Learning New Vocabulary

Kindergarten, First Grade Reading, ESL

In this lesson, students will identify new vocabulary words from a text read aloud. After selecting new words,
they will create their own picture dictionaries to learn the meaning of each new word.

Objectives

Objectives

Academic

Students will be able to define vocabulary words.

Language

Students will be able to define unknown words in sentence level context using a picture dictionary for support.

Materials and preparation Key terms

Class set of the Picture Dictionary worksheet TIER 1

Class set of the Vocabulary Cards
Class set of the Glossary drawing: a picture
Teacher copy of the Teach Background
Knowledge Template TIER 2
Teacher copy of the Write Student-Facing
Language Objectives Reference unknown: something that is not known
Dictionaries (one per four students)
reread: to read again
Book to read aloud to students
Additional books for students to read tricky: something that is difficult
independently

Attachments

Picture Dictionary (PDF)

Vocabulary Cards: Learning New Vocabulary (PDF)
Glossary: Learning New Vocabulary (PDF)
Teach Background Knowledge Template (PDF)
Write Student-Facing Language Objectives Reference (PDF)

Introduction (5 minutes)

Activate students' background knowledge by having them turn to a partner and share about a time when
they didn't know the meaning of a word (either in English or their home language).
Read aloud a text to the class. Before reading, tell students that they will be finding unknown words.
These should be words that students are not sure of the meaning of. Explain that not knowing the
meaning of a word is nothing to be ashamed of—it's an opportunity to learn!
Model how to find an unknown word in the text.

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Building Academic Language

Word (5 minutes)

Hand out the Vocabulary Cards to students. As you go over each word, have students locate the card for
the word you are reviewing.
Tell students they will be looking for tricky, or difficult, words in the text. Sometimes these words are
unknown, or not known.
To figure out unknown words, it can be helpful to reread the text. It can also be helpful to look at the
drawings, or pictures.

Sentence (15 minutes)

Read aloud a page in the book. Locate an unknown word and write it on the board.
Show students how to reread portions of text to figure out the meaning of the tricky word. Model how to
use context clues and related words to guess about the word's meaning. Show students how to use a
dictionary as needed.
Read aloud the rest of the text, guiding students to raise their hands when they encounter unknown
words. List the words on the board.
Hand out the Picture Dictionary worksheet and have students work with a partner to write at least five
words, pictures, and definitions on their worksheets. Have students examine how the words they used in
their picture dictionaries were used in the text. Go back to a few words to discuss how they were used in
sentences.
Instruct students to fill in the sentence section of their picture dictionaries with sentences for each of
their words.

Discourse (10 minutes)

Have students work in pairs to discuss the words they defined. Ask students to use the following sentence
frame to structure their discussions:
The word I found was ____. It means ____. I can use it in this sentence: ____.
Challenge the students to have a discussion where they use as many of the target words as possible.

Additional EL adaptations

BEGINNING

Allow students to define words in English or home language (L1).

Allow students to create sentences in teacher-led small groups.

ADVANCED

Encourage students to work with partners to write a paragraph using all their target words.
Have students create their own sentences and orally share them with an elbow partner. Select 2–3 words
for students to define. Write the words on their dictionaries and have students complete the drawing and
definition sections.

Formative Assessment of Academic Language (2 minutes)

Ask students to answer the following questions with the corresponding sentence stems:
Why is it important to figure out words we don't know in a story?
"It is important to figure out words we don't know because ____."
What are some strategies we can use to figure out what words mean?
"We can use ____ to figure out what words mean."
A new word I learned was ____.
"I learned ____. It means ____."
As students work, assess how they are articulating what they learned about figuring out the meaning of
unknown words.
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 Notice how students are defining words. Are they using their own words or the word-by-word definition
you gave?

Review and closing (3 minutes)

Have students popcorn share sentences with their target words.

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Name: Date:

Picture Dictionary
Fill in the chart below to create your own picture dictionary.

Draw a picture What does Use the word

Word it mean?
of the word. in a sentence.

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Vocabulary Cards
EL Support Lesson Plan: learning new vocabulary

drawing tricky

A picture. Something that

is difficult.

reread unknown

To read again. Something that

is not known.
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Vocabulary Cards
EL Support Lesson Plan: learning new vocabulary

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Glossary for EL Support Lesson Plan:
learning new vocabulary

Word Definition Visual

drawing A picture.

