Tiffani Linville

Mrs. Hamm

EDR 390

October 20, 2017

Teaching Context Clues and Conclusions to 3rd Graders

For my unit I will be teaching context clues as well as conclusions to third

graders. These two topics are very different from one another so it will be very

interesting to figure out how to connect these two. Context clues were always fun

for me as a child because it was like a mystery and something that I had to look for

the answers. I intend to make it fun for my host classroom because it does not seem

like they get to have much fun in their class. Conclusions were difficult for me as a

child though so I want to find a way to make it easy for the students to understand

by figuring out their learning styles. Overall, in my unit, I hope the kids have fun

analyzing texts to find context clues and draw conclusions.

There are many different strategies in teaching context clues. The Ames’

system was developed to figure out what is the best way to approach context clues.

First and foremost, as teachers, we need to understand what context clues are or

what they are classified as. Context clues are a part of word learning or vocabulary

development (Parault Dowds, Haverback, and Parkinson, 2016, p. 2). In this article,

Jenkins and Dixon breaks down the sources of children’s vocabulary growth into

two sources: explicit references and labeled examples (Parault Dowds, Haverback,

and Parkinson, 2016, p. 2). Explicit references are when someone or the dictionary

explicitly gives the definition of a word. Labeled examples are when there is an

unknown object with a label of what it is. However, later on Jenkins and Dixon
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discovered another source of word learning, which is verbal context. This is the

most common way to teach kids about context clues throughout the day. It could be

assessed throughout the day by saying some words that students may not know and

ask them how they could figure out what the unknown word is when they are in line

or lining up.

Now knowing how context clues are used in the school and conversationally,

it is important now to know how to teach it. There are two methods talked about in

Dowds, Haverback, and Parkinson’s article. The first method was finding books in

the public library and finding words that would be words to use context clues for.

This was easy because public libraries are easy to get to and parents could easily

add them to their home library (Parault Dowds, Haverback, and Parkinson, 2016, p.

7). Teachers should read the book beforehand to figure out which words are ones

that kids may not understand. There is a chart in the same article from before on

page 8 that has a few examples of books and words in those books that would need

to be figure out by students. The second method is similar to the first but the books

are randomized (Parault Dowds, Haverback, and Parkinson, 2016, p. 13). Since the

books are randomized, teachers will be able to see what students find to be the

unknown words. Teachers could use this as an assessment by seeing how all

students react to new words.

Next I delved into Greenwood and Flanigan’s article “Overlapping Vocabulary

and Comprehension: Context Clues Complement Semantic Gradients,” (2016) they

discuss connecting comprehension and vocabulary. Since I am doing context clues

and conclusions, I thought that this would be perfect. Greenwood and Flanigan write
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about how teachers need to teach context clues very carefully because writers wrote

a particular word for a reason and students need to understand that (Greenwood

and Flanigan, 2007, p. 249). The authors suggest teaching context clues at various

levels, meaning the use of happy all the way up to elated. This gives the student a

base word that they can move up to the unknown word. When it comes to

connecting the two, the authors understand that it can be hard but there is a way. By

giving the students a story with some blanks in it they can fill in the blanks by using

context clues to see what word best fits (Greenwood and Flanigan, 2007, p.252). At

the end, it becomes a story. For my lesson, I would have the students then try to

draw a conclusion from the story that they were given. It is an easy way for them to

see that all components of literature connect to each other in some way.

Moving into conclusions, Huang and Yang’s article introduced Vygotsky’s

theory of zone of proximal development, which is a method where teachers model

and the students assist them (Huang and Yang, 2015, p.384). Teachers can use this

in all subjects but in reading it is critical. Drawing conclusions can be very difficult

but if a student watches the teacher and participates with her then they can get a

better understanding. Teachers would model how they would draw conclusions in

front of the whole class. Then, the teacher would ask the students to try and do one

with her. Finally, the students are able to do one on their own. Another method

mentioned was the Internet Reciprocal Teaching (IRT), which encourages students

to develop better reading skills for online comprehension (Huang and Yang, 2015, p.

384). My host classroom is always on the internet, so I would like to find something
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online that they could do with a partner, on their own, or with a small group that

could help them develop how to draw conclusions (which would be a later lesson).

Since methods were found on each topic, I also wanted to find some

strategies to help with some classroom management. Due to some students having

some behavioral problems, the article “ Teachers’ reporting of behavioural problems

and cognitive-academic performances in children aged 5-7 years” was helpful and

showed how to approach them during a lesson. There was one method talked about,

The Creusot-Montceau-les-Mines study. During this study, many preschools and

elementary schools, in Saone-et-Loire, France, discovered that almost half of their

students had behavioral problems (Giannopulu, Escolano, Cusin, Citeau, and

Dellatolas, 2008, p.129-134). Throughout the study, students were observed and

they used language arts to see how they would react. Afterwards they asked for the

teacher’s feedback. They did the most important thing though and that is to identify

what problem each student has, so you can approach it in the best manner. Building

relationships is the next step and I am luck enough to have already done that and I

think that is the best thing for teaching my unit.

Finally, when it comes to the assessment I want it to be something positive

that the students are not dreading. My host teacher seems to yell at her students a

lot and I think it makes them hate learning even more. I want them to understand

that learning is positive and fun. In James Pellegrino’s article “Assessment as a

positive influence on 21st century teaching and learning: A systems approach to

progress,” he talks about how the focus in today’s learning environment is about

students’ acquiring information, when it is not just about that. Students need to
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learn how to work with each other, communicate, address problems, and come up

with solutions (Pellegrino, 2014, p. 66). This is important because when I read this it

hit me, students should not be lectured at but engaged. Engaging students means

that they will better understand what is being taught because of their involvement.

There will be struggles along the way but it is important to know that the way to get

a positive assessment out of a lesson is to get the students engaged during the

lesson.

Throughout all of my research I have figured out how I will teach my unit on

context clues and drawing conclusions. For context clues, I will teach throughout the

day and try to involve it in other subjects. For conclusions, I want to model how to

draw conclusions, guide them through one that they assist me with, and then give

them a chance to do it independently. To connect the two, I will model a worksheet

that has blanks that they have to fill out that they will use context clues for. Once it is

finished, there will then be a story out of the finished product. At the bottom will be

some space for them to draw a conclusion from the story. Overall, my unit should

be very fluid and positive. My host teacher has a much different teaching style than I

do, so it should be interesting to see how the students will react to my teaching

style.
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Works Cited

Giannopulu, I., Escolano, S., Cusin, F., Citeau, H., & Dellatolas, G. (2008). Teachers’

reporting of behavioural problems and cognitive-academic performances in

children aged 5-7 years. British Journal Of Educational Psychology, 78(1),

127-147.

Greenwood, S. C., & Flanigan, K. F., (2007). Overlapping Vocabulary and

Comprehension: Context Clues Complement Semantic Gradients. The Reading

Teacher,(3), 249.

Huang, C., & Yang, S. C. (2015). Effects of Online Reciprocal Teaching on Reading

Strategies, Comprehension, Self-Efficacy, and Motivation. Journal Of

Educational Computing Research, 52(3), 381-407.

Parault Dowds, S.J., Haverback, H. R.,, & Parkinson, M. M. (2016). Classifying the

Context Clues in Children’s Text. Journal Of Experimental Education, 84(1), 1-

22.

Pellegrino, J. W. (2014). Assessment as a positive influence on 21st century teaching

and learning: A systems approach to progress. Psicologia Educativa, 2065-77.