biped means.”
●​ State two sentences using biped: e.g., All humans are bipeds. However, not all animals
are bipeds. Ask “Can anyone guess what biped means? Remember, you know what bi
means.”
●​ To encourage and help students more, say “Let me give you another word containing the
combining form [Link] that will help you to get the meaning of biped.”
●​ State and write pedestrian on the board and write the following sentence on the board:
Motorists must look out for pedestrians. If the students still need help with the analysis,
ask the students to state what they do when they ride a bicycle. Ideally, someone will say
“pedal.” If not, suggest “pedal” and write the following sentence on the board: People
pedal hard when they want to go fast. At this point, students should be able to give the
meaning of ped as “foot.” Biped should be defined as “two-footed,” and pedestrian as
someone “who is on foot or walking.”
●​ Tell students about how useful combining forms can be in expanding vocabulary and in
helping them figure out unknown words when reading.

Breaking Apart Affixes26

●​ Lay aside the prefix.
●​ Lay aside each suffix, one at a time.
●​ If the root is unfamiliar, decode it.
●​ Put back the suffix closest to the root.
●​ If there is a second suffix, add it next.
●​ Put back the prefix.
●​ Read the word in the sentence to check meaning.
Teaching Prefixes27
●​ Present a prefix in isolation and attached to four words.​
Example: con-; construct, converge, conference, connect
●​ Define the prefix.​
Example: Con- means “to put together.”
●​ Use the whole words in sentences:​
Example: Builders construct houses.
●​ Define the whole words.​
Example: To construct means to put or fit together.
●​ After completing the above four steps with several prefixes, have students practice
matching different prefixes to their meanings and root words to prefixes.
●​ Have students identify the meanings of new words with familiar prefixes.

P. 237

Here is a list of some often-used word parts and vocabulary words derived from them:

4. Teach Students to Categorize Words.

When readers categorize words, they are working on incorporating the words into a larger
structure of meaning. Categorized words have connections based on word meaning, usage, and
the function of the words. We want to teach students to talk about the categories words fit into
and do not fit into. This will help them make places for the words to “live” in their minds.

The difference between everyday social language and academic language is one key way to
categorize vocabulary. The vocabulary students encounter in text and in the classroom is not
the same as the vocabulary they learn with friends and family. For example, when children first
encounter a word like difficult, they may not have much experience with this academic synonym
for hard.

Another key schema for vocabulary is a continuum of general to specific usage. For example,
the word stop is used fairly generally, and yet the word freeze means “to stop” in highly specific
situations, such as for police, or with financial institutions. Figure 10.7 shows these categories in
grid form.
P. 238

By the time children begin school, they are able to make many discriminations and are
beginning to classify. Here are some suggested activities appropriate for children in different
grade levels.

●​ Five-year-olds can put things together that belong together—blocks of the same size in
the same place; clothes for each doll in the right suitcase; parts of a puzzle in the right
box; scissors, brushes, and paints in the spaces designated for these materials.
●​ First-graders may separate things that magnets can pick up from things they do not pick
up by using two boxes—one marked “yes” and the other marked “no.” They can think of
two kinds of stories—true and make-believe stories. They can make booklets
representing homes, dividing the pictures they have cut from magazines into several
categories—living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, and so on. They can make two piles
of magazines labeled “To Cut” and “To Read.”
●​ Second-grade readers continue to put things together that belong together—such as
outdoor temperature readings and indoor temperature readings, valentines in individual
mailboxes in the play post office, and flannel graph figures in the envelope they can use
to retell a specific story. In addition, seven-year-olds begin to understand finer
classifications under large headings; for example, in a study of the job of a florist, plants
may be classified as “plants that grow indoors” and “plants that grow outdoors.” Indoor
plants may be further subdivided into “plants that grow from seeds,” “plants that grow
from cuttings,” and “plants that grow from bulbs.” After visiting the local bakery,
second-graders who are writing stories and drawing pictures of their trip can list the
details in two columns—in one, “things we saw in the store”; in the other, “things we saw
in the kitchen.”
●​ Third-grade students have many opportunities to classify their ideas and organize them.
During a study of food in their community, one group put up a bulletin board to answer
the question “What parts of plants do we eat?” The pictures and captions followed this
tabulation formulated by the third-graders:

The file of “Games We Know” in one third-grade class was divided into two parts by the
students—“indoor games” and “outdoor games.” Each of these categories was further
subdivided into “games with equipment” and “games without equipment.”

