Teaching Vocabulary

Disclaimer: Amazon links are included for your convenience

 

Oh the dreaded "V" word- Vocabulary! I don't know about you, but whenever I see a vocabulary goal, I shiver a little inside. Why? Because they are usually super vague. For example: [Student] will learn grade level vocabulary words with 80% accuracy over 3 sessions, or, [Student] will give definitions for academic vocabulary with 80% accuracy over 3 sessions. First of all, how are these goals even measurable?! And my next question, and the question I'm sure you're all asking as well, what vocabulary words do I target?? 

I recently attended a wonderful conference on teaching vocabulary. Unfortunately, the presenter wasn't able to give us a magic list of words to teach. She did, however, point us in a few different directions. One set of words to consider teaching are called "Bell's 12 Powerful Words". These are words that commonly trip up students when they are taking tests and include trace, infer, formulate, support, summarize, contrast, analyze, evaluate, describe, explain, compare, and predict. 

The presenter also recommended teaching academic vocabulary, or the vocabulary your students are using in their classes. You can use the vocabulary that the teachers are using in their classes if you are able to get the words ahead of time. Or you can come up with your own vocabulary from their subjects. There are a few additional resources that provide examples of academic vocabulary- Vocabulary for the Common Core by Marzano and Simms, Building Academic Vocabulary by Marzano and Pickering, and The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists by Fry and Kress. 

For our life skills kids or kids with limited vocabulary, we could work on functional vocabulary. These are words that come from the student's environment. Go around the school and find important words, such as caution, flammable, and exit. Bring in words that you find from labels, maps, ads, and recipes. Involve the student and their families when you select the words to make things as functional as possible.

The last type of words the presenter recommended to target were essential vocabulary words. These are words that appear frequently in reading materials, on tests, and during conversations, but aren't learned easily without instruction. These are also considered Tier 2 words. [Side note: Tier 2 words are high frequency words that are useful across a variety of domains. Some questions to ask to help identify Tier 2 words include: Is it useful? Is it an important word for people to know? Does it have instructional potential- can it be worked with and taught a number of ways? Will it help students more precisely discuss and explain general concepts?] Some resources that target essential vocabulary words are Vocabulary Cartoons, AbraVocabra, and 504 Absolutely Essential Words. 

Like I said before, there is no magic list to use to target vocabulary for our students. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't target them though! The presenter recommended picking 10-12 words a month to target. So you have your 10-12 words, but how do you teach them? 

There are SO many ways to teach vocabulary to our students. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Use a guessing game- provide clues and have the student try to guess the meaning. 
• Personalize it- use the word when talking with a student about himself/herself. They will want to know what it means and they now also have a personal connection to the word, which will help them remember it better. 
• Go on a treasure hunt- in the dictionary! Give them different things to find in the dictionary- like five adjectives that begin with "a" or ten words that use "pre" as a prefix. Ask them which word doesn't belong out of a set of four and why. Have them explain if they would rather be/do/see ____ or ____ and why. There's endless possibilities here. 
• Start a vocabulary notebook with all the new vocabulary they are learning.
• Use charts and diagrams- like a Venn Diagram or the Frayer Model
• Take a picture of students acting out vocabulary words- the more your students are involved, the more likely they will be to remember!
• Use vocabulary words to make song titles, act out a skit, give a newscast, etc. 
• Look for vocabulary words in real life materials- magazines, news articles, song lyrics, comic books, etc. 

These are just a few of my favorites. What are your favorite ways to teach vocabulary? Spread the wealth, peeps!

Worth it Wednesday {Word Feast Middle School}

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

I can't believe it's already Wednesday again! I've got another great product in store for you, but this week's feature is a little bit different. Instead of featuring a TpT product (which I promise I'll get back to doing next week!!) I'm reviewing a product that I know many people were wondering about- Word Feast Middle School!

I've been using this book, along with the Elementary version for my young kiddos, for almost a month now. The layout of the book makes it incredibly easy to teach the vocabulary. Every section starts out with a page like this. 

The page includes the new words that your student will learn, as well as words from the previous lessons (which I think is wonderful!). Prompts are included as to how to start the session, such as what questions to ask your students to get them thinking about what they will be talking about during that lesson. The page also includes the pages of the reading passages and activities in the lesson.

After the initial page, there are your reading excerpts. There's always one longer story that uses all of the vocabulary words in it. The vocab words are bolded in the text to make them easier to find. 

The next page or two include additional reading passages where the vocab is used. I really like these pages- they are usually set up as ads or postcards, something small that our students might see in real life that includes the vocabulary words. 

The page(s) after that include the definitions of the vocabulary words. I like them being here instead of first in the lesson. Why? Because I like seeing if my students know the definition before we start the lesson. I will read the words and ask if they had heard these words before. I write down what they think the definitions are on a white board. As we read each reading passage, I ask my students if their idea for the definition has changed. You'll be surprised how one context suddenly makes the definition clear to a student over another context!

What I love about these definition pages are that it includes its part of speech, the definition, a usage tip, and then correct vs. incorrect usage of the word. After we review the word's definition and talk about its usage tip, I say both sentences, in random order so the correct sentence isn't always first, and ask which sentence had the vocabulary word being used the right way.

After we go over the definitions, I usually have them put some (if not all) of their words in a vocabulary graphic organizer. You can find the one I use here.

The next pages are the activities where you can apply the vocabulary words that your students have learned. Here are a few examples....

