Vocabulary Strategies

There are many different vocabulary strategies that can be implemented into a classroom. It is also important as a teacher to realize the different types of knowledge. Declarative knowledge is a concept explaining what. Procedural knowledge explains how. Conditional knowledge explains where and when. Schema comes into play with conditional knowledge. Volitional knowledge is why this is important for you, as the teacher. Metacognitive knowledge is being aware, monitoring, adjusting, and orchestrating. Some common vocabulary strategies are tossed terms, semantic feature analysis, concept of definition map, VSS, keyword strategy, scavenger hunt, graphic organizer, knowledge rating chart, list-group-label, and CSSR. My personal favorite is scavenger hunt. In scavenger hunt, the teacher has artifacts or definitions that the student must bring to the classroom. The teacher can do it before a lesson because no schema is required. An example of how I might use scavenger hunt is to place vocabulary cards all over the gym floor and categories on the walls. The students must run around and place the vocabulary word under the correct category. I think this would be great for learning diseases, muscles, bones, or nutrition. The words on the vocabulary cards can even come from the students. As a way to extend the lesson outside of the classroom, I could have the students identify at least one word dealing with physical education that they do not understand and then use those words in the game. I think implementing vocabulary lessons into my PE classroom will be difficult because I want to keep my students moving as much as possible, but I do believe I can be creative enough to achieve it.