After a visit to the supermarket, a third-grade class made a book containing stories and pictures
of the trip. The organization of the booklet with its numbered pages was shown in the Table of
Contents:
P. 239

Sample Exercises
●​ Group these words into categories: apples, peaches, potatoes, rice, oats, cucumbers,
barley, peanuts, acorns, pecans, almonds, pears. (A possible outcome is given below.)

Discuss why you circled the word you did.

●​ Present students with the following list of words and have them group them in as many
ways as they can think of:

●​ Present the following exercise to your students. Tell them, “Here is a group of words. Put
the words into five groups according to a common feature for each group and state that
feature.” This activity is a more difficult one because students have to state the common
feature. Partner or group discussion during an exercise like this is appropriate—it gives
students a chance to see how others think and categorize, and gives them many
opportunities to use target vocabulary words. After students have finished the exercise,
lead some whole-class discussion about their decisions.

Wood, brass, round, silk, oil, wheat, tin, wool, satin, coal, nylon, iron, barley, oats, oval,
cylindrical

P. 240

Answers: 1. Wood, oil, coal—fuels. 2. Brass, tin, iron—metals. 3. Silk, wool, satin,
nylon—fabrics. 4. Round, cylindrical, oval—shapes. 5. Wheat, barley, oats—grains.

The Frayer Model and List-Group-Label are two additional ways to teach categorizing.

List-Group-Label30
 ●​ Provide students with a list of words related to a given subject. Keep the list to no more
than 25 words.
●​ Provide students with time to group them.
●​ Ask students to label each group of words.
●​ If you want, collect different categories of words and display them for the whole class. If
some words do not fit, have a miscellaneous category, or ask students to brainstorm
additional words to go with them to form another category.

5. Teach Students to Make Analogies.

Here are some instructional procedures and materials that you can use to help students
understand analogies:

●​ Present students with the words hot and cold. Ask them what the relationship between
the two words is. Help them to recognize that hot and cold are opposites. Present
students with the words tall and short. Ask them what the relationship between the words
is. Again, help them to recognize that they are opposites. Tell them that they are going to
work with word relationships. The first relationship will be opposites. Put the following on
the chalkboard:​
Thin is to fat as little is to .​
Ask them to give you a word that would fit the blank. Present a number of opposite
relationships to your students.

●​ Present students with the words little and small. Ask them what the relationship between
the words is. Help them to recognize that these words have the same meaning; they are
synonyms. Present students with the words big and [Link] them what the relationship
between the words is. Again, help them to recognize that the words are similar in
meaning. Tell the students that they are going to work with word relationships. This time,
the word relationship is synonyms. Put the following on the chalkboard:

Sad is to gloomy as happy is to .

Ask them to give you a word that would fit the blank. Present a number of such relationships to
your students.
P. 241

●​ Do the same as above for different kinds of relationships.​

Go over each analogy with the students. Have them explain why they chose the word
that they did.
●​ Discuss the various relationships that words can have to one another and ask the
students to give examples. Put the examples on large newsprint so that students can
refer to them. As students learn new relationships, have them add to the list.

For example:

Opposites: hot is to cold

Similarities: thin is to lean

Degree of intensity: pretty is to beautiful

Classification: boat is to vehicle

Ratio: 5 is to 10

Part is to whole: finger is to hand

Whole is to part: foot is to toe

Parent is to child: bear is to cub

●​ Have students construct their own analogies.

6. Teach Vocabulary with Children’s

Literature.
Reading literature aloud to children is a viable means of increasing vocabulary and reading
achievement.31 Be sure to choose books that appeal to children. The authors of these books
must be aware of what is important to a child and what is likely to be confusing, so that they can
build meaning out of words through the kind of imagery that makes sense to a child. For
example, in Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, the meaning of steam shovel is clarified by
giving numerous examples in which a steam shovel is used. In Margaret Wise Brown’s book
The Dead Bird, the meaning of dead is given by a description of the bird’s state.
Here are some additional titles sure to assist vocabulary development:

Adler, David. Millions, Billions, & Trillions: Understanding Big Numbers. New York: Holiday
House, 2013.

