10 Proven Strategies for Vocabulary Study
Many have promised to teach your child to read. What they won’t tell you is that your child may be able to recall and pronounce words, but they may not be able to understand those same words.
Reading requires more than the skill of recognizing words. Reading is about comprehension, and comprehension is about understanding vocabulary. Students must know what words mean in a vacuum and how words fit into the context of a sentence or an entire book. We’ve compiled a list of proven strategies for every stage of literacy to help your child say words, understand word meaning, and comprehend vocabulary in context. These strategies help learners transition from learning to read to reading to learn.
Stage One - Emerging Readers
Children learn words before they to speak; most children speak their first word between 10 to 14 months of age. Often times, the first stage of formal vocabulary activities – in classroom settings – begins around age six when a child is in kindergarten or first grade. Emerging readers in this early stage can recognize around 4,000 spoken words and read around 600 words. Practice is fundamental to vocabulary development. Below are two strategies for emerging readers.
1-1 Phonics Instruction
Phonics strategies are explicit methods for teaching the sounds of letters and groups of letters. It is necessary for teaching literacy and vocabulary. Young readers who cannot pronounce words (produce the sound units that make up words) on a page have even more difficulty understanding those words and the central ideas of text.
Getting Started: Whether you choose a phonics curriculum or take a more organic approach to developing phonemic awareness and phonological awareness, start with the most common sounds that correlate to letters in the alphabet, followed by less common sounds, then vowel and consonant combinations.
1-2 Discussion Questions
Discussion questions allow emerging readers to think aloud about the text they are reading. Good books are great for discussions about a variety of topics. When children make real life connections to a book, it increases their ability to recall words and sets a high standard for reading in their lives.
Getting Started: Begin with a simple book of a few pages of mostly short vowel words. Graduate to more complex phonemic awareness books. Intentionally infuse discussion questions into read-alouds that check for understanding by prompting emerging readers to develop answers using new vocabulary.
Stage Two - Fluent Readers
The second stage of vocabulary acquisition generally happens for students a year or two after the first stage begins; fluent readers simply have more practice reading familiar words. They have more expanded vocabulary and are equipped with deeper understanding concepts – background knowledge. Still, practice at this stage is key. Here are two strategies for fluent readers.
2-1 Continue Read-Alouds
The best way for fluent readers to learn the cadence and grammatical rules of reading a text is through listening to an advanced reader. Students at this stage may know plenty of words and how to pronounce them, but they may have trouble understanding how words in a sentence, paragraph, chapter, or entire book relate to each other.
Getting Started: At this stage, we want to begin read-alouds by taking turns. Gradually increase the length and complexity of the text, returning to phonics strategies as needed and stopping briefly for discussion questions.
2-2 Vocabulary Decoding Activities
Vocabulary decoding is the ability to understand letter-sound relationships and how to pronounce words correctly. A simple decoding activity could involve looking at words and signs around the house or while you are out and about with your child. Point to familiar words and letter patterns and practice pronouncing them.
Getting Started: Initiate vocabulary decoding activities by reading simple three-letter words with short vowel sounds. Gradually increase rigor to incorporate onset decoding of longer words. Click here for an example activity.
Stage Three - Novice Readers
Readers usually reach this stage between ages nine and thirteen; and although they can read words on a page, guidance in vocabulary acquisition is needed. As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Let’s take a look at two strategies for novice readers that make use of pictures.
3-1 Picture Description Activities
Picture description activities encourage learners to explain images using vocabulary. The creative element engages children in different ways than beginning with words on a page. Using pictures to start the conversation also breaks down cultural and language barriers.
Getting Started: Reinforce learned vocabulary and make time to explore unfamiliar words that are introduced when using the picture-word inductive model.
3-2 Draw Vocabulary Pictures
Drawing vocabulary pictures encourages learners to depict the definition of a word in the form of a hand-drawn or digital image. Let novice readers demonstrate that they comprehend vocabulary words using the Picture It! resource. At this stage, children can usually show you better than they can tell you. Picture It! takes a strengths-based approach to vocabulary study.
Getting Started: Start by walking learners through an example or two. Serve as a guide-on-the-side by taking a back seat to students’ ideas about vocabulary pictures. Then, allow them to practice with new vocabulary words.
Stage Four - Experienced Readers
This stage commonly begins around age 14 and can continue until just before high school graduation. Experienced readers should be challenged with more complex texts and inference questions. Take a look at two vocabulary study strategies for experienced readers.
4-1 Breakdown Word Parts
Most words consist of a root word and may also have a prefix and suffix. Teaching learners all about the most common roots, prefixes, and suffixes as well as how each can change the meaning of a word is essential to vocabulary acquisition.
Getting Started: Begin with easily decodable words that contain common roots or prefixes. List (or allow students to list) related words with similar roots and prefixes.
4-2 Compare and Contrast
Compare and contrast are a research-backed strategies used to reliably assess vocabulary acquisition in college and career settings. Comparing two words reveals similarities; whereas, contrasting two words reveals differences.
Getting Started: Before reading a selection, ask direct questions about a related vocabulary list. Have the child identify synonyms and antonyms for vocabulary words in the list.
Stage Five - Advanced Readers
Advanced readers are college-ready. Advanced readers understand and comprehend complex texts of various lengths and writing styles. They usually read for their own purposes. Let’s take a look at two strategies for the advanced reader.
5-1 Graphic Organizer
Graphic organizers are visuals that display relationships and concepts for a particular learning target so students can organize thoughts, arguments, and text evidence. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of types of graphic organizers. The act of organizing information helps the brain make deeper connections with vocabulary and becomes more useful to learners over time than the printable graphic organizer itself.
Getting Started: Introduce simple two-column (T-charts) or two-circle graphic organizers (Venn diagrams) before moving on to more intricate ones like the Frayer Model.
5-2 Complex Informational Texts
As learners prepare to enter college, ability to read and comprehend complex texts (usually non-fiction, perhaps scientific) is of utmost importance. Engage your student in meaningful analysis of a variety of complex texts spanning a plethora of topics. Writing an essay, even a short one, can demonstrate knowledge and vocabulary acquisition.
Getting Started: Establish the writing process with a short paragraph. Gradually increase length and rigor until the student can complete comprehensive essays and research papers. The goal is transition from learning to write to writing to learn.
College and career readiness is about more than graduating high school; it's about taking advantage of opportunities to become more independent lifelong learners.
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