Vocabulary In Action

Literacy does not only deal with written words, but also spoken words.  It is important for students to be able to recognize the important vocabulary words when they encounter them in their texts, but students should also understand how to use the words properly in conversation.  Being able to use the vocabulary words in conversation allows for a greater and deeper understanding of the words, which will translate into a greater understanding of the overall text.


Keep vocabulary instruction to about 10 words per week; then attack 2 terms per day.  Here is a guideline for choosing appropriate terms:

• Important, critical content words from the reading
• Useful words, meaning they are transferable to other content areas
• Difficult words

There are many strategies for teaching vocabulary, but to get students to use vocabulary properly, challenge them to be a Word Wizard.  This post-reading activity is highlighted in Strategies for Building Academic Vocabulary in Social Studies by Christine Dugan.  

1. Choose both specialized content and general academic words.
2. Create a Word Wizard chart.
3. Explain that you want to record how many times they see, hear, or use a focus word.  Students will have to report where they saw the word and how it was used.
4. As an incentive, assign points based on where and how the word is used.
5. Occasionally, you may want to frame the activity by asking students to find a particular word in a specific place like an advertisement, newspaper, or novel.
6. As students return with evidence of their word use, set aside time to discuss their examples.  These discussions can be whole group, but also allow time to discuss in pairs and/or small groups.

If you need more information on the Word Wizard activity, click here.  

This is also a look at how you can differentiate this activity.

~Walker Smith, AHS Social Studies Teacher