Vocabulary: reproducible 3.1
Observation of vocabulary strategies: Key questions for teachers
1 Is the student confidently explaining how they worked out the meaning of a word?
2 Does the student enter into conversations about words without assistance or prompting by the teacher?
3 Does the student’s explanation show that they have knowledge of word structure to assist with vocabulary? For example, is the student able to identify and use prefixes, suffixes, root/base words, verb tenses and plural forms to help work out meaning?
4 Does the student’s explanation demonstrate the use of semantic knowledge to assist with vocabulary? For example, is the student able to:
•consider the word in relation to the other words and sentences around it?
•look for clues such as synonyms or antonyms in the surrounding text?
•consider the word in relation to the overall content of the text?
•read on for meaning of unknown vocabular y?
•reread (read back) to suppor t meaning of unknown vocabulary?
5 Does the student’s explanation demonstrate the use of syntactic knowledge to assist with vocabulary? For example, is the student able to:
• identify the grammatical structure/word class of the word?
• predict the meaning of the word based on its grammatical structure (its function in a sentence)?
• read on to see if meaning of an unknown word is revealed and, when it is, identify and discuss the clues used to support vocabulary knowledge?
• reread (read back) to check syntactic accuracy while at the same time searching for overall meaning?
6 Are there other strategies suggested by the student? If so, what are they and how are they used?
7 Is the student able to explain and demonstrate as they attempt to work out the meaning of unknown vocabulary?
8 Is the student relying on one main strateg y or are they able to discuss how they select and combine a range of vocabulary strategies as required?