Assess Independent Reading with a Cloze Activity
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Cloze is short for closure. So a cloze activity can bring closure to a reading assignment by assessing how well students understood a passage after reading independently. During a cloze activity, students complete a fill-in-the-blank summary of the passage WITHOUT looking back at the original text. [read more...]

Create Sentences to Highlight Vocabulary
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Having students write sentences for content-area vocabulary can result in regurgitated definitions and trite statements that don't demonstrate their thinking and understanding. Spice up the traditional sentence-writing activity with a few of these more challenging tasks. [read more...]

Reading for Word Meanings
Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Informational text often includes difficult terminology and content-specific vocabulary. Struggling readers get bogged down by unfamiliar words, slowing their reading fluency and decreasing their comprehension of the text. Texts bold some vocabulary words, but what about the incidental words? [read more...]

Combine Love of Competition with Fun of Playdoh
Friday, March 4th, 2011

When targeting vocab instruction, students need multiple exposures to a word. They need to work with the word many times and in various ways. Applying the word and playing with it in different contexts helps students come to understand a concept's deep meaning. [read more...]

Target Essential Concept Words
Monday, October 25th, 2010

Many teachers have heard my push for core vocabulary within the content areas. This requires creating a list of grade-level specific terms that are high priority for student success in your classroom. This list would include approximately 30 terms/concepts and would receive year-long instruction - not [read more...]

Use Essential Vocabulary Terms in Variety of Sentences
Thursday, October 14th, 2010

Research in vocabulary instruction reveals that students need numerous opportunities to work with new terms. According to Robert Marzano, a leading expert on vocabulary research, some students need upwards of 40 different workings with a word before they own [read more...]

SmartBoard Template
Thursday, October 14th, 2010

The popular poster-size ABC Chart has been recreated into a colorful Word document for those teachers utilizing SmartBoard technology within their classrooms. Simply display the ABC Chart onto the screen and either write on it with the interactive markers or type [read more...]

Foster Opportunities for Students to Think While Reading
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

One of the strategies readers need to develop is the ability to think while reading. For some this does not come naturally; this needs to be fostered by the teacher. In order to get students to think about their reading, teachers need to build in deliberate opportunities for them [read more...]

Simple Acrostic Poems
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

When teaching students new vocabulary words in the content areas or in language arts, one thing you could do, beyond just talking about definitions, is to have students develop an acrostic poem for that term. For example, here is an [read more...]

Targeting Vocabulary Using Visual Clues
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Robert Marzano’s research shows that for students to comprehend, retain, and master a vocabulary word, they have to work with the word multiple times and in multiple ways. In fact, the average student has to work with one word 14 times in order for it to stick. The high ability kid can work with a [read more...]

Spice Up Subject-Area Writing with "Point of View"
Thursday, November 5th, 2009

To add a little life into your content-area writings, students may appreciate playing with voice. Beyond just writing explanatory pieces to the teacher, develop a writing task that allows students to use their content knowledge by writing as if they were a particular [read more...]

Developing Core Vocabulary For Each Academic Area
Friday, October 23rd, 2009

When most of you attended school, you probably had the same type of vocabulary study I did--a list of 10-20 words a week that each required a dictionary definition and a sentence using the term. After a little discussion and maybe some matching games, we'd take a test over the terms [read more...]

Broaden Word Choice with the Online Thesaurus
Friday, January 30th, 2009

A class thesaurus is a great resource, but a more up-to-date resource is the very user-friendly Merriam-Webster website. Not only does it include synonyms (via the thesaurus) and definitions (via the dictionary), but it also provides Spanish-to-English translations. For those teachers trying to broaden [read more...]

Daily References Build Comprehension
Monday, January 5th, 2009

Students master vocabulary words after interacting and applying them in various contexts over time. That said, the more often you infuse your current vocabulary terms throughout the day/class period, the more quickly students master [read more...]

Maintain Vocabulary Notebooks
Monday, October 27th, 2008

As you introduce content-area vocabulary terms to students, remember Dr. Robert Marzano’s research that explains 4-14-40. The highest-achieving students can learn a new term with as few as 4 exposures to it. The average student needs to work [read more...]

Utilizing Charts & Tables as Vocabulary Strategies
Monday, October 27th, 2008

Within many state assessments, students are asked to organize information from the reading into a chart, formally referred to as a semantic map. If they are never given experience in the regular classroom to work with this type of question, it's not a mystery why so many struggle [read more...]

Use Visuals to Support Content-Area Vocabulary
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

Vocabulary instruction has come a long way. It used to be that learning vocabulary meant temporarily memorizing definitions from the glossary, completing a couple sentence-writing activities, and then taking a test. But unless you were someone with a [read more...]

Focusing on Action Verbs
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

As students pre-write, encourage them to use nouns and adjectives but also specific verbs they associate with a particular topic. Think of verbs as the engine of the sentence. The more specific and active the verb, the more powerful the sentence. [read more...]

Going Beyond Vocabulary Definitions
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

More than a single definition, mastering new vocabulary words requires numerous exposures and workings with the word. One of the essential components is that students need to create a visual representation of the word [read more...]

Choosing High-Energy Words
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

Choosing words is kind of like choosing food from the food pyramid; that’s John Stoffel’s (Flint Springs Elementary, Huntington, IN) analogy. Young writers use words from the top of the pyramid like "make," "said," "went," and "happy" out of habit. [read more...]

New Game for Building Vocabulary
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

Francie Blaney at River Forest High School (Hobart, IN) is following Dr. Robert Marzano's research on vocabulary development. She has developed a new word game that causes students to work multiple times with a core word. [read more...]

Action-Packed Vocabulary Review Strategies
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

There are times during the year when the students -- and you -- could use a little lift. For content area teachers, one way to get kids excited about learning again is to revive your vocabulary strategies. Getting kids up and moving and interacting will increase their learning of key terms. [read more...]