Do your high school student struggle with vocabulary acquisition? How often have you looked at your high school English students and realized that a major issue they have with reading, writing and test taking stems from a lack of vocabulary? My students have this problem too. That is why this week, I have asked my real life teacher bestie, Amber Walther from Success through Literacy to share her tips on teaching vocabulary.
Amber form Success through Literacy is a high school reading teacher and literacy specialist for grades 9-12. At school, Amber’s primary focus is providing Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions within the classroom. There, she works with students who struggle with literacy while supporting staff in areas of literacy. Her resources are age and ability level appropriate for literacy skills and executive functioning skills.
Amber knows that every teacher wants their students to feel successful. It’s her hope that her resources allow students of all ability levels to be successful, through scaffolding of resources to take them from dependent to independent learners!
Why Vocabulary Acquisition at the High School Level?
Have you ever attempted to complete paperwork for health insurance or legal matters and felt as though you only understood half of what was required? That is exactly how your students feel when they encounter a text with too many unfamiliar vocabulary words!
There are two critical elements a student must have for vocabulary acquisition: a toolbox of strategies to attack new vocabulary words and a foundation of morphemic awareness.
What is morphemic awareness?
Morphemic awareness refers to the ability to think about the smallest units of meaning in language, also known as morphemes. Morphemes include roots, prefixes, and suffixes. This awareness helps students with vocabulary acquisition.
What is a morpheme?
Morphemes can be compared to the individual ingredients (such as eggs, flour, butter, milk) used to create a dish (the word). Each morpheme has a specific role it plays, based on its meaning, just like an ingredient does in a recipe. Some morphemes can stand alone and hold meaning, like eggs can be used to create a dish on their own. Stand alone morphemes are known as base morphemes.
Morphemes such as prefix and suffix, are bound because they need additional morphemes to hold meaning. Different combinations of different ingredients can make various dishes, just as different combinations of morphemes can make different words.
Example:
Unhappiness has three morphemes
- “un-“ (a prefix that means “not”)
- “happy” (the root morpheme, which is the base word)
- “-ness” (a suffix that turns an adjective into a noun, indicating a state or condition)
How to Improve Morphemic Awareness to improve Vocabulary Acquisition
According to research, morphemic awareness and reading comprehension are closely related. Improving students’ ability to know and apply word part knowledge, in turn, improves their vocabulary and comprehension.
This past school year, Amber primarily worked with 11th graders. Through student assessments and classroom conversations, Amber and her co-teacher realized that students were unsuccessful on multiple choice questions because they lacked vocabulary knowledge. The pair knew that they needed the most bang for their buck. They only two months until the exam, so they began the process of vocabulary acquisition through root word work!
Amber and her co-teacher created a daily word work routine for students using root words. At first, it was difficult. Students did not follow the procedure. Instead, they were just googling the meaning of the words to rush and get the work done.
However, the teachers continued to revamp the routine until students started piecing together that knowing the morpheme helped them know the word. This allowed students to begin to explain what the word meant.
When the students took the NYS ELA Regents in June, they did significantly better on their multiple choice section than their practice scores from earlier in the year. The word work seemed to help.
What are Strategies for Vocabulary Acquisition?
If your students struggle with vocabulary acquisition you need to be teaching students how to use context clues.
Using context clues gives students six self questioning strategies to use to determine unknown words. With this lesson, model self-questioning techniques for the students. Additionally, demonstrate how you are flexible with the strategies you use.
Example of model language to use:
Word Parts: Do I know a part of this word and what it means? Another part? How does this help me?
Inference: Based on the surrounding text, the context, or background knowledge, can I infer or make an educated guess about what this word means?
As the teacher, make vocabulary acquisition a habit for students.
This might mean creating a routine or weekly schedule for students to have exposure to new words or morphemes. Students on a 4 day rotation could follow a schedule like below for new vocabulary words
- Day 1: Introduce the words, have students look up definitions, then come to a shared class agreement of a definition.
- Day 2: Use the word accurately in a sentence.
- Day 3: Create a Frayer Model for each word or other type of visual representation like a word web
- Day 4: Utilize all the words in a story OR have an assessment on the words
If your classroom already fosters time for reading, then you can also add in vocabulary games such as Guess My Word, Pictionary, Charades, Vocabulary Trashketball, or even Scattegories. The best way students learn is through repeated exposure and use of words!
Jeanmarie from McLaughlin Teaches English, fosters this kind of vocabulary acquisition through a strategy that she calls Roots in Context. You can read more about her strategy here.
Tips for Teaching with Vocabulary Acquisition in Mind
- Give students the opportunity to create ownership of new words through repeated exposure and practice.
- Only a few words per week (3 minimum, 5 maximum)
- Be intentional with your word choices. Pick words that students can experience in only your content area but also in other content areas as well (Tier 2 and Tier 3 Words)
- MODEL, MODEL, MODEL THROUGH THINK ALOUDS. Showing students how you as their teacher attempt to break apart and understand unfamiliar words is so helpful
Now What?
If you are looking for an already created root word, suffix and prefix bundle for school, this is the perfect resource for you. This is a set of the most common prefix, suffix, and roots, based on the IRLA Framework and iReady Diagnostic.
Does commitment scare you? She has single versions of these lessons for individual morphemes.
Check out all of Amber’s word work resources here. If these aren’t exactly what you are looking for with students, please email Amber. She would be happy to customize an already purchased resource for you! This is what she did with her 11th graders. She used her my bundle as a model and tweaked it to fit the students’ needs!
Additionally, McLaughlin Teaches English offers a number of vocabulary acquisition products through her Bell Ringer Membership. The membership includes sets of morphemes with SAT vocabulary, roots in context for texts like Macbeth, Hamlet, The Importance of Being Earnest and more as they are added, and root work inserted in other weekly plans. Get a set of 10 free Bell Ringer to see just what is included.
About the Guest Author
Amber Walther is a High School Reading Teacher and a Literary Specialist. She is currently a high school reading teacher who focuses on supporting content teachers, primarily in high school English. She supports teachers with materials for teaching executive functioning skills in high school through her TPT store Success Through Literacy. And Jeanmarie for McLaughlin Teaches English is her real life teacher bestie.
Additional Resources
Teaching Greek and Latin Roots
Beyond Greek and Latin Roots Worksheet: 7 Activities for High School English
Tips for Teaching Vocabulary in Secondary Education (Around the World with Mrs. C)
Using Slang to Teach Vocabulary (Lit and More)
