Word Mat Vocabulary Routine

[Mariu Carlton]

Oneof the five components of our Key Vocabulary Routine is Teach Word Learning Strategies, which includes how to look for clues outside the word (use of context) and inside the word (use of word parts) when encountering an unknown word while reading. Outside clues include rereading the sentences before and after the word and using the context of the text. Inside clues come from recognizing meaningful parts of the word, i.e., using morphological knowledge.

Morphology means the study of word parts, and morphological awareness refers to the ability to recognize the presence of morphemes in words. Research suggests that students can be taught various morphemic elements as a way to determine the meaning of new words (Edwards et al., 2004). Carlisle (2010) analyzed 16 studies about the relation of morphological awareness instruction to key components of literacy development. The findings showed that instruction about word parts was associated with improvements in word reading and spelling, and in determining the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Academic vocabulary that must be learned beyond grade three often consists of words that combine a root, prefix, and suffix (e.g., poly + nom + ial = polynomial; manu + script = manuscript). In the upper elementary grades and higher, there are many opportunities to find words in content reading that contain Greek and Latin morphemes. Children in primary grades can begin to learn how morphemes combine by adding common prefixes and suffixes to short Anglo-Saxon words and also compounding them. For example:

One way to introduce word analysis skills is to teach students how words are made up of word parts, and how words can be related in word families, such as the word family below for the Latin root port (to carry).

There is a significant body of research indicating that instruction of prefixes is beneficial, and many vocabulary researchers recommend instruction of the most common prefixes as the first and best component of word analysis (Graves, 2004; Carlisle, 2007). White, Sowell, and Yanagihara (1989) found that 20 prefixes account for almost 97% of the 2,959 prefixed words that most frequently appear in school reading materials. Given how often these 20 prefixes occur, it makes sense to teach their meaning and use. To access a free list of these prefixes, visit the Keys to Literacy free resources page at our website, and go to the Vocabulary section. You will also find free lists of the following:

Thank you so much for this awesome blog reminding us once again that vocabulary instruction can/ should be engaging! Not looking up words in a dictionary-silently! Using reading research to guide classroom practice- priceless!!

Thank you for your excellent advice on how to teach spelling. I an homeschooling my 7year old because of the covid19 lockdown and I had no idea where to start teaching her. However I knew rout learning was not going to work for her. I will look for activities that have this technique to teach her.

Young children in K and grade 1 are not developmentally ready to read long, multisyllable words that are derived from Latin or Greek. However, they can be introduced to some very basic suffixes such as plural s or past tense ed.

I do not know of a core program just for teaching vocabulary at each grade level. I understand why you would prefer something with lessons already mapped out with specific words to teach. However, effective vocabulary instruction should focus on words that are related to and essential to the content you are teaching, found in the text you are using. Morphology is just one part of vocabulary instruction. You may find helpful this recorded, free webinar from Keys to Literacy: Effective Vocabulary Instruction

Thank you for sharing this. Doing so has gotten my creative wheels turning, thinking about how I could adapt your idea for my classroom. I love how you have your students using Keynote for this. Do they each have a copy or is this projected on the board?

Other variations of this I could see might include students doing this independently while small group instruction is happening. Maybe at the end of that block the teacher could review student work for the day and share examples. I could also see this like a weekly "vocab notebook" for the students. A Frayer template for each word may be another useful daily activity. I've also found that having students search for images that represent the meaning of the word to be a powerful learning activity for vocabulary.

My favorite parts of your activity are that it involves no copying and that you can just update the same template each week. I also like how what you created is routine-based, which will promote more on-task behavior as students will be clear on what the expectations are.

Then comes the fun part! Use the words throughout the week in your classroom. Use them in your teaching, notice them in the books you read, and encourage your students to use them in their writing! Another fun idea is to choose a challenge word and have your students use it as much as possible when speaking to other staff members in the school. See how long it takes the other staff members to catch on!

Next, dedicate a space in your classroom to post the new vocabulary words once you have worked with them for the week. This can serve as a year-long word wall that students can refer to for their writing and speaking.

The LINCing routine can be applied in whole class, small group, or individual settings to help support students with their vocabulary acquisition. Specifically, it is recommended this strategy be used in larger, diverse settings (Ellis, 1992). Furthermore, this strategy can be applied across grade levels to support instruction.

Introduction: Even as students enter kindergarten, there are huge differences in their individual vocabularies. If we are to narrow the achievement gap that students from different economic levels exhibit in the upper grades, we must provide systematic, robust explicit vocabulary instruction in the primary grades.

One of the best sources of vocabulary words is the books that we read aloud to students. In this video, the students have listened to the book Honk!: The Story of a Prima Swanerina. They are being introduced to the meanings of three words from the story.

The teacher followed all of these steps when introducing each word. At the end of the lesson, the teacher reviewed the words. This video shows that the practice of using instructional routines supports teachers even when the group is a little more challenging (though very sweet).

Every week I cover 1 Academic Vocabulary Word in class along with 2 Tier 2 Vocabulary Words. This is an important part of my weekly vocabulary routine. Instruction of these words in isolation and in context help readers to become fluent users independently.

After reflecting using my own teacher observations I went on a search. I researched most commonly misunderstood vocabulary words in grades 4-6. I then compared the list of words from my small groups observations to a list of words I researched. What I found was that most students can pronounce these Tier 2 words, but were unable to identify the meaning in context. Therefore, I compiled a list that would allow me to dig deep into 2 words a week for the entire school year.

Each week I introduce these words through my Focus Board. My Focus Board is student-led and my students love to be the teacher. You can read more about my Focus Board here or by clicking on the photo below.

Each Monday, I explicitly teach the sight words and their patterns to the kiddos. We discuss if the word has r controlled vowels, doubled consonants, magic e, vowel teams, blends, digraphs, etc! I post the words on my focus wall each week for the kiddos to see and work with all week long as we go through these daily routines.

Then we dive into some sentence dictation. I will say the sentence using the sight word and the kiddos will repeat the sentence orally with me. We use whole brain teaching movements to remember where our capital letters and punctuation go! Then each kiddo writes those sentences on their white boards.

As the year goes, I have the kiddos give me these sentences that we use for dictation, but for the beginning of the year, I give them the sentences that include mostly words that they can spell or at least phonetically figure out!

These INK INDICATOR EXPO MARKERS are now available in six different colors that you can see below! What color do you think your kiddos would love the best? Black, red, blue, purple, light green, or dark green?!

It's pretty incredible, I know. You may be wondering, 'how on earth did he come up with such an unusual technique for mastering the art of writing?' Or, 'isn't this remarkably similar to something Shia LaBeouf said one time?'

All jokes aside, a lot has had to happen to get me into a position where I can reliably sit down - each and every morning - and know that I will have knocked out a thousand words within an hour or so.

A lot of the advice that's already out there like 'make a routine', or 'use pomodoro timers', or 'start with 100 words and add 100 more every day' is next to useless. None of it means anything.

But. There are some that write and have a difficult time, some that write and have a breeze, some that write and produce nothing, others still that write and produce so much work they're like a tap you can't turn off.

Who are you writing for? The elites? The masses? The hopefuls? The hopeless? The loved? The unloved? The insiders? The outsiders? The bored? The excited? The sceptics? The believers? The pessimists? The optimists?

Want to get to the answer faster? Make sure you write. Every day. Your initial weeks of daily writing may be entirely for you, to figure out who and what you're writing for. It's much, much easier to do this while writing, though, rather than just sitting back and pondering.

3a8082e126