Routine · Vocabulary
Teach a word: friendly meaning, examples, non-examples
Explain a new word in everyday language, show it in use, and test it against examples and non-examples.
- Time
- 3 to 6 minutes
- Skill
- Vocabulary
- In a session plan
- Library only
When to use it
Before reading a text with a few important words the student is unlikely to know.
Materials
- A card with the word
- A picture if one helps
Steps
Get ready
Show the word card. Say the word and have the student say it twice.
I do
Give a short meaning in words the student already knows. Then put it to work in a sentence about something from daily life.
Say: Enormous means very, very big. An elephant is enormous.
Give one example and one non-example and say why each fits or does not.
Say: A whale is enormous. An ant is not. It is tiny.
We do
Say a few things. The student shows a thumb up if the word fits and a thumb down if it does not, then says why.
You do
Ask the student to make their own sentence with the word about their life.
Student: Uses the new word in a sentence of their own.
Check
Later in the lesson, ask a quick question that needs the word, such as which is enormous, a bus or a cup.
If the student...
Uses the word in a way that does not fit its meaning.
Say what part is right, restate the meaning, give a fitting example, and ask for a new sentence.
Tips
- Three to five words per text is plenty. Pick the ones the story needs and the student will meet again.
- In a group, have partners say their sentence to each other, then share a few.
Original routines written by Literacy Trail. In the app, every routine is filled with your student's lesson.
Related routines
- Word talk during a read-aloudPause briefly on rich words while reading aloud, then come back to them after the story.5 to 10 minutes · Library only
- Word mapFill a simple map for a word: its meaning, a sentence, a picture, and words like it and unlike it.6 to 10 minutes · Library only
- Meanings of prefixes and suffixesTeach what a common prefix or suffix means, then use it to work out the meaning of new words.5 to 8 minutes · Library only
- Use clues in the textLook around an unknown word for a clue to its meaning: a definition, an example, an opposite or the general sense.5 to 8 minutes · Library only
Have this routine filled in for every lesson
In Literacy Trail, the session plan picks a routine for each block and fills it with the words, sounds and sentence from your student's lesson. Every plan starts with a 15-day free trial.