Danielle Colenbrander

Teaching word meanings

Example: ADMONISH

INSTRUCTIONAL STEP / EXAMPLE / PURPOSE
1) Hearing and saying the word
Say the word and ask children to repeat it / “Now we will be learning the word admonish. What is the word?” / This helps children remember the way the word sounds.
2) Seeing and writing the word
Write the word on the board and instruct children to write it into their workbooks / “That’s right. Write the word into your notebook.” / This helps children to recognize the word in written text.
3) Hearing the definition
Provide a simple, child-friendly definition for the word, using concepts children already understand. / “Now I’m going to tell you what admonish means. Listen carefully. If you admonish someone, you tell them off or scold them. Admonishing means telling someone off.” / Explaining word meanings using simple language and familiar concepts helps children link new word meanings with existing knowledge. Using the same word in different forms (e.g. “admonish”, “admonishing”) helps children to recognize that the different forms of the word are linked in meaning.
4) Hearing the word in context
Give children at least 3 examples of the word in meaningful contexts. Ask questions about the examples so that you can be sure the children understand them. / “Now let’s talk about how we use the word admonish. You could say: “The coach admonished the players for their lack of effort and enthusiasm.” So if the coach is admonishing his team, what do you think he is doing? [Answer: He told them off or got angry with them.] And why did he admonish the team? [Answer: Because he was upset that they didn’t really try – maybe he thought that if they had tried harder they could have won.] / The more times a child sees a word in a meaningful context, the more likely they are to develop a rich concept of the word’s meaning. However, it is not enough for children to simply be exposed to the context – they need to actively think about it and discuss what the word means in context.
5) Example/non-example game
Read aloud a series of sentences one by one, where some sentences are examples of the target word’s meaning, and others are not. Children can indicate whether or not a sentence is an example of the word by saying the word aloud, standing up, raising their hands, etc. After children have given their responses, ask them to explain why they thought the sentence was (or was not) a good example of the word. / “Now we are going to play a game. I am going to say some sentences. If you think that the sentence describes a situation where someone might admonish someone else, I want you say “admonish”. If not, don’t say anything. You ready? Here comes the first one!
a)  Tom was playing catch inside the house and broke mum’s favourite vase. She was furious.
b)  Mum was very proud because Sarah got a high distinction in the maths competition.
c)  The man was very angry with the waiter for spilling food all over him. / This game is another opportunity to expose children to the meanings of words in different contexts. Ask children why they think the example is a good one so that they are actively processing meaning in context.
6) Have you ever?
Ask children to relate the word to their own experience. / Has anyone ever admonished you, or have you ever admonished someone? What happened? / This helps children to link the word’s meaning to their existing knowledge of the world.

Other activities

1)  Word association

Children have flashcards with the day’s words on them (eg. admonish). The teacher says other related words aloud one at a time (eg. scold, happy, angry). Children hold up the flashcard for the word that “goes with” the word the teacher says aloud (eg. admonish goes with scold and angry, so children should hold up the admonish flashcard when they hear those words). They then have to explain why the words go together. This helps children make links between word meanings.

2)  Silly sentences

Children hear sentences in which one of the words they have learnt is used incorrectly (eg. “the mother admonished the child for coming first in the cross country”). They have to explain why the sentence is incorrect. This is a challenging task that requires good knowledge of a word’s meaning.

3)  Word to definition

Children have flashcards with the words on them. The teacher says word definitions aloud one by one. Children then hold up the flashcard that corresponds to the definition they have heard. This is a good revision task and is also a good way of helping children learn to retrieve the appropriate word quickly from memory.

References and further resources

·  Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.

·  Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2008). Creating Robust Vocabulary: Frequently Asked Questions and Extended Examples. Guilford Press.

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