With the semantic mapping strategy of vocabulary words, students create a web that fosters comprehension of the main features of the word. The graphic organizer features the vocabulary word in a box in the center, and each of four boxes around it feature a different activity associated with the word in the center. Boxes might invite students to write synonyms, antonyms or definitions. Students can also be asked to illustrate the vocabulary word and use it in a sentence.
Another vocabulary strategy is to use possible sentences as a prereading activity. This strategy uses students’ prior knowledge of concepts and words to predict the content of their reading passage. Before a reading lesson, students are presented with a short list of vocabulary words that will appear in the reading material. Students are then asked to create a meaningful sentence for each vocabulary word, and they check after the lesson to see if these possible sentences are plausible. This strategy engages students by invoking prior knowledge and motivates them to focus on the reading passage.
Teaching students to analyze words by looking at word letters and such parts as roots, prefixes and suffixes gives them the tools to analyze unfamiliar vocabulary words. This vocabulary strategy is also called phonics or decoding. For example, students can be told that the prefix “dis” means “not,” so that the word “disagree” means “not to agree.” One activity that makes use of word analysis is to ask students to identify the root of the word, and add a different prefix or suffix.
A very effective strategy to teach vocabulary is to instruct students on using context clues to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar vocabulary word. Students look at the other words in the sentence to pick up clues about the meaning of the new word. Sometimes the sentence will restate the meaning of the word, and sometimes words such as “yet” or “however” indicate that an opposite thought is about to be stated.