Pass the Vocabulary

This week, in speaking about the importance of building knowledge and teaching vocabulary as part of the science of reading, we were reminded of a favorite activity of students and several GHS English teachers: the "pass the vocabulary" story. Here's how it works: 

1. Using a given word list, each student would take a blank piece of paper and write the first sentence(s) or a story using one of the words correctly. (TIP: Have students highlight or circle the word, to make it easy to know what was used!!)
2. After the given time (1 minute), they passed the paper to the next person.
3. The next person would write the next sentence(s) of the story, using a different vocabulary word.
4. The process of writing and passing would continue until time came for all the words to be used.
5. At the end, students would take their stories and join a small group, which would share the stories for peer review for meaning, revise, and then share out the "best" story from the group.

Students LOVED this activity, as the stories often got very silly by the end, and it was a great challenge. They also loved that they had a chance to discuss and revise the stories, as it rewarded their growth. And teachers, well they loved that students had to discuss, correct themselves, and collaborate in a low-prep activity that the students themselves helped evaluate. 

So, aside from being fun and easy, why is this valuable?

The science of reading makes it clear that pre-teaching vocabulary is important; students need to build knowledge, especially knowledge of words, to be more proficient readers. But this applies beyond students learning to read, and continues as students read to learn across the content areas.

Learning science also shows that memorizing a list of vocabulary words and their definitions for a quiz--especially a matching or multiple choice quiz--isn't a great indicator of how well students have learned words. Most often, students cram, storing these words in their short term memory, but not making the connections that encode them into their long term memories in ways that make the learning stick. Students, especially struggling students, need a dozen or more exposures to words and their meanings to fully learn them.

Research suggests that these things help students with vocabulary building:

• Explicit instruction of words and their meanings increases the likelihood that young children will understand and remember the meanings of new words.
• Higher frequency of exposure to targeted vocabulary words will increase the likelihood that young children will understand and remember the meanings of new words and use them more frequently.
• Questioning and language engagement enhance students’ word knowledge. This can include retrieval practice, scaffolding from low-demand questions (i.e. meaning) to high-demand questions (i.e. how would you use...?)

Now, this means that students can't just start by writing stories. Teachers need to make time for explicit instruction, be it reviewing the words with students in context, or reviewing the roots or related words, or to support students in making Freyer Models or semantic maps/word webs. But beyond that, students need time to work with the words.

But what if I don't want my students writing stories.

Another group activity that was relatively low prep was a card sort. Have student groups make index cards (or cut out card sets) of the vocabulary words. Then, have students organize them into 3-4 categories. This could be categories you provide, or categories the students create. They then have to explain why the words belong together, and how they relate.

Here are some other ideas:

1. Pass the Parcel: Review vocabulary in whole group or small group with a game-like atmosphere with some bags full of vocabulary.
2. Paper Plate Match Game: Have small groups cut paper plates in half, and write the word on one half and on the other, write a definition, synonym, antonym, example, etc. (whatever serves your purpose). Then have them shuffle them up and find a match.

Want more? Check out these ideas from We are Teachers and Gifted Guru.