Vocabulary

When giving students vocabulary it is best to use multiple methods, exposures, and a variety of context. Do not ever start with having students look up definitions. A definition of a word can change based on the context of the word. The context of a word should come before the definition. As a teacher, you want high utility words, or words that can be used often and across all domains. Students should be able to understand the etymology of words, generate vocabulary, and achieve deep processing of words. The etymology of words refers to the Latin or Greek morphemes of a word, also known as morphological analysis. Morphemes are the root, prefix, or suffix of a word. Generative vocabulary is making sentences out of a dictionary definition. Deep processing is giving new meaning to words. A good classroom activity is to give students a vocabulary word to focus on and several sentences containing the word. As a class the student can come to a conclusion about the meaning of the word. This activity gets the class involved and engaged in leaning new words. The new vocabulary word can then be added to a word wall in the classroom, so the students can refer to if often. Understanding vocabulary can go through several stages. Frontier vocabulary is simply the passing with a word. Receptive vocabulary is being able to understand, hear, and read the word. Expressive vocabulary is being able to speak, write, and do the action with the word. Vocabulary can be implemented into any classroom and should be taught often.