Vocabulary Development

Developing vocabulary knowledge and word consciousness​

Developing Vocabulary

A key aim of the T-Shaped literacy approach is to develop students’ vocabulary knowledge and word consciousness​

Linked text sets provide an opportunity for students to read, write, speak and listen to key topic words many, many times over a few weeks. Repetition is key to good vocabulary learning.​

In all the T-Shaped literary units, students will develop a deeper understanding of:​

• Rich literate general vocabulary e.g. melancholic​
• Meta-language (Technical language of literary analysis) e.g. Simile, metaphor, pathetic fallacy​
• Language of synthesis e.g. whereas​

As they read and discuss new vocabulary, students will also collect descriptive words and phrases to use in their own creative writing later in the unit. This is sometimes called “magpie-ing”. Magpie-ing can be completed by students individually but also by the whole class – for example having a virtual “word wall” on your class site students can add to over the unit and draw on when they do their own creative writing.​

In all the T-Shaped literary units, students will develop a deeper understanding of:​

• Literate general vocabulary e.g. melancholic​
• Meta-language (Technical language of literary analysis) e.g. Simile, metaphor, pathetic fallacy​
• Language of synthesis e.g. whereas​

As they read and discuss new vocabulary, students will collect descriptive words and phrases to use in their own creative writing later in the unit. This is sometimes called “magpie-ing” new words. ​

Deep Understanding of words

Understanding a word is much more than just knowing its dictionary meaning.​

Words have connotations as well as denotations​

Denotation: the dictionary meaning; the literal meaning; the literal object etc. E.g., “black cat” denotes a cat that is black​

Connotations: the other associations that word brings with it beyond the literal e.g., “black cat” has connotations of ….​

Purr words and snarl words

Emotive language: language that evokes a strong emotional response (because the connotations outweigh the denotation).​

Find out more at:

https://englishonline.tki.org.nz/English-Online/Planning-for-my-students-needs/Exploring-language/Words-and-Meaning​

Developing word-learning and word-solving strategies​​

Word-solving strategies​

Students also benefit from strategies they can use to “solve” unfamiliar words that they come across in their reading.​

Many strategies are based around​

• Context clues​
• Morphology (roots, prefixes, suffixes)​

Consider clues that might help you “solve” the following items:​​

• “I walked teongorously to the dentist’s office”. Teongorously is a made up word but you probably solved using knowledge that it functioned as an adverb (it describes how the narrator walked”) and context clues (based on prior knowledge about how people feel about visiting the dentist)​
• ‘intra-uterine cannibalism’. If you didn’t know this word, you might solve it by thinking about the meaning of the different morphemes (intra, uterine, cannibal)​
• “Morphemic awareness, knowing about the parts of words, is an important…” . The part between commas is called a parenthetical clause which tells you the meaning of the word – but only if you know that convention!​

Morphology​​​

Roots, prefixes and suffixes​

• How many word form variations can you think of related to:​
• Mood e.g., Moody, moodily, ​
• Atmosphere ​
• Metaphor ​
• Teach word families. ​

By exploring different forms of the same root,  students get much more vocabulary bang for their buck!​​

Memory strategies​​​​

• Key word method –  learners construct an interactive visual image between the new word and a familiar word that shares some common features. e.g. ‘Carlin’ means ‘elderly woman’. Student imagines an elderly woman driving a car​
• Acute angles versus obtuse angles. A student might remember that an ‘acute” angle is smaller because it is little and cute.​

Activities

Vocab Jumble​

A “vocabulary jumble” can be a fun and useful way to start a new unit.​

The teacher displays a set of new words. Students have two minutes to remember as many words as they can, and how to spell them correctly.​

After two minutes, the teacher turns off the display and students write down as many words as they can remember. They can start individually, then share in pairs and then groups.​

The teacher then displays the words again and students take note of ones they did and didn’t record, and check their spelling.​

Teacher can then lead a discussion about predicting what the new unit is about, and clarifying new words. “These are the words we will be learning about in this unit”.

Traffic Light Activity​​​

This helps students and teachers find out what words are more and less familiar.​

Students colour code words (e.g., from a vocab jumble or  scanning of a text) ​

• Green: all words you are very confident you know the meaning of​
• Amber/Orange: words you have seen before but are a little unsure about their meaning​
• Red: words that are completely new to you​​

Other key vocab activities​​​​

• Clustering: Organising words into groups​
• Clines: organise words into a rank order e.g., from hottest to coldest, most to least emotive​
• Matching: e.g., matching words to meanings to examples