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“Building Robust Vocabulary” provides a sample mini-unit of how to teach vocabulary using lessons from Bringing Words to Life, by Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (New York: The Guilford Press, 2002).  It offers strategies to introduce the words, Do Nows, a game, homework, and a quiz.  Many thanks to Jessica Majerus at Greater Newark Charter School for sharing these helpful models!

Another idea: WORD-COLLECTING, AKA "Make Your Own Dictionary."
To capitalize on teachable moments, have students collect new words as they emerge during class discussions.  Establish a set of guidelines for what students should record each time: e.g., the word, a sentence using the word in context, and a user-friendly definition.

For ideas about how to teach VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT, see Vocabulary in Context Strategies--Signals and Context Clues in the Download Zone.  Thanks to Jessika Rao at Foundation Academy Charter School for inspiring this piece!

IN THE DOWNLOAD ZONE for Building Robust Vocabulary:

• Vocabulary: How I Teach It—by Jessica Majerus
• Somewhere in the Darkness—Hypothesis
• Somewhere in the Darkness—Notes
• Somewhere in the Darkness—Do Now
• Somewhere in the Darkness—HW
• Vocabulary Quiz 11
• ROOTS- Cede-Ceed Hypothesis Sheet
• Vocabulary in Context Strategies--Signals and Context Clues
  
  
  NOTE: For more information on how to teach ROOTS, see the “Root of the Week”category in the READING section.