Vocabulary

Vocabulary Week at a Glance  |  Word Lists and Vocabulary Crossword Puzzles

The words in the Vocabulary program were selected from Making Meaning read-aloud texts by considering which words are the most useful for students to know. These are the kinds of words Isabel Beck calls Tier II words.

Words in the Vocabulary program also meet the following criteria:

• Words that are interesting for students to learn and use
• Vivid verbs, adjectives, and adverbs for use in writing to replace overused words
• Words with multiple meanings
• Words that use prefixes and suffixes to determine meaning
• Concept words that represent important ideas in the read-aloud story

Strategies for Learning Words Independently

In addition to individual words, the program teaches students specific strategies for determining meanings of unknown words they encounter in their independent reading. To determine meaning, students learn to:

• Use context to determine word meaning
• Recognize prefixes and suffixes and use them to determine word meanings
• Analyze compound words
• Recognize words with multiple meanings
• Recognize antonyms and synonyms

Word Work Activities

Students begin working with words by answering questions that require them to think more deeply about the word and relate it to their own experience. Students use the words in a variety of activities:

• Act Out the Word
• Finish the Story
• I’m Thinking of a Word
• Which Word Am I?
• Imagine That!
• Make a Choice
• What Do You Think About?
• What Might You Say or Do?
• Which Word Goes With?

Find Out More

Sample lessons