At some point, we’ve all experienced that moment when a student is reading aloud, finishes a sentence, and asks, “What does that word mean?”
Instead of saying, “Look it up,” I take the opportunity to engage my students in the all-important context clues discussion.
First, establish a comfortable learning environment. Students are often embarrassed for not knowing how to pronounce the word in the first place, what it means, or both. Therefore, some variation of the following scenario tends to ensue in our classroom:
Me: “Have any of you ever read a page from a book and wondered what you just read?”
Class: “Yes!”
Me: “I have, too. Although this may be because of several factors including being distracted, tired, hungry, and so forth, it is quite often due to not understanding the vocabulary. Does that sound about right?”
Class: “Yes.”
Once students feel comfortable accepting that it’s OK to not understand every word, we complete a context clues activity together. Because the basic layout can be used for any subject area, I will stick to describing the method instead of the exact sheets I use:
Begin with a paragraph pertaining to the subject at hand. This paragraph should contain a few higher level vocabulary words that may be new to most students. Make sure those words are in bold.
The directions should read similar to this: Read the following paragraph. After you have finished, go back and reread each sentence containing a bold word. Now, on the back of this paper, write each bold word and, on the basis of how it is used in the sentence, give your definition of that word.
After allowing students a few minutes to complete this portion, distribute the second part of the activity. This handout should include dictionary definitions of each bold word. Including every definition for that word the dictionary contains is vital. It is not uncommon for each bold word to have 3–5 definitions.
Have students select the dictionary definition that best matches their personal definition of each bold word. By doing this, students will see that the first dictionary definition does not always match the definition of a word based upon its context; this should remind us that “look it up” is not necessarily always the best advice (because students usually only read the first definition given).
To round out this assignment, I typically create columns on the board with each bold word at the top. I then poll students to see which dictionary definition was most often selected. We then discuss the importance of context clues and how central it is to pay attention to what happens around a word and how that can help solve the puzzle by connecting the pieces.
Students tend to enjoy this assignment. It is quick to generate and easily adaptable for any content matter once the template has been created.
Jeremy Burris teaches developmental English and reading at Isothermal Community College in Spindale, NC. He is also an adjunct English instructor at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, NC, and Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock, NC.