How to Improve Vocabulary
Years ago, when I was studying for the big exam to get into graduate school, my primary strategy was to learn tons of vocabulary words. When I say tons, I mean I literally had thousands of index cards with words on one side and definitions on the other. I used this approach because I recognized that a good vocabulary was the key to doing well on every section of the test, whether it was antonyms, analogies, or reading comprehension. It helped that I had a knack for memorization, and that I actually enjoyed the rote process of learning a small dictionary. My months of study paid off, and I aced the test. I had been right. Vocabulary development had been the crucial component to success.
The moral of this story is not for you to stock up on index cards and have your students write vocabulary words until their fingers blister. Rather, it is meant to underscore the importance of building a strong vocabulary. I am so thankful that I invested the time in learning vocabulary, because it not only helped me pass my exam, but it also helped me excel in graduate school. My improved vocabulary transformed me into better reader, writer, and thinker, which, of course, is the very outcome we want for our students.
But even if we recognize the importance of a robust vocabulary, helping our students develop one is often easier said than done. Probably the easiest path is by encouraging kids to read. Have you ever seen a study that argued for less student reading, or a headline that condemned more reading as a waste of time? I know I haven’t. The benefits of reading are well documented. Students who read frequently are better readers, writers, and thinkers than their non-reading peers. The more you can get your students to read, the more likely they are to have academic success.
How we repeatedly failed at vocabulary
But what if you have a reluctant reader (or two) as I do in my house? What can you do to help these students improve their vocabulary?
This is an issue I’ve tackled many times as a homeschool teacher. If you are anything like me, you probably have a variety of vocabulary workbooks collecting dust in your home ,and most of them only partially completed. I must have at least five different programs represented by my quest to find the magic vocabulary curriculum. The start of each school year is full of hope and optimism as I distribute the pristine workbooks and dole out the first assignment. I’ve found that most programs follow a similar format: a weekly list of words followed by an assortment of three to five wordlist-related activities with a final test at the end. Easy enough, right? Read the list, do the exercises throughout the week, take the test on Friday. It seems like independent work that doesn’t require a lot of teacher/mom input.
But here’s what happened year after year. For the first couple of weeks, I diligently checked to make sure my kids were doing their work each day, and I even marked their mistakes and talked to them about what they missed. So when test day rolled around, I expected great results. What I got were grades that were average to below average. Even my daughter, an avid reader, struggled to score higher than a B-minus.
By the middle of the semester when the tornado of life was in full spin, my daughter was barely passing the tests and my boys had ceased even trying. Of course, by then, I had mostly stopped checking the weekly exercises, and the occasional glance I gave them revealed that none of my kids was putting in much effort. Sometimes I tried to regroup and crack down on completion requirements, but that rarely resulted in much improvement. By the time the holidays were over, vocabulary had usually been abandoned and another half-completed book had been filed away, All that remained was for me to make my annual resolution to find a better curriculum for the next school year.
How to get (dramatic) improvement in ten minutes a day
So this year, I decided to STOP THE INSANITY. In other words, I was determined to stop doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If I wanted to change the outcome, I needed to change my approach. With a few minor adjustments and about ten extra minutes a day, I was able to help my kids improve their vocabulary skills and vastly improve their test scores. My approach was based on the premise that the more engagement students can have with the vocabulary words, the more likely they are to actually learn them (and not just put them into short-term memory five minutes before the test—although my kids couldn’t even do that!)
Combine age groups
I combined age groups for vocabulary. Just because your vocabulary book says it’s for tenth grade doesn’t mean that all other grades are banned from using it. Hello, I’m the word “enumerate” and you can only learn me in the tenth grade. Vocabulary words don’t inherently contain grade-level identifiers. The textbook writers have decided (somewhat arbitrarily) which words to include and at what grade level. If there were one “right” list, then there wouldn’t be such a wide variety of vocabulary books. A different curriculum might introduce the word “enumerate” in the eleventh grade.
