Primary Grades Vocabulary Instruction With Word Wizard Dictionary

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By the end of 2nd grade, there is a 4,000-word discrepancy between the root words that students at the highest academic level know and those at the lowest.¹ This discrepancy can shadow students throughout their lives, with primary grade vocabulary being a key predictor of success in later life.²

Word Wizard enables teachers to focus on two critical areas of vocabulary instruction:

• Reading vocabulary, which is often just emerging, through very basic sight words and high frequency words.
• Oral vocabulary, which exists at a much higher level and can increase at a rapid pace.

A special edition of Word Wizard Dictionary for Beginning Readers will be released for back-to-school, 2008. The audio, images, and video that accompany word entries all help early readers grasp new vocabulary. The following are some examples of how the Word Wizard Dictionary can enhance vocabulary instruction at the younger grades. These activities incorporate regular class time as well as computer-based learning.

Choosing Words for Primary Grade Vocabulary Instruction

Perhaps the most frequently asked question about teaching vocabulary is "Which words should I teach?" Research has shown that the number of words a student can realistically learn each week is only about five to ten words, so it indeed pays to choose these words wisely.³

Through exhaustive analysis of data, Edward Fry and other researchers have come up with 100 "Instant Words" that students at the end of each primary grade should know. You can access Instant Words (PDF) from the National Institute for Literacy, a government agency. The words were compiled by determining the most frequently used words in a study of 5 million words used in magazines, books, and newspapers.⁴

For more information on picking the best word lists for vocabulary instruction, read Francie Alexander's Recommended Word Lists for Vocabulary Instruction. Alexander is Scholastic's Chief Academic Officer and an expert on reading, literacy, and vocabulary instruction. You can also find grade-level vocabulary lists in these Scholastic Professional Books of 100 Words Kids Need to Read at different grades. You can also see Word Wizard's Words to Keep Kids on Track for specific, detailed word lists.

Incorporating Word Wizard in the Classroom

During Story Time
You can use the Word Wizard dictionary to reinforce words that have been introduced during story time. Then use the Word Wizard to provide an interactive experience of those vocabulary words.

• Before story time, target some words in the book for instruction. This might be spending time for a word that is unfamiliar or difficult to some students, to introduce the word and teach its meaning. For example, in Clifford's Hiccups, you might focus on the word hiccup. Or, if you are reading Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss, you could generate a list with -op words.
• Use a consistent pattern for introducing these words. Say the word; show them the word; use the word in context; have the students say the word; have students use the word in context; have students say the word. Print out our Story Time Vocabulary Routine (PDF) to reinforce this process in your classroom.
• Then, when students are working at computers, they can repeat the same sequence on the same words, through Word Wizard. Set up a word list for them in advance including the words you want to focus on.

  Tip: If you enter the words once yourself, they will be saved in the Your Recent Words list. Then direct students to this list.

• Have students click on the audio icon to hear it. Next, have students click on the camera icon to see an image or the video icon to see a video or animation, to provide context. Then use the word in a sentence. Ask students to create their own sentences, saying them aloud after they've heard the Word Wizard context. Then have them click on the word to hear it one more time.

Playing Word Games
Games such as concentration help reinforce students' memory of a word's visual image. Therefore, this game is particularly well -suited for sight words, helping students recognize a word by its form, rather than by decoding it. To play memory:  

• Have students work in pairs or small groups.
• Create and print your current vocabulary list using the Mini-Dictionary Maker.
• Print out your list on heavy card stock paper, making two copies for each group.
• Cut the list into cards and mix them up.
• Place them face down on a table.
• Have students take turns flipping over pairs of cards.
• When they find two that match, they get to keep the pair and take another turn.
• If they miss, the next player takes a turn.

You can also use Word Wizard to create online games for your students featuring your own vocabulary words. A scrambled word game such as the Letter Scramble in Wizard Word Quiz Maker can help students understand the spelling and phonics patterns on a different level, as they reconstruct the correct spelling. Use the Mini-Dictionary Maker feature to generate a list of words that target a particular spelling pattern, such as -at. To reinforce the meaning as well as the spelling, once students have unscrambled the words, have them repeat the pattern of hearing the word, seeing it in context, using it in a sentence, and hearing it again.

Online and Computer-Based Instruction
Scholastic.com's Clifford's Interactive Storybooks have an audio feature that lets students hear the books read aloud. They also let students choose the direction the story takes. Word Wizard Dictionary appears on this activity page, too, and can enhance the value of this already engaging feature. With Word Wizard at their fingertips, the earliest reader can get more than just the audio. Students can click on any word to hear the individual word read aloud, rather than the whole sentence, and to learn all of the words' meanings.

Word Wizard can make other interactive games more accessible as well. For example, if your students are playing Max's Math Adventures, they won't have to stumble over the directions or words that are above their reading level. They can hear any word on the page read aloud.

Get Up & Move
As elementary teachers well know, it can be hard to get a class of wriggly kids to sit still for vocabulary lessons, at the computer or otherwise. Young students benefit from kinesthetic learning. You can use Word Wizard to generate a list of words that will get them up and moving while they demonstrate action words. For example, print out Get Up & Move Word Lists (PDF), such as Action Words, Animal Noises, and Prepositions, and cut them into word strips. Distribute them to students to act out as a game of charades, or create other physical activities with these words.

References:

1. Andrew Biemiller, "Teaching Vocabulary in the Primary Grades," Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice, (New York, The Guilford press, 2003).
2. Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, and Linda Kucan, Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction (New York,: The Guilford Press, 2002).
3. Edward B. Fry, Jaqueline E. Kress, and Dona Lee Fountoukidis, The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists, 4th edition (New York: Pearson Education, 2000).
4. Edward B. Fry, The Vocabulary Teacher's Book of Lists, (San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons: 2000).

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