Language Arts: How can I find out the meaning of unfamiliar words?
Third Grade Vocabulary Lesson Plan
Download here
Rationale and Essential Questions:
From time to time, we find ourselves in situations where we do not know what certain words mean. Some of these situations may be when we are travelling from one country to another or as local as ordering food from the local restaurant. Sometimes, it can be even from conversations with our friends. Our students are in no different situation. They often find themselves in similar situations. This lesson will help to give them the tools that they can use to figure out the meaning of words they may not know their meaning in a text. This will then help them to be able to deal better with this kind of situations.
The essential question that will drive this lesson is:
How can I find out the meaning of unfamiliar words?
Content Knowledge:
The meaning of words can be known from the context of the story.
Dictionary is one of the tools we can use to know the meaning of unfamiliar words.
People around us may know the meaning of words that may not be familiar to us.
Materials Needed:
· Reading book (This will be the same book that the whole class will be reading and discussing)
· Guided reading journals
· Pencils
· Sticky notes
Prior Knowledge of Students:
1. Through different situations that they may have found themselves in, the students know that discussion clarifies meaning.
2. Since they have been in situations that they did not know the meaning of something and they had to ask someone for help, the students know that in life we may not be able to know what certain things mean.
New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject area.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
Cognitive Objective: Students will correctly figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words in a story using at least one strategy.
Assessment
I will assess their guided reading journals to see if they correctly figured out the meaning of the unfamiliar word from their table group members’ stories.
Affective Objective: Students will attentively listen to each other’s stories to figure out the meaning of the unfamiliar word in the story.
Assessment
I will informally assess this through observation. Students will have to demonstrate they are actively listening by looking at the person telling the story and writing down the words and their answers at the end.
Activities
1. Hook: 5 minutes I will tell the students about my trip to Moscow, Russia. During this trip I went on a roller coaster ride for the first time. In the story, I will tell them the name of a roller coaster in Russian as I remember it. I will then describe what happens during the ride i.e. it was so slow in the beginning as it was going up and I thought it was going to be a boring ride. I will not use the name “roller coaster” as I want to know if they can figure it out just from the context of my story. As many of the students have actually been on a roller coaster, they will be able to figure out from the context what the word means. For those who have never been on one, they have probably heard stories from their friends or read about it.
Grouping: All the students will be sitting on the carpet listening to the story.
2. I will then ask them what the word means and I am hoping that they will know it is indeed a roller coaster. For my student in learning support for English, I will put up a picture card of a roller coaster with the word underneath it so that he can see both the word and the picture. I will then find out from them how they knew. Afterwards, we will then talk about different strategies of knowing what unfamiliar words mean. One of the ways will be from the context. The students will then come up with other ways like using a dictionary, asking a friend, asking the story teller or giver of information questions that can give them more clues to figure out the meaning of the word etc.
(10 minutes)
3. In their table groups (five groups of four), the students will have to tell a short story and intentionally put an unfamiliar word. Each student will get a turn. The rest of the group members have to write that word down. At the end of the story, the rest of the group members have to write down the answer say what that word means and what strategy they used in their guided reading journals. For my ADHD students, they can move around the tables of their group as they tell the story. Any other student who wants to stand and move around can do so as well.
For my student in learning support for English, his story can be shorter and his friend can help him to tell it if he wants. (20 minutes)
4. Closure: To end the lesson, one member from each group will present to the whole class what the unfamiliar words of the group were and how they figured out what they meant. The rest of the members can help in case this one forgets. (10 minutes)
Future lesson planning:
Depending on the outcome of the lesson, I may need to teach the students how to use the dictionary to find words they are looking for. I may also need to allow more practice time for the students to figure out the meaning of words from the context. This may be by having them tell their classmates more stories or write the stories for those who love writing inserting an unfamiliar word. If I notice that after they use different strategies and are still unable to get the answer, I may need to plan a future lesson where we practice asking other people around us. The students may be shy to ask other people.
