Vocabulary Strategies Strategy | Description | Informal Assessment | Differentiation/ Extension | Provide examples and non-examples | Use the word in an example relevant to students. Providing non-examples requires students to evaluate a word's attributes. | Students provide their own examples and explain why something is not an example. | This can be done orally or in writing, so to differentiate, some students may do the opposite of what the task requires if it helps them. | Writing in context | 1. Students construct sentences of their own making, confirming their understanding of a new word. | Students write their own sentences on the board in a relay fashion after consulting in small groups. | Students may use more than one new word in each sentence to show connections between words. | Word Sorting | Students use a list of words from in class reading and sort them into categories such as parts of speech, titles, or animals. | The teacher can ask students to orally list all the words within one or more of the categories. | Students draw a picture to represent each category of words. | List- Group- Label | Students list all the words related to a specific concept. Then the words are grouped by commonalities. Then each group is labeled. | Students share their lists with the class and add unfamiliar words from other groups. | Create a visual Semantic Map of the words on butcher paper and post on the wall for reference. | Analogies | Students identify similarities and differences between two concepts. | Students will take an exit quiz of fill in the blank analogies. | This can be done orally or in writing, so to differentiate, some students may do the opposite of what the task requires if it helps them. | Click or Clunk | As students read a passage, they list words they understand in the “click” column, words they don’t in the “clunk” column. | Group discussion clarifies meanings of words. | Students will use another vocabulary strategy such as List- Group- Label for the words in the Clunk column. | Concept Definition Mapping | Using a graphic organizer, students provide information about a concept or word including properties, attributes, and examples. | Students share information from the graphic organizer in group discussion. | Peer tutoring in which students work in pairs to complete the concept map. | Studying morphemes | Students learn roots, prefixes and suffixes to define words in context. | Have students identify morphemes in various words such as transgress, transcend, transcontinental. | Compare English roots with the same roots in the student’s native language. |