Vocabulary CODE Activities

C – Connect: Strategies to help your students arrive at a preliminary understanding of the words.

Word Walls

Power Decoding

Word Spiders

Associations

See It, Say It,

Show It, Store It

A collection of words organized into categories and posted on the wall for students to use in their reading and writing.

M

Teaching students attack skills for new words: prefixes, suffixes, roots, context clues, substitutions.

 

M

Introduce 8 words that are associated with a mystery, one word for each leg of the spider organizer. Students try to guess the mystery word.

U, S, I

Students generate words, pictures, feelings, physical reactions to words.  There is no right or wrong.

 

S, U

Students look at the word, pronounce it slowly, record its meaning, draw a picture with a brief explanation, and store the word in their vocabulary journal.                            ALL

Glossary

Concept Attainment

Exploring Multiple Meanings

Word Catcher

 

Students keep a glossary of new words by defining them in their own words and including icons or pictures.

 

 

 

M,U

Present yes and no examples of a concept in order to help students determine its critical attributes.  Students use the critical attributes to distinguish among examples and generate their own examples. (tragic hero)        M

Students explore and use words that have the same sound but different meanings.

 

 

 

 

U. M

Students are asked to “catch” a new word every day.

 

 

 

 

 

ALL

 

O – Organize: Establish a method to help your students organize the new words.

Prioritizing Vocabulary

Key Vocabulary Organizer

Categorizing

Concept Maps

Fist List

Teachers or students determine which words are essential, important, and good to know.

 

U

A concept definition map that establishes the larger categories that key concepts fit into, critical attributes, examples, and related concepts.                             U

Placing words into specific categories.

 

 

 

                                            U

A technique used to create visual representations of hierarchical relationships between central a concept, supporting ideas, and important details.                  S

Teacher provides a category in the “palm” of a hand organizer; students generate 5 words that fit the category, one for each finger of the hand.                                    M

Word Banks

Group and Label

Three-Way Tie

A Diagram to Die For

 

Students examine a list of words and place them into the appropriate slot in a graphic organizer.                             M

Students examine a list of words and place into groups based on common traits then label groups.                        M

Students select three words from list and arrange into a triangle, they then connect the words with lines and explain the relationship between each word by writing along the lines.                   U 

Students are asked to create a diagram that shows the relationship among the words on a word wall.

 

 

S

 

D – Deep Processing: Use strategies that will activate deep processing of the new words.

Visualizing Vocabulary

Multi-Sensory Processing

Storytelling

Metaphors

Defining Characteristics

Creating word images with brief explanations to demonstrate understanding.  S

Technique to encourage students to explore words using words, feelings, sensory information, and visualization.

 S

After analyzing a story use basic story elements to define important concepts.

 

M, S

Students learn words deeply by exploring relationships to other words/concepts.

 

U

Students build multi-layer definitions by focusing on essential characteristics.

What, why, where?

M, U

Etymologies

Cinquains

Compare and Contrast

Crazy Connections

 

Students investigate word histories, analyzing how original meaning is intact and how it has changed.

 

 

 

 

M

Use the 5 line poem used to define a term:

noun: coal

2 adjectives: black & shiny

3 action words: smolder, burn, pollute

4 word phrase: a source of energy

ending word: limited        S, M

Set two concepts against one another and describe each separately.  use descriptions to draw out similarities and differences, finally students decide if concepts are more alike or more different.

 

I, U

Students pick a word out of a hat, then an object out of another.  The student’s job is to generate as many similarities as possible.

 

 

 

S

 

 

E – Exercise: Opportunities for students to exercise, revise, and practice their new understanding of the words.

Vocabulary Games

Write to Learn

Team Games Tourney

Vocabulary Carousel

Effective Practice

Bingo, Jeopardy, Word Baseball to review vocabulary.

 

 

 

I

Use a specific number of new words in their writing assignments.

 

 

M, U

Students divided into study groups to review words then compete in groups to earn points for their team.

 

I

Teacher sets up 5 – 6 stations.  Students rotate in small groups at all stations.

 

 

I

Teacher instructs students in the principles of effective practice, including how to mass and distribute review sessions, use words often, and make stronger connections.  U

Three’s a Crowd

Peer Practice

Boggle

Para-Writing

 

Students decide which word of three does not belong and why.

 

 

 

 

 

I

Students work as peer partners; one as coach and one as player. While player works to define a word coach provides assistance, feedback and praise. Reverse roles.         

 

 

I

After review, students retrieve all words they can then join a group to compare lists, add any words/meanings.  Students then leave group to “Boggle” with other students in room – gaining points to terms/meanings not on their competitors’ lists.                 S

Students write a paragraph using 5 – 15 vocabulary words.  Each word must be embedded meaningfully into the text.

 

 

 

 

U