———. How Tall, How Short, How Far Away? New York: Holiday House, 1999.

———. Perimeter, Area, and Volume: A Monster Book of Dimensions. New York: Holiday
House, 2012.

Adoff, Arnold. Outside, Inside. San Diego, CA: Harcourt, 1981.

Agee, Jon. Palindromania. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2002.

———. Elvis Lives! And Other Anagrams. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2000.

———. Who Ordered the Jumbo Shrimp? And Other Oxymorons. New York: Farrar, Straus, &
Giroux, 1998.

Appelt, Kathi. Piggies in a Polka. San Diego, CA: Harcourt, 2003.

Arnold, Tedd. More Parts. New York: Dial, 2001.

Ballard, Robin. Carnival. New York; Greenwillow, 1995.

Bang, Molly, and Penny Chisolm. Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas. New York:
The Blue Sky Press, 2012.

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Barretta, Gene. Zoola Palooza: A Book of Homographs. New York: Henry Holt, 2011.
Bass, Hester. The Secret World of Walter Anderson. Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2009.
Becker, Bonny. The Sniffles for Bear. Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2011.
Bee, William. Whatever. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 1995.
Biggs, Brian. Everything Goes in the Air. New York: HarperCollins, 2012.
Blexbolex. People. New York: Enchanted Lion Books.
Boisrobert, Anouck. Popville. New York: Roaring Book Press, 2010.
Burns, Lori G. Citizen Scientists: Be a Part of Scientific Discovery from Your Own Backyard.
New York: Henry Holt, 2012.
Chin, Jason. Island: A Story of the Galapagos. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2012.
Close, Chuck, and Ascha Drake. Chuck Close: Face Book. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2012.
Coffelt, Nancy. Aunt Ant Leaves Through the Leaves: A Story of Homophones and Homonyms.
New York: Holiday House, 2012.
———. Big, Bigger, Biggest. New York: Holt, 2009.
Cohen, Peter. Boris’s Glasses. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2003.
Crimi, Carolyn. Outside, Inside. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
Crowther, Robert. Colors. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2001.
DeCristafano, Carolyn C., and Michael W. Carroll. A Black Hole Is Not a Hole. New York:
Charlesbridge, 2012.
Degman, Lori. 1 Zany Zoo. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.
DeGross, Monalisa. Donovan’s Word Jar. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.
Dunphy, Madeline. Here Is the Southwestern Desert. New York: Hyperion, 1995.
———. Here Is the Tropical Rain Forest. New York: Hyperion, 1994.
———. Here Is the Arctic Winter. New York: Hyperion, 1993.
Egielski, Richard. Captain Sky Blue. New York: Michael di Capua Books, 2010.
Elya, Susan. Oh No, Gotta Go! New York: Putnam, 2003.

Emberly, Ed. Glad Monster, Sad Monster: A Book about Feelings. New York: Little, Brown,
1997.
Fearnley, Jan. Milo Armadillo. Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2009.
Frasier, Debra. Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster. San Diego, CA: Harcourt, 2000.
Gibson, Amy. Around the World on Eighty Legs. New York: Scholastic, 2011.
Glassman, Peter. My Dad’s Job. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.
Goldstone, Bruce. That’s a Possibility: A Book About What Might Happen. New York: Holt, 2013.
Grover, Max. Max’s Wacky Taxi Day. San Diego, CA: Harcourt, 1997.
Hale, Nathan. Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: One Dead Spy. New York: Harry N. Abrams,
2012.
Harley, Avis. African Acrostics. Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2009.
Hirschi, Ron. Faces in the Forest. New York: Cobblehill/Dutton, 1997.
Hoban, Tana. So Many Circles, So Many Squares. New York: Greenwillow, 1998.
———. All About Where. New York: Greenwillow, 1991.
———. Shapes, Shapes, Shapes. New York; Greenwillow, 1986.
———. Is it Larger? Is it Smaller? New York: Greenwillow, 1985.
Jenkins, Steve. Just a Second. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2011.

