For middle and high school students to learn how to use words precisely,
their teachers must learn how to teach them vocabulary they
require for authentic nonfiction reading and writing situations.
Such teaching requires different activities for teaching vocabulary
than the vocabulary exercises exercises typically used in preparing
students for standardized tests.
Most vocabulary exercises employ lower
level cognitive tasks. When a teacher presents a word and
its definition and asks students to recognize the correct
definition, for example, she is asking students to remember.
Remembering is the most basic cognitive task.
When the teacher presents a word and its definition and asks students
to use the word in a sentence, she is asking
for the next higher cognitive task, comprehension.
Learn vocabulary
exercises to use in teaching vocabulary at the remembering and
comprehension levels.
Students must remember and comprehend English vocabulary before
they can make it part of their everyday lives; however, those mental
tasks are only a first step.
English language arts teachers can employ various vocabulary activities
to get students to develop a deeper understanding.
Sentence & paragraph cloze activities
If you give students a 10-word vocabulary list and 10 sentences,
each containing a blank to be completed with one of the words,
you have a cloze activity.
Easy to hard close activities for solo students
If you write the sentences so that there is only one possible
choice for each blank, the cloze activity assesses basic knowledge
and comprehension. However, you can make modify this basic cloze
format to teach at a higher level.
If one or two of the words could fit in more than one
of the sentences, students have to look for the most
appropriate fit. That's a more difficult mental task.
The activity gets even harder if you make the cloze activity
a paragraph written in such a way that students may have to
use various forms of their vocabulary words to fill in the
blanks.
For example, if the vocabulary word is analyze, the
blanks could require the students to use analyzes, analyzed,
analyzing, or even analysis.
What I've just described goes a bit beyond a basic comprehension
activity. But you can easily rachet it up yet another notch.
Cloze activities for teams of students
Instead of having students complete the paragraph as seatwork or
homework, give it as a team activity. Students will be forced
to use the new vocabulary words in speaking to discuss the
reasons they think the word in the third blank should be analysis
rather than hypothesis.
When you give cloze activities, make sure you have dictionaries
handy (in print and online), so students can consult sources for
help. Looking things up helps reinforce students' understanding
of the vocabulary. It also encourages students to take responsibility
for their own learning.
Two more vocabulary activities suited to teams are:
