Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary Through Context Standards: RL4, RIT4, L3, L4, L6, W2, W3, W9, W10 Context as a Clue From When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do by Kylene Beers Beers makes a careful distinction between the common phrase, “context clues” and “context as a clue” and notes that often, discerning meaning from context requires a sophisticated understanding of text. Teach students to look for four kinds of clues in context:
Words in Context Adapted by Sara Rice from Advancing Vocabulary Skills by Sherrie L. Nist and Carole Mohr In adapting the work of Joan Sedita (The Key Vocabulary Routine: Content Vocabulary Instruction), RHS teacher Sara Rice provides students with sentences before they see formal definitions. Students read the sentences and highlight the context clues that help them to predict what the vocabulary word probably means:  Context Plus Adapted from Janet Allen, “Mastering the Art of Effective Vocabulary Instruction.” Adolescent Literary: Turning Promise into Practice. Ed. Kylene Beers, Robert Probst, Linda Rief. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2007 (87-104).  6. Students construct, independently or in small groups, a definition for the word and share/compare their definitions prior to opening their textbooks.
Click here for the Context Plus graphic organizer template.
Natural Contexts We truly know a word when we can effectively recognize and use it in multiple contexts. Though they may not think so at first, students often see and hear the unfamiliar words that appear on our vocabulary lists in many familiar settings. Classify! Adapted by RHS English teacher Sara Rice from The Key Vocabulary Routine: Content Vocabulary Instruction by Joan Sedita Drawing from a list of vocabulary words they have been studying as they read A Long Way Gone, students must find at least two vocabulary words that fit in each category and be prepared to explain the connection:
Parts of Speech: The Word Form Chart Adapted by RHS English teacher Sara Rice from The Key Vocabulary Routine A complete understanding and mastery of new vocabulary words requires that students can recognize and use a word not only in the way it was originally taught to them. One of the most immediate ways to broaden understanding of a word is to use the word as more than one part of speech. "Is it enough to only know the word 'support' as a verb and not know it as a noun?" RHS teacher Sara Rice asks her students. "Hint: the answer is no!" The Word Forms Chart helps students to broaden their understanding of the words they are learning. They do not have to memorize all forms of the word but should be aware of them and be able to use them correctly in their writing. *An asterisk marks the form of the word as it was originally taught to them:
Decontextualizing Vocabulary Tier Two words are found across a variety of domains, and sometimes even highly specialized Tier Three words can be used creatively beyond the boundaries of a specific domain. In this activity, RHS English teacher Mary Ellen Dakin challenges students to transfer the Character Vocabulary words they are learning in conjunction with their reading of William Shakespeare's Macbeth from the brutal context of war-torn Scotland to the context of a modern restaurant.  Welcome to the Vocabulary Café
Home of the Hostile Hamburger! Use your Character Vocabulary list to create a restaurant menu using a minimum of 15 words from the list. Each meal description must give the reader a clue to the word’s definition. (For example, “Benevolent Beans – guaranteed not to give you gas pains!”) Remember that a typical restaurant menu has:
This creative writing assignment requires: A Menu Cover Food & Drink Sections: 15 words from your Character Vocabulary list are used in different sections of the menu. Each menu item contains a clue or explanation for what the vocabulary word means.
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