Planning Teaching Vocabulary

Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary in Kindergarten

(Children)

Our ability to function in today’s complex world is greatly affected by

our language skills and word knowledge. Perhaps one of the greatest
tools we can give our students is a large and rich vocabulary. Read on as
I share strategies and resources you can use to take your vocabulary
instruction from boring to bodacious!

Many teachers still teach vocabulary the way we were taught years ago.
But drilling lists of spelling and isolated content words can be boring.
Instruction in vocabulary involves more than looking up words in a
dictionary and using them in a sentence. We need to focus on teaching
vocabulary through a variety of fun word-learning strategies.

Start by celebrating words in your classroom. Terry Ne Smith, a district

coordinator for Memphis City Schools, suggests using a four-step
approach:

 Post Them
 Break Them Apart
 Share Them
 Discuss Them

Below are some of the strategies I’m using to implement this four-step
approach in my classroom.
Post Them

Word Walls

If the words are visible and accessible to students, they are more likely
to see them, think about them, and use them. I use an interactive word
wall in my classroom. My word wall is front and center, large and easy
to see. Word walls are great places to display content-rich vocabulary as
you and your students explore across the curriculum.

Handmade Books

Students can create short books about the words they have learned. This
year my students are creating portable vocabulary flip books as a
reference for the words we have learned in class. All you need is a metal
ring for each student. As students learn new words, they add them to
their ring.

Break Them Apart

How do you decide which words to teach? It's best if you have some
structure and organization behind your choices.Rather than randomly
selecting words, for instance, I present words in related groups, usually
from our reading selection for the week. Our district currently uses the
Scott Foresman Reading Series.

Isabel Beck is a well-known advocate of teaching vocabulary. In a 2011

article, Rebecca Alber does a great job of describing Beck's categories
for vocabulary:

Tier One : Basic words that rarely require instructional focus.

Tier Two : Words that appear with high frequency, across a variety of
domains, and are crucial when using mature, academic language.
Tier Three : Frequency of these words is quite low and often limited to
specific fields of study.

As you can probably guess, Beck recommends that teachers focus

primarily on Tier Two words. These are the words that students are most
likely need help with - and most likely to use as they continue their
studies.

Share Them

My students love sharing their vocabulary notebooks. I assign students a

different word each week. Together we thoroughly research the word
and its meaning. After this is done, I have students sketch a picture to
illustrate the word. At the end of the week children present their
drawings to the class.
Drawings are a great way to help kids process the meaning of new
vocabulary words. Later, when the word is used or its meaning
discussed, they have an image to associate it with.

Discuss Them

Read-alouds are a great way to introduce new vocabulary. When you

read aloud and encounter a word unfamiliar to your class, let your
students see the word. They remember it better if they see it as well as
hear it.

Also, if my children use a great new word in their conversation, I stop

everything and comment on what a great word choice it was.