What Works for Vocabulary Instruction

The principles for vocabulary instruction give you the big ideas to consider when designing instructional activities. They reflect how people learn new words, from birth onward. These big ideas suggest that seven instructional strategies will be beneficial.

The seven strategies below are approaches for putting the principles into practice. The first two strategies are for you as the teacher. They are things that you can do, rather than what you want the student to do. You will use them all the time.

The next five strategies are types of activities that engage students in the normal, natural processes that all people use learn new words. Over time, you will use all the strategies. You may have other strategies that work, but these have proven to be effective.

Seven Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary

• Modeling
• Word wall (for the teacher)
• Study and apply
• Substitution
• Writing
• Self-defining
• Graphic organizers

Modeling: For the teachers and anyone else who wants to help students increase their vocabulary, use words that you want students to learn. Use them, maybe explain them or have students study them at first, but then keep using them. Use them when you talk to students, and use them when you write something that students will read. Continual exposure will lead to students’ vocabulary development. Many words have more than one meaning, so also use them in a variety of ways. This will help students increase their knowledge of what the words mean and how they may be used to communicate different information.

Modeling is not a specific instructional activity, but it is a powerful strategy for helping students learn new words. Modeling new words is an essential strategy. No matter what else you do, do this!

Word wall: Many teachers use word walls: a list of vocabulary terms that is posted somewhere noticeable. Word walls help improve student familiarity with vocabulary terms, and they might help students remember how to spell them. For teaching students the meanings of words, however, they are very weak. They do not provide instruction, and they do not show students how words are used in text or speech.

To increase the instructional value of word walls, you could write sentences that use the words, or use completed graphic organizers. This would be better than simply listing the words.

From the standpoint of helping students increase their vocabulary, the best use of word walls is as a tool for the teacher. Word walls provide the teacher with a reminder to use the word, to find texts that use the word, and to develop specific instructional activities that build students’ knowledge of the words. The word wall is not for the student but for the teacher! The strategy of using the word wall for teachers is a top recommended strategy.

Study and apply: Study and apply is the direct instruction approach to teaching vocabulary. Following this strategy, students study new words and then read them in text. Studying words before reading in text is shown to significantly help students improve their vocabulary and their comprehension of the text. You can use a wide variety of instructional activities for the “study” part of this strategy. Once students complete an activity, they should read text that contains those words.

You may pre-select the words. You may also have students skim through the text and find unfamiliar words. Study those words with a variety of activities, including using context clues from the passage in which they occur, and then read the text. Follow-up discussion about the text should encourage the students to use the words. This is a top recommended strategy.

Substitution: Many new words that students learn have similar meanings to words they already know. To help them learn and use the new words, have them switch the new word for one they already know. For example, if students are learning the word “fantasy,” teach them that “fantasy” is similar to “make believe.” When they read or hear fantasy, they can think of “make believe.” This strategy uses synonyms as definitions for new words. It will help students remember the meanings of new words while improving their comprehension of what they read and hear. If you use this strategy, make sure students are using the new word, not the “easy” word in discussions and writing.

Writing: Students need practice using the new words. Although practice is often in the form of discussion, writing exercises also provide practice with new words. In fact, student writing is a great way for students to prepare for discussions about a text. Have them use the new words in their writing.

Using writing this way is far better than the typical “write a sentence using the word” type of activities. Making up sentences to use a word is a weak way to have students learn words. Isolated, invented sentences that use a new word do little to strengthen a student’s understanding of what the word means and how it can be used. It might give you clues about a student’s understanding, which makes it assessment, but it is not instructional. Instead, have students write their ideas, opinions, and knowledge about a topic. In this way, the writing actually has a purpose that contributes to reading comprehension while helping them learn to use new words.

Self-defining: Can you explain the meaning of “enjoy”? Can you explain it well enough (without using it) for another person to know what word you are describing? This is the basis of the self-defining strategy. Students create their own definitions for words and share them. They may compare their definitions to other students’ definitions, and they may work with other students to create a common definition.

You will not use this strategy until after other types of activities for learning and using the words.  Students need to learn something about the word first. Using this strategy makes students think carefully about the word meaning and its use, and it helps students improve their recognition and knowledge of the word.

Graphic Organizers: Graphic organizers are powerful tools for developing comprehension, and they work very well for vocabulary instruction, too. Graphic organizers help students collect information and categorize information about a word. They help students create a visual representation of information that can then become a mental framework for understanding and using the word. Students’ (and everyone’s) brains will try to do this naturally; the graphic organizer facilitates this process.

There are many types of graphic organizers and many ways to lay out information. A useful graphic organizer will include specific types of information:

• most commonly used dictionary definition,
• other definitions or uses for the word
• sample use of the word from a text students are reading or have read,
• parts of the word with meanings for those parts,
• synonyms and antonyms,
• part of speech, and
• and a sample from the student’s writing.

Here is a sample graphic organizer that organizes information about a word. (I am sure you can design or find graphic organizers that are more attractive than this one.)

Sample Activities for Vocabulary

You can do many types of instructional activities to help students develop their vocabulary knowledge. As long as you are addressing the principles for vocabulary instruction and using effective strategies, the activities will lead to improved vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Sample activities to address the various strategies are below.

Strategy	Sample Activity Types	Vocabulary Sub-skills
Modeling	Continuous exposure by the teacher or other adults	Decoding Word part knowledge Word replacement Word application
Word Wall (as used by the teacher)	Continuous use by the teacher or other adults	Decoding Word part knowledge Word replacement Word application
Word Wall (with instructional content for student use)	Reference for other activities	Decoding Word part knowledge Word replacement Definition research
Study and Apply	New word search Graphic organizers Identifying context clues Create-a-dictionary Creating word categories Visual representation	All sub-skills
Substitution	Word mapping Creating word categories Erase and replace Definition mapping Word look-up Create-a-dictionary Call and response	Word replacement Word comparison Definition research Word application
Writing	Journaling Response to prompts Opinion essays Contrast / argument responses	Decoding Word replacement Content analysis Word application
Self-defining	Cards on head Create-a-dictionary Discussion	Word replacement Word application
Graphic Organizers	Partner graphic organizers Create-a-dictionary New word search	Decoding Word part knowledge Word replacement Definition research Word application