Jessica Briante

Prof. Reilly

EDUC 359

4 October 2017

Vocabulary Mini Lesson

Vocabulary is very tricky to teach to students, especially if they have absolutely no prior

knowledge of the word. There are multiple different levels students go through when they learn

new vocabulary words. Students may start at level one, no knowledge of the word, or they can

start at a higher level like three where they have context-bound knowledge. Other levels include

general sense of the word, knowledge of, but inability to readily use the word in communication,

and rich, decontextualized knowledge of the word.

The level of no knowledge of a word is when a student has no idea what a given word is.

General sense of the word is when a student may have head the word being used before and

thinks they know what the word may mean or be associated with. Level three, context-bound

knowledge, is when a student can relate the word with a specific topic in a classroom setting, but

not outside of that setting. Knowledge of, but inability to readily use the word in communication

means the student has some sort of knowledge, but cannot use it correctly when communicating.

The last level, rich decontextualized knowledge of the word, is when the student is able to use

the word in a sentence/communication and understands what he/she is saying.

During class on Monday, we interacted with one another to teach vocabulary. For my

mini lesson, I selected two words in which my students had no general sense of the word. In
my lesson I used examples in sentences and real life experiences. For example, one word was

pother, meaning fuss. I used the example a baby in a grocery store has a pother when their

mother does not allow something. I believe if I used visuals, it would not have been as effective

as using the word in a sentence because I do not know if I could have found a picture that

portrays the meaning of the word better than an example would.

Through using examples, I did achieve my objective of teaching the new vocabulary

words to my students. I know I achieved my objective because by the end of the lesson the

students were able to use the vocabulary words in new sentences. Teaching vocabulary was

difficult, which means it will be challenging for me as a classroom teacher. I feel like teaching

vocabulary to an ELL student, however, will be more simple because visuals and translation

could be used. Overall, teaching vocabulary can be complex and can be simple, I look forward to

challenging myself and enlightening students with new knowledge.