Something that
tricky is difficult.

reread To read again.

Something that
unknown is not known.

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 Teach Background Knowledge
Lesson Topic:
Choose a topic from the main content
lesson that will help ELs understand the
main content lesson. Your non-ELs will
already have knowledge about this topic.

Total Lesson Time:

(20 - 30 minutes)

Student-Facing Language
Objective:
Example: I can learn new vocabulary
using pictures and sentence frames.

Student ELP Level(s):

Consider each student’s ELP level and
their academic strengths when choosing
scaffolds for the lesson.

Groupings (pairs, small-groups, a teacher-led group)

Potential Scaffolds:
Choose some of these material supports
and instructional scaffolds based on each
EL’s individual strengths and needs.
Word banks, word wall, and bilingual glossaries
Sentence frames, sentence stems, and paragraph frames
Home language materials
Reduced linguistic load, repetition, rephrasing and modeling
Practice new academic skills with familiar topics

Materials & Resources List

List the materials you’ll use in the lesson.

Key Vocabulary Words (5-8 words)

List the words with student-friendly
definitions in English. Provide
definitions in student’s home language
when appropriate.

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Introduction
Access EL’s prior knowledge about the
lesson topic with a brief comprehension
check.

Potential activities:
Creating captions for images
Opinionnaires
Carousel brainstorming
Conversations with sentence starters
Time estimate for Introduction
(3 - 5 minutes)

Explicit Instruction of
Background Knowledge
Model a learning activity that embeds
the teaching of academic language and
background knowledge.

Potential activities:
Lunch brunch discussion
Teacher-created, adjusted text and
questions
Brief videos or visuals
Text-based instruction
Home-language connections
Pre-teach a small number of
vocabulary words
Show real-world objects
Complete word family or bilingual
glossaries
Word walls or word bank creation

Time Estimate for Explicit Instruction

(4 - 6 minutes)

Guided Practice
Provide an opportunity for students (in
pairs or small groups) to practice the skill
or information taught during Explicit
Instruction, offering appropriate
scaffolds as needed.

Time Estimate for Guided Practice

(5 - 7 minutes)
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 Formative Assessment
Ask students to show comprehension of
new background knowledge and
associated skills through an oral or
written task. Provide appropriate
scaffolds dependent on their ELP level.

Potential assessments:
Act out concepts
Hands on tasks
Drawings, models, or graphs
Graphic organizer completion
Captions of images
Reading response or content
area logs
Retellings
Role plays
Audio or video recordings
Oral interviews

Time estimate for Assessment

(5 - 7 minutes)

Review and Closing

Refer to the student objective and relate
information to future lessons. Allow
students to share thoughts about
whether they reached their objective
and/or mention lingering questions.
Provide sentence stems or frames for their
discussion.

Time estimate for Review and Closing

(3 - 5 minutes)

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 Write Student-Facing Language Objectives
A student-facing language objective: A teacher-facing language objective:
begins with “I can...” begins with “Students will be able to...”
is designed to raise students' self-awareness of and is designed to raise students' self-awareness of and
promote their language development. promote their language development.
incorporates a language function, grammar structure, and incorporates a language function, grammar structure, and
supports or scaffolds. supports or scaffolds.
is easy to understand for students at all levels of is intended to guide the teacher’s lesson planning
English proficiency. and instruction.

Steps to convert a teacher-facing objective to a student-facing objective:

1. Replace “Students will be able to” with “I can.”
2. Simplify challenging words but maintain key vocabulary words you’ll address in the lesson.

Students will be able to describe a character with adjectives using graphic organizers.
Language Grammar Support/
Function Structure Scaffold

I can talk about a character with adjectives using graphic organizers.

Language Grammar Support/
Function Structure Scaffold

Language Functions Grammar Structures Supports/Scaffolds

locate create identify nouns adverbs graphic organizers sentence starters

show describe infer modals academic vocabulary teacher modeling strategic grouping
sort ask questions interpret verb forms adjectives word banks/walls home language supports
tell brainstorm collect conjunctions phrases
contrast classify compare sentence structure prepositions
pronouns complex sentences
comparatives
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2019 Education.com