Download here
Rationale and Essential Questions:
From time to time, we find ourselves in situations where we do not know what certain words mean. Some of these situations may be when we are travelling from one country to another or as local as ordering food from the local restaurant. Sometimes, it can be even from conversations with our friends. Our students are in no different situation. They often find themselves in similar situations. This lesson will help to give them the tools that they can use to figure out the meaning of words they may not know their meaning in a text. This will then help them to be able to deal better with this kind of situations.
The essential question that will drive this lesson is:
How can I find out the meaning of unfamiliar words?
Content Knowledge:
The meaning of words can be known from the context of the story.
Dictionary is one of the tools we can use to know the meaning of unfamiliar words.
People around us may know the meaning of words that may not be familiar to us.
Materials Needed:
· Reading book (This will be the same book that the whole class will be reading and discussing)
· Guided reading journals
· Pencils
· Sticky notes
Prior Knowledge of Students:
1. Through different situations that they may have found themselves in, the students know that discussion clarifies meaning.
2. Since they have been in situations that they did not know the meaning of something and they had to ask someone for help, the students know that in life we may not be able to know what certain things mean.
New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject area.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
Cognitive Objective: Students will correctly figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words in a story using at least one strategy.
Assessment
I will assess their guided reading journals to see if they correctly figured out the meaning of the unfamiliar word from their table group members’ stories.
Affective Objective: Students will attentively listen to each other’s stories to figure out the meaning of the unfamiliar word in the story.
Assessment
I will informally assess this through observation. Students will have to demonstrate they are actively listening by looking at the person telling the story and writing down the words and their answers at the end.
Activities
1. Hook: 5 minutes I will tell the students about my trip to Moscow, Russia. During this trip I went on a roller coaster ride for the first time. In the story, I will tell them the name of a roller coaster in Russian as I remember it. I will then describe what happens during the ride i.e. it was so slow in the beginning as it was going up and I thought it was going to be a boring ride. I will not use the name “roller coaster” as I want to know if they can figure it out just from the context of my story. As many of the students have actually been on a roller coaster, they will be able to figure out from the context what the word means. For those who have never been on one, they have probably heard stories from their friends or read about it.
Grouping: All the students will be sitting on the carpet listening to the story.
2. I will then ask them what the word means and I am hoping that they will know it is indeed a roller coaster. For my student in learning support for English, I will put up a picture card of a roller coaster with the word underneath it so that he can see both the word and the picture. I will then find out from them how they knew. Afterwards, we will then talk about different strategies of knowing what unfamiliar words mean. One of the ways will be from the context. The students will then come up with other ways like using a dictionary, asking a friend, asking the story teller or giver of information questions that can give them more clues to figure out the meaning of the word etc.
(10 minutes)
3. In their table groups (five groups of four), the students will have to tell a short story and intentionally put an unfamiliar word. Each student will get a turn. The rest of the group members have to write that word down. At the end of the story, the rest of the group members have to write down the answer say what that word means and what strategy they used in their guided reading journals. For my ADHD students, they can move around the tables of their group as they tell the story. Any other student who wants to stand and move around can do so as well.
For my student in learning support for English, his story can be shorter and his friend can help him to tell it if he wants. (20 minutes)
4. Closure: To end the lesson, one member from each group will present to the whole class what the unfamiliar words of the group were and how they figured out what they meant. The rest of the members can help in case this one forgets. (10 minutes)
Future lesson planning:
Depending on the outcome of the lesson, I may need to teach the students how to use the dictionary to find words they are looking for. I may also need to allow more practice time for the students to figure out the meaning of words from the context. This may be by having them tell their classmates more stories or write the stories for those who love writing inserting an unfamiliar word. If I notice that after they use different strategies and are still unable to get the answer, I may need to plan a future lesson where we practice asking other people around us. The students may be shy to ask other people.