Cluster 3: Vocabulary Acquisition and UseArchived

In this lesson, students will analyze song lyrics to determine the meanings of figurative language used throughout the lyrics. Students will determine the theme of the song and explain how the examples of figurative language help develop the theme. They will complete various graphic organizers and write an opinion piece to demonstrate their understanding of the skills.

Type: Lesson Plan

During these lessons, students will delve deep into the text Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg. After identifying the point of view in the story, they will answer comprehension questions about the story by playing a small group game. Students will have the opportunity to rewrite the story from a completely different point of view.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will engage in reading The Raft by Jim LaMarche. Through several close readings and discussions, students will analyze and synthesize how key details and characters' actions and motivations help to determine the author's central message. The lesson begins with a strong "hook" that will also bring closure to the reading and reinforce the students' understanding of the central idea.

Type: Lesson Plan

This short text, "The Real Princess," originally told by Hans Christian Anderson, will require students to think deeply, make inferences based on text evidence and learn several new vocabulary words. Students will discuss the components of a fairy tale, play a vocabulary game, and compose an opinion piece of writing about the theme of the story.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading lesson, students will delve deep into the text, The Sweetest Fig, by Chris Van Allsburg. Students will practice reading comprehension, vocabulary, and identifying character traits. They will determine the traits of a character based off of the character's actions and language. Students will also gain practice responding to text-based questions both orally and in writing, providing evidence from the text to support their claims.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read and reread a classic Chinese folktale, The Ballad of Mulan. They will ask and answer text-dependent questions and will recount the events in the story using a story map. Students will determine the theme of the story and analyze Mulan's character development through her actions, thoughts, and feelings along with their contribution to the sequence of events and, ultimately, the theme of the story.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will use shared inquiry discussion to discuss an open-ended question from a Nigerian folktale "It's All the Fault of Adam".

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will write a summary of the text Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest by Steve Jenkins. In doing so, students will focus on identifying the central idea and relevant details in the text. Students will participate in vocabulary development activities to aid in the understanding of the informational text.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will work with partners and individually to read and analyze fables. Students will clarify unknown words using context and dictionaries. Students will identify words or phrases to help them determine the moral/lesson being taught by the fable.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will be working with a new, non-fiction text to identify unknown words and determine their meaning using context clues.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using the book Crickwing, students will demonstrate understanding of the connection a writer needs to make between the words they use and the meaning they would like the reader to secure.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will explore the concept that many words have multiple meaning. The students will be engaged in activities where they will use reference materials to look up the various definitions of the words and identify their parts of speech, as well as understand how the meaning of the words change depending on the context of the sentence. Students will compose sentences for words with multiple meanings, as well as write a riddle where both definitions of the word will help the reader solve the riddle. Students will work independently, as well as with their peers, in order gain a better understanding of multiple meaning words and how to identify their correct meanings using reference materials and context clues.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will engage in a close reading of Patricia Polacco's Thunder Cake, (ATOS 3.5; Lexile 630L) as a mentor text, to examine the author's usage of strong verbs. This lesson is the second of a two part lesson in which students will take a previously written text addressing the prompt listed below, and revise their written piece by incorporating strong verbs into their writing.
Prompt: Do you believe that the little girl in the story demonstrated bravery? Why or Why not? Use specific details from the story to support your opinion.

Type: Lesson Plan

The goal of this one day exemplar is to give students the opportunity to use the reading and writing habits they've been practicing on a regular basis to absorb deep lessons from Kate DiCamillo's story. By reading and rereading the passage closely and focusing their reading through a series of questions and discussion about the text, students will identify how and why the three main characters became friends.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will first work with the teacher and their classmates to practice the close reading of "The Burning of the Rice Fields." Through separate close readings of this story, students will practice reading and analyzing the text to identify story elements, will use context clues to determine the meaning of selected vocabulary, will analyze characters in the story and their actions and motivations, and finally, students will determine the lesson or moral of the story. For independent practice, students will conduct the same kind of close reading for the story "The Cat and the Parrot." Throughout the lesson, students will also practice creating questions about a text.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this video, SaM-1 introduces a part 2 twist to the  Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) challenge. In the optional twist, students will need to design a prototype toy suitable for a Florida panther with an injured leg. This first video provides background information on why and how animals need to be entertained. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

In this video, SaM-1 introduces a Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) challenge for the students. This video provides background information on why and how animals need to be entertained. Students will have the opportunity to apply what they learned about physical properties and measuring linear lengths as they are asked to design a prototype toy for Florida panthers housed at the CPALMS Rehabilitation and Conservation Center. 

In the optional twist, students will need to design a prototype toy suitable for a Florida panther with an injured leg. The optional twist also has a SaM-1 video to introduce the twist challenge.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to identify explicit evidence and understand implicit meaning in a text.