 

 

Other examples of activities include Association Activities, Synonyms and Antonyms, and Create your own Sentences. There are many activities to do that apply your students' knowledge of the vocabulary words. I'm not saying that this should replace your work with curriculum vocab, it most definitely should not. But it is a wonderful supplement that introduces your students to more Tier 2 words that they might not get in school. 

So what do I love? In addition to everything above, let me tell you a few more things....

• The lessons are age appropriate. Aside from getting things from your students' textbooks, it is often hard to find passages that expand and build upon each other like you can find here. 
• The lessons increase in difficulty, challenging your students more and more as you go. Also, the lessons are mostly curricular based.
• The vocabulary are Tier 2 words, which is oh so important for our middle school population. 
• The vocabulary words are repeated throughout the entire book. A word you use in one lesson may reappear in following lessons. 

I purchased these books on my own. Linguisystems did not provide me with these books in exchange for my review. 

Have you used the Word Feast books in therapy? What do you think??

Love it and List it Linky: Vocabulary Activities

This month I'm linking up with Jenna over at Speech Room News for her "Love it and List it Linky: Vocabulary Activities!"

Jenna has asked us all to let you in on our favorite vocabulary activities, so here we go!

1. Word Feast Elementary and Word Feast Middle School. I recently purchased these and am enjoying using them in therapy! They are great to work on building vocabulary through reading activities, and includes everything from antonyms/synonyms, predicting, associations, finish the thought, and yes/no questions. 

2. I have also recently purchased The Bridge of Vocabulary. This book is wonderful! The book is broken down by grade level and includes literally hundreds of different activities and worksheets to use with your students.

3. Unfortunately, I don't have the wonderful EET program that many other bloggers and SLPs are using. I have, however, found a great alternative! It is a Language Therapy Program by Speech Chick. I haven't purchased the entire program yet, but I am using the worksheets included in the free download and I can already see a difference with my students. 

Head over to Speech Room News to check out what other SLPs are using to target vocabulary. What are your favorite products to use?

What Does it Mean? Vocabulary Graphic Organizer {FREEBIE!}

This blog post contains an affiliate link for your convenience.

I have many students on my caseload this year working on vocabulary. I recently purchased Linguisystems' Word Feast Middle School (I plan to do a blog post on why I love it, so if you're curious stay tuned!), and I needed a way to organize all those new vocabulary words my students are learning! I couldn't find exactly what I wanted, so I decided to create my own. 

My graphic organizer includes space for the vocabulary word, definition, part of speech, synonyms, antonyms, and a space to write a sentence using that vocabulary word. 

Check it out below, and head over to my Teachers pay Teachers store to get this FREEBIE for yourself!

Language Boxes for Older Students

If your caseload is anything like mine, it is chocked full of language goals. And if your students are anything like mine, they get bored. Fast. And the one thing that they love that will keep them interested is a game. I know, I know. You're probably thinking, not another game! (Because trust me, I was!) The thought of pulling out the game pieces, a generic game board my students have seen hundreds of times, and that electronic spinner that all the kids love so much (and I've loved to hate) makes me want a shot. Of caffeine of course :)

So I bring you back to the good old game of my childhood- the box game! (for the lack of a better name. If you know the actual name of this game I would love to know it!) The premise is simple, you have a grid of equally spaced dots that players take turns connecting to form a box. The part that makes this game fun is the strategy involved- draw too many lines of the same box and your opponent can complete it and claim it as their own! 

Add in some language goals and you have yourself a fun, exciting, and simple game that will hold your students' attention while they practice their IEP goals.

This 19 page download features:

• 3 pages of synonym/antonym boxes (90 total words)
• 2 pages of categories (60 total categories)
• 2 pages of multiple meaning words (60 total words)
• 1 page of homonyms (30 total pairs)
• 2 pages of associations (60 total pairs) 
• one blank page 
• answer key for synonyms/antonyms and multiple meaning words 

See a preview page below...

You can find this product here! If you download, be sure to leave me some feedback. Not only does it let me and other potential buyers know how well you like my product, you also earn TpT credits to use towards future products!

Race Car Synonyms and Antonyms {With my 100 Facebook fan freebie!!}

I can't believe it! I made it to 100 Facebook likes- you all are awesome! As promised, I have a freebie for you- Race Car Synonyms and Antonyms Level 1. 

For this post, though, I'm going to focus on Race Car Synonyms and Antonyms Level 2, which is for sale in my store. They are almost identical: Level 1 is aimed at grades K-3, Level 2 is geared for grades 3-5. 

Each download has a total of 60 cards- that's 30 pairs for both synonyms and antonyms! Since both downloads are similar, I have differentiated the cards in the upper right hand corner. For example, the cards below say "Synonym Level 2" and "Antonym Level 2". That way, if you decide to buy the Level 2 cards in addition to the Level 1 card freebie, you will be able to keep the cards separate. 

There's a cute game board to use with your students. All you need is your own game pieces and die, or a spinner. 

I've also included an answer key included that lists all the synonym and antonym pairs. In addition, there is a carryover worksheet. You can have your student draw (or come up with their own) two different synonym and antonym cards. From there, your student must come up with their own synonym/antonym to that word and use their new word in a sentence. 

I hope you enjoy your freebie! And if you like it, go check out Race Car Synonyms and Antonyms Level 2. As always, if you download, I would appreciate your feedback!