So this year, I decided that both my seventh-grade daughter and ninth-grade son would both be in the seventh-grade vocabulary book. If I hadn’t already bought the seventh-grade curriculum, I probably would have put them in the eighth-grade book, but I just went with what I had. The reason that I wanted them in the same book was so that I could go over vocabulary with both of them at the same time. Time is as valuable as gold in my household, so it was essential that I streamline lesson time as much as I could. Plus, having a sibling around made each of my kids try harder (because s/he didn’t want to look dumb!) and also made the lesson more interesting.
Go at a slower pace
I slowed down the pace. By this, I mean that I changed my whole attitude about how long it should take to complete a unit of vocabulary. Previously, I was bound and determined to get in a chapter a week. The kids got the words on Monday, and they took their test on Friday. If they missed a lesson during the week, then they did two lessons the next day. The trains were running on time even if meant a wreck when they pulled into the station.
But this year, I’ve adopted a much more casual approach. Before, my goal had been to get through a chapter a week. Now my goal is for my kids to learn and retain vocabulary words, and they can’t do that if we’re moving at a furious pace. So we never tackle more than one exercise a day even if we’ve missed the day before, and it always takes us more than a week to get through one chapter.
Introduce the new word list
I spent a whole lesson going over the words. My kids love the start of a new chapter because they know they aren’t going to have any follow-up work to do that day. We use our ten-minute lesson time to pronounce and discuss each word. I have them take turns pronouncing the words, and I give help as needed. We talk about their familiarity with the words. Is it a word they have seen before or something completely new? While I usually read the definitions and example sentences in the textbook, I also try to add information from my own experience that might help the word stick better. For example, . . .
Review the list each day
I reviewed the word list each day by asking my kids questions about the words and playing simple games. I am sure that if you search online, you can find much more creative games than the ones I was doing with my kids, but these took zero prep time and seemed to do the trick. Maybe for next year, I’ll do a little research and see if I can find a few other games to add to the mix. The system I used went something like this:
Mom: Amelia, can you tell me which means
(Amelia takes a moment to scan the list)
Amelia:
Mom: That’s correct. Aaron can you give me an antonym for
(Aaron scans the list)
Aaron:
Mom: No, that’s the opposite of ? Look again.
Aaron:
Mom: Right. Amelia, can you use ? in a sentence.
Sometimes, after we have worked on a word list for several days, I’ll have my kids compete against each other to see who can be the first to give me the correct word or definition. And that is about as complex as the review games have gotten this year. It takes about five minutes to review all the words, and this process seems to really help my kids retain what they are learning.
Assign just one vocabulary lesson a day
I assigned one exercise each day which we checked together the next day. The vocabulary curriculum I’m using has four exercises in each chapter which are supposed to help students master the words. I assign one exercise a day that my kids are required to complete on their own. We read the directions together so I’m sure that they understand what they are supposed to do. They are expected to have completed the assignment for the next meeting. At that time, we check the answers together by me calling on them to give me their responses. (It quickly becomes apparent if someone hasn’t done the work!) It takes a total of five minutes to check work and assign the next exercise. And we keep repeating this cycle until we are finished with the chapter. Then I give them a test.
Love the results!
I am happy to report that under this new system, grades have improved dramatically. My daughter often gets a perfect score, and I can’t remember the last time she didn’t get an A. It is almost miraculous how well Aaron is doing. He still doesn’t get “A’s” very often, but he almost always scores a solid “B,” which is so much better than he had been doing.
One of the best things about this approach is that it should work with any curriculum, so you don’t need to go out and buy something new. You could pull out some of those half-finished workbooks and start using those. Obviously, the book should be somewhat age-appropriate. You probably don’t want your ninth grader in a fifth-grade book, but he might be challenged by the words in a seventh-grade book. You know your student; don’t be overly committed to forcing him to work at a particular grade level.
So that’s how we do vocabulary instruction in our classroom. I hope that you found at least one strategy that you can use with your students.