As you think about vocabulary instruction, it can be easy to assume that “explicit” means you need to have children memorize definitions, write sentences with the words, and pass a weekly test.
But this just isn’t the case . . .
As you may remember from your own childhood vocabulary lessons, many of our past practices for explicit vocabulary instruction just don’t work because they aren’t engaging and they aren’t brain-friendly! Perhaps you let go of explicit vocabulary lessons for this very reason.
Today’s explicit vocabulary instruction needs to involve the brain in some specific ways that make remembering the pronunciation, the spelling, and (of course) the meaning of the words a lot easier. And this brain-friendly instruction also needs to be—you guessed it—engaging!
So, What is Explicit Vocabulary Instruction?
Explicit vocabulary instruction is planned, and intentional instruction focused on teaching students a specific word. Ideally, the word has high utility both now and in the future.
And this planned and intentional instruction needs to come right out and tell students about how the words are pronounced, how they are spelled, and how they work in context. Students don’t have to figure out or intuit the meanings of the words because we are explicitly teaching—telling, explaining, defining, showing, illustrating—about the words.
You can provide explicit vocabulary instruction that is both science-aligned and kid-friendly by keeping four easy steps in mind.
- Define the word in kid-friendly terms.
- Analyze the word’s structure.
- Clarify the word’s context.
- Connect to students’ word networks.
4 Steps to Explicit Vocabulary Instruction With ANY Word
Step 1—Define in kid-friendly terms.
If we want them to remember the words (and we do), then kids need definitions that are made up of words they already understand—not more words they are unsure of. Familiar words give students a context to anchor the new word in. For example, if you were learning the word macintosh, we could explain that macintosh is a fancy word for raincoat. If you know the word raincoat, that works. Now you understand what a macintosh is.
But if you don’t know what a raincoat is, then you are still in the dark. So we might say something like, “It’s like a jacket that you wear in the rain and it keeps you from getting wet.” Of course, this second definition only works if students know the words jacket and wear and rain and wet!
Without putting the new word amongst an understandable context of already-known words, the reading brain has no way to hold onto it.
So, Step 1 is to offer a definition that kids can understand and relate to. We want to give a definition that introduces the new word to students’ existing network of related words.
So, let’s get back to the word AMBITIOUS.
Definition:
Ambitious is a word that describes someone who works really, really hard to be successful or meet big goals.
Examples:
If you decided you were going to work to build a Lego tower 5 feet tall, that would be a very ambitious plan.
Prompts for Student Interaction:
Who have you known that was ambitious? What did they do to show it?
What is a word that means the opposite of ambitious?
Step 2—Analyze the word’s structure.
Analysis Possibilities:
3 syllables (am-bi-tious)
7 sounds (a-m-b-i-sh-u-s)
9 letters (a-m-b-i-t-i-o-u-s)
Suffix -ious, meaning full of or having
Prompt for Student Interaction and Formative Assessment:
“Clap the syllables and draw a line for each one on your whiteboard. Write a spelling for each sound in each syllable.”
Step 3—Clarify the word’s context.
Part of Speech: adjective
Example Sentences:
His plan to read 50 books during the summer months was ambitious.
The ambitious young artist spent weeks preparing for the art show.
These people are ambitious:
This cat doesn’t appear to work hard at anything but napping. It is definitely not ambitious.
Prompts for Student Interaction and Formative Assessment:
“Now it’s your turn to think of an interesting sentence that includes the word ambitious.”
Step 4—Connect to word networks.
Morphologically Related Words:
ambition (noun)
ambitiousness (noun)
ambitiously (adverb)
Example Antonyms:
unmotivated
unfocused
relaxed
Prompts for Student Interaction:
“We all are ambitious sometimes, but sometimes we are the opposite of ambitious. Use the sentence frame to describe a time when you were ambitious and when you act the opposite of ambitious.”
When it comes to _______, I am ambitious,
but when it comes to _________, I am _________.
Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Strategies That Can Work with Any Word
That’s it!
Now, you know how to teach vocabulary explicitly in ways that are also brain-friendly. All you need to do is practice four simple and brain-friendly teaching moves that engage all four parts of the brain’s four-part processing system (phonology, orthography, meaning, and context). Involving students in meaningful interactions with new words is not only research-based, but it is fun (and it works). Best of all, these same four steps will work with ANY word and at ANY grade because they honor the way the reading brain learns words.
When we say “learn” words, we mean that these steps help the brain learn how to read them, how to write them, and how to use them more easily.
And to make things easier for you, we’ve created a lesson planning tool called the Lesson Planning Template for Explicit Vocabulary Instruction. We built this tool to remind you of these four steps, to help you think about instructional language during the lesson, and to help you plan for ways that students will interact with new words. You can download the vocabulary lesson tool here.
To learn more about making the most of explicit vocabulary instruction and to learn about the other three layers in the vocabulary instruction cake, check out our book, Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom (Cunningham, Burkins, and Yates) and the Online Class by the same name. In both the book and the online class, Shift 3 is all about vocabulary.
And since vocabulary and reading comprehension are inextricably linked, instruction that focuses on vocabulary building can powerfully impact student comprehension.
So, serve up a big slice of vocabulary instruction that considers all four layers, including this one—explicit vocabulary instruction.
