Vocabulary Strategies

Vocabulary Strategies

Name of Strategy	How it Works	How I Could Use It
Learning Walls	Important words, formulas, and other key information are put into charts, posters, etc. and posted in prominent places around the room for each learning unit.	I could identify words from a current text that students may not know due to a different language style of the time. Ex: I could include the word “cuckold” when working with Shakespeare.
Sorts	Students are given a list of words and asked to sort them into groups. The teacher can allow the students to group them any way they want (open), or assign categories which each must be grouped under (closed).	I could use a closed sort as a formative assessment for teaching grammar, such as parts of speech and different kinds of clauses. I could use an open sort to get students thinking about themes or events in a reading.
Morphemic Analysis	Students break a word into syllables and identify the root word, suffixes, and prefixes in order to try to determine the meaning of the word.	I could use this in conjunction with a section on what prefixes, suffixes, and other parts of words/sentences are. I could also teach this as a decoding strategy for when students encounter an unknown word.
Weekly Vocabulary List	Students are given a small set of vocabulary that they will focus on each week. These words will relate to the current classroom content. They should have lots of time each week to become familiar with the words.	This would be an excellent way to help my students become familiar with literary terms and devices through the year. I could also use this to garner interest in what the upcoming week would hold by choosing words or phrases that will catch students’ attention.