Vocabulary

Improvement Plan:
Addressing Words in
Context
Ryne Adolph
Nearly 45% of our students struggle
in Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

Area of concern – Understanding Words in

Context.

Improving this focus area can enhance

performance in overall reading
comprehension as well as other subject
areas, including math problem solving.
Sadlier Vocabulary Workshop
 Instructional Approach

 Features:
 Contextual Learning – Units begin and end with reading passages that
represent a variety of genres
 Systematic, direct instruction – Each Unit features direct instruction essential to
help students learn words that are not part of students’ everyday experiences
 Multiple exercises – Activities, such as Write Your Own, ask students to
demonstrate their understanding of the words
 Vocabulary building strategies – Units include instruction on words with Latin or
Greet roots. Word study lessons teach how to implement strategies, such as
context clues.
 Word Relationship and meanings – Shades of meaning lessons teach about the
nuances of word meanings.
 Review of Words – Vocabulary for Comprehension, Classifying, and Completing
the Idea provide additional opportunities for students to show understanding.
 Researched-Based Program

Research shows:
• Direct instruction is more effective and more efficient than incidental
learning in achieving deeper, richer levels of lasting vocabulary
(McKeown & Beck, 1988)

• Vocabulary instruction must also demonstrate how words are used in

natural contexts (Nagy, 1988).

• Students gain ownership of new words with multiple and varied

encounters with those words (Daniels, 1996)

• Children need to develop strategies that include using word parts to

figure out the meanings of words in text and also using context clues
(Osborn, 2001)
What is Context?

Most Americans can speak only one ________. Europeans,

however, ________ several. As a result, Europeans think ________
are unfriendly and unwilling to communicate with them.

Try to figure out the missing words.

What is Context?

Most Americans can speak only one language. Europeans,

however, speak several. As a result, Europeans think Americans
are unfriendly and unwilling to communicate with them.

How did you do? How did you figure out the missing words?
What is Context?

Use the words surrounding the unknown word to help determine

the unknown word’s meaning.

“Phobias, such as fear of heights, water, or confined spaces are

difficult to eliminate.”
Context Clues: Definition

 A chemical
 Unknown word is bond is a strong
defined immediately force that holds
following its use two or more
atoms together.
 brief definition, synonym,
or restatement using
punctuation-commas,  A dialect is a
parentheses or dashes. form of speech
from a specific
 “Be” verb shows the
region.
two ideas are the
same. X = Y
Synonyms

 A writer often chooses a more familiar word or words with the

same meaning to make the difficult word understandable

Ballet students appear so lithe; they

are so limber and flexible.

The cataract was spectacular; the

steep waterfall dropped abruptly
eighty feet.
Restatement

 Close to a synonym, restatement differs in that a difficult word is

usually restated in a simpler form—usually set of by commas.

The poetry was sublime, lofty and

moving, and brought tears to my eyes.

The village was depopulated, most of

the residents dead or moved, but the
livestock remained untouched.
Contrast

The gentleman was portly, but

 Antonym, a word of his wife was thin.
opposite meaning (notice
the restatement)
The mayoral candidate
 Contrast clue words: but,
praised the town council,but
however, in contrast to,
the mayor deprecated it.
on the other hand
Explanation

 Similar to a definition clue

 Generally longer than a
definition
 Usually found in one or more
different sentences
Context Clues: Explanation
The chrome is beginning to corrode. It shows
signs of pitting and of being eaten away
gradually.

It was a martial parade: signs of the military were

everywhere. Everyone was in uniform; guns,
cannon and tanks were on display, and jets flew
overhead.
Context Clues: Explanation

NOTE: Sometimes the explanation is

presented first.

The puppy was a complete bother

and an annoyance to all the
neighbors. It was a continual
nuisance.
Example

 Examples that the

reader may know to Legumes, such as
help explain a new peas and beans,
and unfamiliar produce pods.
concept or term
 Note the Forest floors are
punctuation clues: frequently covered
commas or hyphens with fungi—molds,
 Signal words—such mushrooms, and
as, for example, for mildews.
instance, to illustrate,
specifically
Inference

Since Reginald was

 Use reasoning and nervous, he brought his
prior knowledge rabbit foot talisman with
him to the exam.
 Your experiences
provide common-
His alibi was upheld
sense clues to the
when John’s friends
meaning of a offered personal
word testimony, letters of
 This context clue is documentation, and
often a little three videotapes
harder to spot showing that he was
present at the party.
Limitations of
Context Clues

1. Context clues only give the immediate

definition for that particular context.
2. Context clues seldom lead to a precise,
complete definition.
3. Sometimes the passage will not contain
clues to the meaning of the unfamiliar
word.