Vocabulary: The Power of Guessing
Teach Students New Words By Activating Their Guessing Power
This simple "Word of the Day" lesson format relies on students' ability to determine meaning from context.
Long lists of vocabulary words and definitions to memorize rarely help students learn to actually use new words. On the contrary, students end up practicing rote memorization without being able to incorporate the words into their daily speech or writing. Teaching students to use active cognitive skills to interpret word meaning can help them improve not only their personal language skills, but also their performance on standardized tests, where they are required to decipher new words under time pressure.
Teach new words gradually
Get students accustomed to a “Word of the Day” that they copy into their notebooks, but don’t write the definition on the board. Instead, have students try to guess the meaning of the word based on the context of the sentence. You might consider taking words from the novel students are currently reading and encouraging students to look at the word as it is used in the book. In higher grades, you could also focus on SAT/ACT vocabulary words. No matter where you find the vocabulary, digesting one or two words a day is more manageable than confronting a long list of unknown words.
Have students guess new words in context
Use sentences that offer clear clues as to the word meaning; for example, if the new word is “garrulous,” the sentence should allude in some way to chattiness: “Students sometimes get in trouble for being garrulous in class and distracting others from the lesson.” Encourage students to guess a definition by trying to think of a word they could use to replace the unfamiliar word.
Once students have recorded their guesses, quickly discuss a few of the guesses; then, have another student read the word’s dictionary definition. If necessary, go over sentence clues that could have helped students grasp the definition if their guess wasn’t close. Students should also record the dictionary definition and, if possible, put it into their own words.
Practice using words in different ways
Assuming students have learned and reviewed the parts of speech, be sure to include the part of speech along with the word and practice using it in multiple ways. For example, if the word is “sagacious,” explain how it can be transformed from an adjective to an adverb by adding “-ly” to the word’s end. Discuss these words’ relationships to the noun/adjective “sage” and have students work to craft four separate sentences that correctly demonstrate the different parts of speech. Point out root words where applicable and encourage students to decipher longer words by examining smaller parts.
Design assessments that force students to use words
Weekly vocabulary quizzes on the five words learned that week are quick, manageable, and easy to grade; just be sure to avoid quizzes that simply ask students to match words with definitions. Instead, focus on questions that require usage, such as cloze passages that ask students to fill in blanks from a word bank, or ask students to write a sentence using the word correctly. Creative options include having students draw some aspect of the word or write a caption for a picture or cartoon using the new words.