P. 243

Jeppson, Ann-Sofie. Here Comes Pontus! New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2000.
Juster, Norton. The Odious Ogre. New York: Michael di Capua Books, 2010.
Kalman, Maira. What Pete Ate from A to Z. New York: Putnam, 2001.
Khan, Hena. Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns: A Muslim Book of Colors. New York: Chronicle
Books, 2012.
Kirk, Daniel. Trash Trucks! New York: Putnam, 1997.
Kiss, Andrew. A Mountain Alphabet. Toronto, Canada: Tundra, 1996.
Lasky, Kathryn. Pond Year. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 1995.
Leedy, Loreen. Crazy Like a Fox—A Simile Story. New York: Holiday House, 2008.
———. Seeing Symmetry. New York: Holiday House, 2012.
Levitt, Paul, Douglas Burger, and Elissa Guralnick. The Weighty Word Book. Boulder, CO:
Manuscripts Ltd, 1985.
Levy, Joel. Phobiapedia: All the Things We Fear the Most! New York: Scholastic, 2011.
Lewin, Ted. Fair! New York: Lothrop, 1997.
Lichtenheld, Tom. E-mergency! San Francisco, CA: Chronicle, 2011
Maloney, Peter. One Foot, Two Feet: An Exceptional Counting Book. New York: Putnam, 2011.
McMullan, Kate and Jim. I’m Fast! New York: HarperCollins, 2012.
Messner, Kate. Over and Under the Snow. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle, 2011.
Mitchell, Joyce Slayton. Tractor-Trailer Trucker: A Powerful Truck Book. Berkeley, CA: Tricycle
Press, 2000.
Morris, Ann. Shoes, Shoes, Shoes. New York: Lothrop, 1995.
Mortensen, Jesper. I Scream Ice Cream. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle, 2012.

Nivola, Claire A. Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle. New York: Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, 2012.
Paleja, S. N. Native Americans: A Visual Exploration. New York: Annick Press, 2013.
Parish, Herman. Go West, Amelia Bedelia! New York: Greenwillow, 2011.
Preus, Margi. Celebritrees: Historic & Famous Trees of the World. New York: Henry Holt, 2010.
Reinhart, Matthew. Animal Opposites: A Pop-Up Book of Opposites. New York: Little Simon,
2002.
Rosenthal, Amy Krouse. Wumbers. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle, 2012.
———. This Plus That: Life’s Little Equations. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins 2011.
Rosenthal, Betsy. Which Shoes Would You Choose? New York: Putnam.
Rotner, Shelly, and Richard Olivo. Close, Closer, Closest. New York: Atheneum, 1997.

Rusch, Elizabeth. The Mighty Mars Rovers. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2012.
Samoyault, Tiphanie. Alphabetical Order: How the Alphabet Began. New York: Viking, 1998.
Schaefer, Lola M. Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animals’ Lives. San Francisco, CA:
Chronicle, 2013.
Shulman, Mark. Ann and Nan Are Anagrams. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle, 2013.
Siebert, Diane. Truck Song. New York: Harper Trophy, 1984.
Silverstein, Shel. Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.
Smith, Charles R. Jr. Short Takes. New York: Dutton, 2001.
Snicket, Lemony. 13 Words. New York: HarperCollins, 2010.
Sobel, June. B Is for Bulldozer: A Construction ABC. San Diego: Harcourt, 2003.
P. 244

Spires, Elizabeth. Riddle Road: Puzzles in Poems and Pictures. New York: McElderry, 1999.
Stojic, Manya. Hello World! Greetings in 42 Languages Around the Globe! New York:
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Chronicle, 2011.
Sullivan, Sarah. Passing the Music Down. Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2011.
Thong, Roseanne. Round Is a Tortilla: A Book of Shapes. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle, 2013.
Tobias, Tobi. A World of Words: An ABC of Quotations. New York: Lothrop, 1998.
Van Dusen, Chris. King Hugo’s Huge Ego. Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2011.
Van Lieshout, Maria. Flight 1-2-3. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle, 2013.
Yoe, Craig. Mighty Book of Jokes. New York: Price, Stern, Sloan, 2001.
———. Mighty Book of Riddles. New York: Price, Stern, Sloan, 2001.