You will be able to identify literal and nonliteral words and phrases in sentences and stories. You will also be able to find the meaning or words and phrases by looking carefully at what the author is saying.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

In this activity, students will choose the correct homophone to complete sentences.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify the meanings of homographs by playing a matching game.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify and sort contractions, synonyms, antonyms, abbreviations, homophones, and homographs.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify the meaning of roots while playing a match game. As an extension activity, students will use roots to create words.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will make words containing affixes and use them in a sentence to show meaning while playing an affix game.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will match affixes to their meanings by playing a memory game.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will determine and record the meanings of words with affixes. They will then sort them by affix meaning.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will segment words into base words and affixes to determine the meaning.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will make words to match meanings by combining base words and affixes.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will match affixes to their meanings by playing a memory game.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will match homophones with their meanings by playing a card game.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will read two meanings and write the matching homograph.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will match antonyms by playing a memory game.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify antonyms by playing a domino game.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify synonyms by playing a bingo-like game.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify antonyms by playing a card game.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify synonyms by playing a domino game.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will complete a sentence using descriptive words (adjectives).

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will produce words with affixes to complete sentences while playing a board game.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will compare and contrast the attributes of words using a Venn diagram.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will produce the multiple meanings of words and use the words in sentences that demonstrate understanding of the multiple meanings.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify words to complete analogies.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will demonstrate a deeper understanding of the meaning of words by completing a questionnaire.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will demonstrate understanding of words by applying them to a variety of contexts.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will distinguish one word from another by completing an attribute analysis grid. As an adaptation to this activity, teachers may create attribute analysis grids that reflect units of study.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will add affixes to base words to make new words, then use the new words in sentences.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will produce category labels for related words to demonstrate understanding of their shared attributes/meanings.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will produce categories and corresponding words. As an adaptation to this activity, the students may sort teacher-selected words into categories and produce a category heading based on shared attributes OR produce words that belong in teacher-selected categories (based on units of study).

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will produce and categorize words by rolling a category cube and writing corresponding words.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will brainstorm categories and corresponding words. As an adaptation to this activity, students can sort teacher-selected words and identify the category title based on shared attributes.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will state words that correspond to specific categories by playing a board game. NOTE: A blank game board is provided to allow teachers to create categories relevant to classroom instruction. As an extension, students may choose the word that does not belong in a set of words and name the category for the remaining words.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify the meaning of words in context.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will choose words based on meaning to complete sentences in a cloze passage.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify similarities and differences between the meanings of words using a Venn diagram.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will compare four words, determine the one that does not belong in the set, and produce a category title for the remaining words based on shared attributes.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will read sentences containing context clues and sort by the type of context clue.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will depict words by drawing pictures that relate to their meaning.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify the meaning of words and word-related information using a dictionary.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will look up target words in a dictionary and record specific information.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify the relationship among words by placing them on a continuum.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will determine the meanings of unknown words using context clues.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify words with common roots and related meanings and sort them on a sorting board.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will find Hink Pinks that correspond to meanings by playing a matching game.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will match homographs with their corresponding meanings.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will write simple definitions, sentences, and examples of target words in a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will sort words based on their understanding of the words' meanings. They will then determine the meanings of the words and record them.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will determine the meanings of unknown words and rewrite sentences from text to demonstrate their understanding.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify the meaning of words in context by playing a matching game.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will demonstrate their understanding of words by applying them to a variety of contexts.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify unknown words, determine their meaning, and rewrite sentences to demonstrate their understanding.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify attributes of words and record them on a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify the multiple meanings of words in context.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will distinguish one word from another by completing an attribute analysis grid. As an adaptation to this activity, teachers may create attribute analysis grids that reflect units of study.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will write simple definitions, sentences, and synonyms of words on a recording sheet.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify examples of non-literal words and phrases in text and record possible meanings.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify and sort words containing the same root.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will produce words containing the same root and identify their meanings.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will produce synonyms and antonyms to match targeted words.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will write simple definitions, sentences, and examples of target words in a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will produce more precise alternatives for overused words in context.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will match words to their meanings.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify words to complete text.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will use reference materials to develop clues about target words. They will provide the clues to a partner until the target word is identified.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify the meaning of words in context.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify words to complete sentences.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will find, discuss, record, and define selected words in a text.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify more precise alternatives (synonyms) for overused words.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify the multiple meaning of words by constructing a web.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will use strategies to identify the meanings of unknown words in context.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, student will determine the meaning of words. NOTE: To fully meet the expectations of the aligned standards, students will need to identify unknown words in text they are reading and use strategies to determine the meanings of the unknown words.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will describe a target word using a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will show the relationship among words by placing them on a continuum.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will produce synonyms as more precise alternatives for overused words.

Type: Student Center Activity

Teacher models making a web using descriptive words. Students listen to the story Brave Irene. The teacher passes out a list of the descriptive words used in the book. Students create a vocabulary word web using one of the descriptive words from the text.

Type: Teaching Idea