Top Highlights

• Provide a description, explanation, or example of the new term. 2 Ask students to restate the description, explanation, or example in their own words. 3 Ask students to construct a picture, symbol, or graphic representing the term. 4 Engage students periodically in activities that help them add to their knowledge of terms in their notebooks. 5 Peri...
• vocabulary games should be seen as one part of a systematic approach to direct vocabulary instruction.
• the teacher should introduce new terms to students in an informal manner via descriptions, explanations, or examples (step 1).
• Next, students should restate the description, explanation, or example in their own words (step 2) and construct a picture, symbol, or graphic representation of the term (step 3). Ideally, the results of steps 2 and 3 are recorded in a vocabulary notebook. A sample page from a vocabulary notebook is provided in figure I.1.
• Steps 4, 5, and 6 are then employed—in any order—to reinforce the new term. One week, a teacher might set aside ten or fifteen minutes to have students discuss the entries in their notebooks in pairs or trios (step 5). The next week, that same teacher might set aside ten or fifteen minutes to have students engage in a comparison activity to help th...