Vocabulary Activities
(Chennell Thomas)
I. Semantic Impressions
By: Magaret Richek, Professor Emeritus, Northeastern University
Semantic Impressions is a way to help students realize that reading involves actively thinking about ideas.
1. In “semantic impressions” students about to read a story, chapter, or book compose a story using important words in the (approximate) order given in the chapter. The list is supplied by the teacher who places it on a transparency.
2. The story created by the students and book (or chapter) are compared.
3. The following rules govern the use of words
a. A word cannot be used until its turn comes on the list
b. Once a word has been used, it may be reused
c. Variant forms of a word may be used
d. The story has to make sense; it must have a beginning, middle, end, etc.
Semantic impressions lists we have used:
Two Bad Ants
discovery
scout
crystal
departed
journey
treasure
shower
disappointed
frightened
unbearably hot
home
grateful
Harriet and the Roller Coaster
Amusement park
Roller coaster
Scared
Chicken out
Great
All day long
Casey at the Bat
One more inning to play
Despair
Single
a-hugging third
ten thousand eyes
strike one
strike two
air is shattered
Corduroy
button
store
hug
escalator
bear
crash
room
Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs
pancake
story
weather
prediction
hungry
sanitation dept
took a turn for the worse
damaged
abandon
new land
supermarket
The Paper Bag Princess
princess
prince
dragon
carried off
chase
bag
forests
fiery breath
meatball
sleep
mess
bum
marry
Stone Soup
goodies
chat
soup
carrots
not quite right
chopped
groaned
sweep
proud
II. Rate Your Knowledge Description
A Before, During, and After
Reading Vocabulary Strategy
By: Claudia Katz and Sue Ann Kuby
This strategy is a fusion of Knowledge Rating (Blachowicz & Fisher, 1996) and KWL (Ogle, 1986). Initially, it helps students think about relevant background information and make predictions about the text. It is also a good way for students to highlight, keep track of, and monitor their own vocabulary learning. Making predictions about categories is also critical thinking exercise.
The following Rate Your Knowledge worksheet should be used in conjunction with this activity.
Process:
Before Reading
• The teacher chooses salient words from the text and presents them in the first column of a four column table.
• Individually, students read the words and approximate meanings by placing guesses in the second column.
• In pairs, students try to group the words in simple categories and make a prediction about the text to follow.
During Reading
• The teacher collects the Rate Your Knowledge sheets and reminds students that they can find the words as they read.
• Students who wish to take notes may use the notes when they return to this sheet at the end of the reading.
After Reading
• The teacher distributes the Rate Your Knowledge sheets and invites students to fill out the third column with the correct definition.
• In the fourth column, students reflect on the difference between their first guess and their final answer.
III. Possible Sentences
Possible Sentences (Moore & Moore, 1986) is a strategy that helps students process the key vocabulary of a passage before they begin reading. It encourages students to make predictions about the probable meaning of a passage based on what they know or can anticipate about a number of key words or terms.
Then when students begin reading, they have already previewed the major ideas of the text. Their reading becomes an exercise in discovering the accuracy of their predictions about key terms.
Process:
1. Give students a short list of words from a text they will soon read.
2. Students work in groups to develop possible sentences that show how these words might be used in writing about the subject.
3. These possible sentences are shared with the class.
4. Students make predictions about the text based on the sentences.
5. During and/or after the reading, students can return to their earlier sentences and revise them so they accurately reflect the information in the reading material.
6. They can rate the sentences a T=true; F=false, needs to be rewritten; DK=Don’t know, not mentioned in the reading. In this way, the vocabulary words have supported students both before and during reading.
Follow-up Activity
Students can use the words in writing a summary about the material read.
IV. Word Questioning Prompts for Assessing Vocabulary Knowledge
In trying to move away from matching words and definitions, Janet Allen (Voices in the Middle, 2006) created a series of word questioning prompts.
These question templates can be used by simply inserting new words for different texts and/or units.
The possibilities for response are endless and students have to justify the relationships between and among words, which indicates both higher level thinking and deeper understanding of the words/concepts.
1. How are _____________, ____________, ____________, and ____________ related?
2. What possible connection could there be between ____________ and ____________?
3. What is the relationship between ____________ and ____________? (Choose seemingly unrelated items for this.)
4. How are ____________,____________,____________, and ____________ all related to ____________?
5. If I discovered ____________, why wouldn’t I be in ____________?
By: Magaret Richek, Professor Emeritus, Northeastern University
Semantic Impressions is a way to help students realize that reading involves actively thinking about ideas.