7. Teach Vocabulary Using Technology

Websites provide a vehicle that can help students get excited about vocabulary study.
Technology can be integrated into explicit teaching before, during, or after a reading experience.
Likewise, students can use websites independently for meaningful vocabulary activities. Here
are some they might want to visit:

[Link] can be used by middle and high school students and teachers. It
contains several kinds of puzzles written at different levels. Emphasis is placed on
definitions and root words. This is also a good site for those trying to improve their
vocabularies in preparation for the SAT.

[Link] contains a rhyming dictionary and thesaurus. Visitors can type in a word
and locate several words associated with it such as rhymes, synonyms, definitions,
quotations, pictures, and words with similar spellings.

[Link]/awad contains a word a day. Visitors can subscribe so that they receive a
word each day through e-mail. They can find additional words by searching the archives.
An explanation of origin, a definition, a pronunciation guide, and at least one quote using
the word are provided.

[Link] provides grammar and vocabulary activities, word games, and other
activities. It also offers free handouts for ESL teachers.
 [Link] is a site from Merriam-Webster that offers several resources, including an
online dictionary and daily word games.

8. Use a Word Wall

Most teachers recognize that children need direct instruction in vocabulary and that students
enjoy various fun word activities that help them to develop needed skills. A Word Wall is a
display of words on cards. It is most meaningful when it is created by students and their teacher.
It is versatile, and its use is limited only by the teacher’s creativity. A Word Wall can be used for
review, reinforcement, skill enhancement purposes, teaching a new skill, or as a writing
reference.

Teachers can work with one specific category, such as contractions, or with a number of
categories. What the teacher does is based on his objectives. The teacher can have the whole
class involved or children can work in groups or teams.

Word Walls are most often seen in the primary grades, but they can be used at any grade level.
In the upper grades, teachers generally use Word Walls to expand students’ vocabulary.

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In preparing to use a Word Wall, teachers must be clear about their purposes. For example, a
teacher who is reviewing homophones, homographs, word families, and contractions can have
available a box of representative word cards of similar size. At the top of the Word Wall, the four
categories being reviewed could be listed. In turn, children could draw two cards from the box
and place the words under the correct category. If one word were a contraction, the other card
would have to have the two words that made up the contraction. If the two words were red and
read, the words would be placed under homophones. If the two words were cake and bake, the
words would be listed under word families.

9. Use a Variety of Other

Vocabulary-Oriented Activities to Engage
All Students

Self-Selection Strategy33
 ●​ Invite students to bring two words to class that they have found in reading or listening.
●​ Allow students to present their words to the group.
●​ Ask the group to vote on 5–8 words to be learned for the week.
●​ Lead a class discussion to clarify, elaborate on, and extend word meanings.
●​ Have students enter their words into personal word logs, and ask them to create some
sort of memory and meaning device (e.g., chart, diagram, picture, or word map).
●​ Ask students to use the words in various ways to provide practice with them.

Yea/Nay34
●​ Provide students with two different cards, one that says “Yea” and one that says “Nay.”
●​ Read a question with one or two words that students might or might not understand.
Example: Would a corpse be a good conversationalist?
●​ After reading the question, give students 5–10 seconds to think and then say, “Yea or
nay? 1, 2, 3.”
●​ On the count of 3, students hold up their choices while you call on individuals to explain
their choices.

Create Word Riddles35

●​ Pick a subject (e.g., pig).
●​ Generate a list of related words (e.g., ham, pen, and hog).
●​ Pick a word (e.g., ham), drop the first letter(s) to get a shortened version (e.g., am), and
find a list of words that begin the way the shortened version begins (e.g., ambulance;
amnesia).
●​ Put back the missing letter to create a new word (e.g., hambulance).
●​ Make up a riddle to which this word is the answer (e.g., What do you use to take a pig to
the hospital?).

