Supporting Vocabulary Development & Word Knowledge

 “Vocabulary lies at the heart of content learning, as it serves as a proxy for students’ understanding of concepts.” 

- Donald Fisher & Nancy Frey, 2014 

We, as teachers, must understand the importance of our students continuing to expand their vocabulary.  As vocabulary knowledge grows, reading and writing skills progresses too.  In other content areas, such as mathematics, science, and social studies, a growing vocabulary also aids to better comprehending these texts as well.  It is not a surprise that in each of the content areas, there are Common Core standards asking for students to use transitional phrases, linking words, and definitions of terms in their rehearsal language and written compositions.

So, how do we support vocabulary development and word knowledge?  The answer is called wide-reading.  When we have students wide-read, we are having them read a lot of texts with a variety of genres.  As students read, they are naturally coming across new words they have not learned before in their prior knowledge.  By reading different genres than what they have normally read before, students build a background of a "wider" and "broader" vocabulary.

To just say, "Apply wide-reading," is not enough though.  The teacher, just as a coach does, must continue scaffolding their new concepts.  But in this case, the scaffolding is of words and phrases for the students.  Here are ways that a teacher can scaffold vocabulary development for his/her students:

1. Selecting Words & Phrases to Teach - teaching words that are usually tier 3 and 2 and cannot be figured out from context
2. Model Word Solving - using the context of the text and/or word structure to figure out the word's definition
3. Using Words in Discussion - stating the unfamilar word, defining the unfamiliar word, and then having the students discuss the unfamiliar word with a partner
4. Interactive Read-Alouds & Shared Readings - teacher has opportunity to foster discussion about content area texts and use questions that have the students rehearse the new and unfamiliar words 
5. Collaborative Text-Based Questions - students apply academic vocabulary within the context of co-constructed knowledge while using many of the discussion techniques they have gained through interactive read alouds and shared readings
6. Games - allows academic vocabulary to "bubble up" naturally in conversations

Cited:  Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey (2014). Content Area Vocabulary Learning. Content Area Literacy. pp. 594 - pp. 598.

Share Your Thoughts:  How else could you scaffold and rehearse new vocabulary with your own students?