1. In “semantic impressions” students about to read a story, chapter, or book compose a story using important words in the (approximate) order given in the chapter. The list is supplied by the teacher who places it on a transparency.
2. The story created by the students and book (or chapter) are compared.
3. The following rules govern the use of words
a. A word cannot be used until its turn comes on the list
b. Once a word has been used, it may be reused
c. Variant forms of a word may be used
d. The story has to make sense; it must have a beginning, middle, end, etc.
Semantic impressions lists we have used:
Two Bad Ants
discovery
scout
crystal
departed
journey
treasure
shower
disappointed
frightened
unbearably hot
home
grateful
Harriet and the Roller Coaster
Amusement park
Roller coaster
Scared
Chicken out
Great
All day long
Casey at the Bat
One more inning to play
Despair
Single
a-hugging third
ten thousand eyes
strike one
strike two
air is shattered
Corduroy
button
store
hug
escalator
bear
crash
room
Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs
pancake
story
weather
prediction
hungry
sanitation dept
took a turn for the worse
damaged
abandon
new land
supermarket
The Paper Bag Princess
princess
prince
dragon
carried off
chase
bag
forests
fiery breath
meatball
sleep
mess
bum
marry
Stone Soup
goodies
chat
soup
carrots
not quite right
chopped
groaned
sweep
proud
II. Rate Your Knowledge Description
A Before, During, and After
Reading Vocabulary Strategy
By: Claudia Katz and Sue Ann Kuby
This strategy is a fusion of Knowledge Rating (Blachowicz & Fisher, 1996) and KWL (Ogle, 1986). Initially, it helps students think about relevant background information and make predictions about the text. It is also a good way for students to highlight, keep track of, and monitor their own vocabulary learning. Making predictions about categories is also critical thinking exercise.
The following Rate Your Knowledge worksheet should be used in conjunction with this activity.
Process:
Before Reading
• The teacher chooses salient words from the text and presents them in the first column of a four column table.
• Individually, students read the words and approximate meanings by placing guesses in the second column.
• In pairs, students try to group the words in simple categories and make a prediction about the text to follow.
During Reading
• The teacher collects the Rate Your Knowledge sheets and reminds students that they can find the words as they read.
• Students who wish to take notes may use the notes when they return to this sheet at the end of the reading.
After Reading
• The teacher distributes the Rate Your Knowledge sheets and invites students to fill out the third column with the correct definition.
• In the fourth column, students reflect on the difference between their first guess and their final answer.
III. Possible Sentences
Possible Sentences (Moore & Moore, 1986) is a strategy that helps students process the key vocabulary of a passage before they begin reading. It encourages students to make predictions about the probable meaning of a passage based on what they know or can anticipate about a number of key words or terms.
Then when students begin reading, they have already previewed the major ideas of the text. Their reading becomes an exercise in discovering the accuracy of their predictions about key terms.
Process:
1. Give students a short list of words from a text they will soon read.
2. Students work in groups to develop possible sentences that show how these words might be used in writing about the subject.
3. These possible sentences are shared with the class.
4. Students make predictions about the text based on the sentences.
5. During and/or after the reading, students can return to their earlier sentences and revise them so they accurately reflect the information in the reading material.
6. They can rate the sentences a T=true; F=false, needs to be rewritten; DK=Don’t know, not mentioned in the reading. In this way, the vocabulary words have supported students both before and during reading.
Follow-up Activity
Students can use the words in writing a summary about the material read.
IV. Word Questioning Prompts for Assessing Vocabulary Knowledge
In trying to move away from matching words and definitions, Janet Allen (Voices in the Middle, 2006) created a series of word questioning prompts.
These question templates can be used by simply inserting new words for different texts and/or units.
The possibilities for response are endless and students have to justify the relationships between and among words, which indicates both higher level thinking and deeper understanding of the words/concepts.
1. How are _____________, ____________, ____________, and ____________ related?
2. What possible connection could there be between ____________ and ____________?
3. What is the relationship between ____________ and ____________? (Choose seemingly unrelated items for this.)
4. How are ____________,____________,____________, and ____________ all related to ____________?
5. If I discovered ____________, why wouldn’t I be in ____________?
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