Semantic Feature Analysis36

●​ Select a category.
●​ List words in the category on the left-hand column of a grid.
●​ List and add features across the top row of the grid.
●​ Determine feature possession. Which words have which features? Place an “X” in each
corresponding cell.
●​ Add more words and features.
●​ Continue completing the grid.
 ●​ Examine and discuss the grid.

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Word Map
●​ Divide a piece of paper into four parts.
●​ Write a word in the center of the paper.
●​ Label each square with one of the following labels: synonym, antonym, example, or
nonexample.
●​ Have students write the distinguishing features for the word in the center.

Word Chain
●​ Identify a word associated with what you have been studying.
●​ Write the word for all to see.
●​ Tell students that they need to think of a second word that begins with the last letter of
the displayed word. The word also has to relate to the displayed word in some way.
●​ Continue building the chain until all possibilities have been exhausted.​
Note: I have been very successful using this as a small group activity in college classes.

Knowledge Rating
●​ Present students with a list of words in grid form, as shown below.

●​ Ask students to rate their understanding of each term by placing a √ in the appropriate
column on the grid.
●​ After students have rated themselves, invite them to share their ideas about the words,
and highlight the words that you feel need to be addressed.
 ●​ Have students make predictions about what they will be reading based on these words.
For example, you might say something like “What do you think the topic of this chapter
will be, based on our discussion of these words?”

Book Aids
Experienced readers know that authors use aids to signal important words, which helps the
reader to comprehend. Most often, these aids and their functions have to be taught to students.
Here are some examples:

●​ The use of boldface type and italics

●​ Glossaries
●​ Pronunciation guides
●​ Words defined contextually (e.g., “Pollution, the soiling of the air and water, is an
increasing threat to wildlife in the Gulf region.”)
●​ End-of-unit exercises (Emphasize how important it is to look at these BEFORE reading,
to see what will be highlighted.)

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A-to-Z Chart
This activity is especially good for the end of a unit of study as a review and informal
assessment of words students acquired related to the topic. Here’s how it works:

●​ Break students into small groups.

●​ Give each group an A-to-Z chart. (See sample following.)
●​ Have each group brainstorm words related to the topic and write them in the
corresponding boxes using the beginning letter to classify the words.
●​ After 15 minutes, reconvene the class. Using an interactive whiteboard, display a blank
A-to-Z chart, and have volunteers from each group state words.
●​ Once a word has been offered, others can challenge it and ask that the group state its
reasoning for including it as an important word for the topic.

Rivet
 ●​ Select 5–10 words that students will need to learn to make sense of the reading in which
they will encounter the words.
●​ Write numerals, and next to each, write the number of lines corresponding to the number
of letters in the word (see sample below).
●​ For each word, fill in each letter in sequence, one at a time.
●​ Pause after you write each letter to provide students with time to make their best
guesses about what the word might be (similar to the clues given in the popular game
show Wheel of Fortune).
●​ Tell students that when they think they know the word, they can state it out loud.
●​ Once the word has been guessed, fill in the remaining letters of the word and ask for
volunteers to state the meaning of the word. More than one association with the word is
possible—and encouraged—because many words have multiple meanings, and the
context in which the word is used will determine the pertinent meaning in a given story.
●​ Once all suggestions have been offered, proceed in like fashion with the remaining
words.
●​ Once all words are displayed, and pronounced, ask students if they see any possible
relationships among the words.
●​ Students then use the words by stating at least one prediction about the text they will be
reading.
●​ After you have a few predictions, have students read the text to see if their predictions
were accurate, and if the meanings of the words they stated were as well.
●​ Once the reading finishes, have students use the words by writing about events that
happened, using the words.​
Cunningham notes, “Rivet is a very motivating way to introduce vocabulary when the
words that need to be introduced are words most of your class has concepts for and
some of your students have some meanings for.”

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10. Use a Five-Day Plan to Organize Your

Robust Vocabulary Program.
Vocabulary instruction can occur within a readers’ workshop approach, and Feezell43 offers
these suggestions:

Instructional Preparations
●​ Begin by creating a word box. (A shoebox with a slit in the lid works well.)
 ●​ Allow students to write words of interest that they want to learn more about on index
cards (one word per card). The word, the text where the word occurs, and the student’s
name need to be on each card.
●​ Students place the words in the word box all week.
●​ On Friday, open the box and choose five words to teach the following week. These will
be whole-class lessons. Words are selected based on their usefulness. Consider
choosing words that students will encounter frequently.
●​ Write each word on an index card with a definition. Display the words on the chalk ledge
with children’s additional notes about the given words from the word box.
●​ Use the words throughout the following week following this plan. Each lesson is about 15
minutes.

