So, after you know which words your students need to know, it's time to think about how to use research-based methods for teaching the meaning of new words. And if you're ready to see the kinds of activities I use in my classroom (and another freebie), click here. Consider hopping over to this blog post here for tips on how I quickly and easily pre-assess student knowledge (there is a free printable involved, so go ahead, I'll wait ☺). Have I convinced you yet? Ready to learn about how to get started?Įffective Strategies for Introducing New Words STOP! Before you do anything else with your vocabulary instruction, you've GOT to start by determining what students already know. So it's SUPER important, and also can be incredibly fun and engaging for your students. Not to mention, when you consider student engagement, learning about and playing with language is often something that gifted children really LOVE doing! When picturing your gifted student and their thirst for advanced knowledge, it's easy to see how important it is to teach them how to learn the meaning of new words. Virtually all understanding of any complex idea is dependent on knowing the words used to describe that information. It is a key indicator of future success in school (and life).

I'm here to tell you that vocabulary instruction truly should be an integral part of not only your language arts instruction but also your math and content area instruction as well!Ī simple search will reveal that a strong vocabulary is absolutely essential for reading comprehension.

Urgency: Why Learning New Vocabulary is SO ImportantĮven for gifted children who may have already indicated strong word knowledge or aptitude on achievement or intelligence measures, the process of acquiring new vocabulary remains extremely important.Īnd yet, vocabulary instruction, even for verbally gifted students, is something that gets pushed to the wayside sometimes. No matter where you fall in this spectrum of preparedness, if you are looking for some fresh ideas on how to teach new vocabulary to your students, I hope to offer you some help! Then again, maybe you were lucky enough to be supplied with everything you needed to teach this very important knowledge to ALLLLL of your students (Yay, you! #whereareyouteaching #aretheyhiring?#i'monthenextbus/flight/taxi #seeyousoon hahaha 😂). You may (or may not!) have been handed a list of required vocabulary words that you are responsible for teaching for the year.īut if you're like me, you were probably not handed any curricular materials or instructions for how to actually teach those words to your general education students.Īnd you were almost definitely not given any ideas for how to teach the words to your gifted and advanced learners.

Teaching new vocabulary