Vocabulary: How do we learn new words?

Several years ago, I attended a professional development on the importance of student engagement.  One of the strategies they taught us to teach new vocabulary to our students was to create hand signals.  The video above models what that looks like.  I have been using this strategy for the past six or seven years to teach vocabulary to my students and it is AMAZING to see what a difference it has made.  Not only are my students able to tell me what a word means, but they are able to use academic vocabulary within their verbal and written responses.

I start off by identifying key vocabulary terms that my students should know within the content area.  Then small groups are assigned a word to develop a signal for.  When they present it to the class, they have to tell us the word, its definition, model the signal and explain how it relates to the definition.  One of the things I really like about this is that it gets students up in front of their peers so they can start feeling comfortable with talking in front of a large group.  Once the class is taught the signal, I will repeat the definition and the rest of the class will model the signal and say the correct word.  For example, in reading, we focus on 20 words each week.  On Monday and Tuesday, I introduce 7 of them and the remaining six on Wednesday.  When we learn the new words each day, I make sure to include the previous days words so they are always fresh in their mind.  Then they are quizzed at the end of the week on their understanding of the words.  The following week they are introduced to a new set of words.

Some of the ways we practice the vocabulary words are:

• Around the World: This works exactly like it does when practicing math facts.  I saw a definition and the two students must tell me the word and perform the signal.  Whoever does it correctly first moves on to the next student.
• Stand Up & Close Your Eyes:  Everyone stands up at their desks.  Two-three students monitor whether or not students are doing the correct signals after a definition is read.  If a student hears their name called, they have to sit down because they did the wrong signal.
• Hot Seat:  Two students sit in chairs facing one another.  Another student is standing behind one student and they have written a vocabulary word on their whiteboard.  They hold the board up and the student that can see the word has to give clues to the other student to see if they can guess the word on the whiteboard.
• Vocabulary Bee:  Students line up and the first student is given a definition.  They must say the word and perform the signal correctly.  If they do, they stay in the game and I move on to the next student who is given a new definition.  If they are incorrect, they return to their seat.  If a student gets the word/signal wrong, then the next student has the same definition.  We usually play until a handful of students are left standing.
• Slap It: I usually start out with pairs playing this and then move onto small groups of four students.  They write each vocabulary word on a sticky note and lay them out in front of one another.  I read a definition and the goal is to be the first one to "slap" the correct word/sticky note.