Monday
○​ Display the words, read them and the sentences where they appeared, and read the
child’s name that submitted the word.
○​ Invite children to talk about what they think the word means based on the sentence.
○​ Once children have exhausted their ideas, share the definition. If possible, show a
picture of the word.
○​ At some point in the day, put the words on the Word Wall.

Tuesday
○​ Using shared writing, have students write sentences for each word. First review the
definition. Next, provide a prompt and ask students to complete the sentence. To
engage all students in this collaborative activity, pair students and use
think-pair-share, where students think about how they might finish the prompt, talk
with their partner, and report to the whole class.
○​ Once volunteers have had time to share their ideas, combine students’ suggestions
to create a sentence, and write it on an interactive whiteboard or chart large enough
for all to see.

Wednesday and Thursday

○​ Use a variety of vocabulary activities. You might select from the ten listed here or
use some activities that you have acquired.
○​ Have students use the words to complete the activities.
Friday
○​ Prepare ten questions to read aloud for one student to respond to orally. The Word
Wall can be used to answer all questions.
○​ The remaining students use their traffic light cards (red, green, and yellow), holding
up the appropriate card after the oral response to show whether they agree (green),
disagree (red), or are unsure (yellow).
○​ Review the answers at the end of the session to make sure that all students have
accurate understandings.

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○​ Reflect on the experience and make decisions about what to do with the words that
were used for the ten-question activity. You might remove those words from the wall
and keep them for later review. You might also remove any words from the wall that
you feel students have internalized, as evidenced by their using them in their
speaking and writing.

Revisiting the Opening Scenario

Craig already has an “opening” in his mind for the word animosity. Craig’s desire to use a new
word shows vocabulary consciousness. So while his “incorrect” use of the words may seem like
an error at first, it is actually a strength on which to build. Using context, categorization,
analogies, literature, and other tools, how can Mr. Jackson use what Craig knows to help him
learn what he does not yet know about the word?

Authors’ Summary
Before reading our summary statements for each outcome, we suggest you read each outcome
and summarize it in your own words.

Once finished, cross-check your response with our brief summary to determine how well you
recalled the major points.
10.1 Discuss what is involved in acquiring vocabulary.

●​ All children have four vocabularies, and they are listed from largest to
smallest: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Enhancing each of these
vocabularies is essential for reading growth. Reading a word that children
have heard is much easier than reading one they have not.
●​ Children need to have a vocabulary consciousness and a thorough
understanding of words of many different types, including content-specific
words and sight words. They also need an understanding of word parts (i.e.,
root words, prefixes, and suffixes).
●​ Understanding how to use context clues to ascertain the meanings of words
is one way for children to acquire new words. Wide reading and explicit
instruction are also essential to their vocabulary growth.

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10.2 Discuss different ways to assess vocabulary.

●​ There are many ways to assess vocabulary, including observation, the word test for
the IRI, self-selection strategy, independent reading records, and the chart for
categorizing vocabulary usage. Asking and answering three questions will help to
select the technique that will target specifically what it is you want to know about
students’ comprehension. These questions are: What do I want to know? Why do I
want to know it? How can I best discover this information?

10.3 Explain guidelines for effective vocabulary instruction and one specific vocabulary
teaching strategy.

●​ There are three primary guidelines for effective vocabulary instruction:

1.​ 1. Create a word-rich environment.
2.​ 2. Create independent word learners.
3.​ 3. Model good word learning.
●​ Teaching strategies are plentiful, and range from using children’s literature to
specific vocabulary activities. A Word Wall is one specific teaching strategy. It entails
having students generate words from many different content areas and placing them
on a wall large enough for all to see. The wall is used as a reference when students
are reading and spelling words. The wall constantly changes, and reflects students’
ongoing learning of new words.