I’m continuing this blog series on the steps of close reading. Today’s topic? Vocabulary development! We’ve all seen studies about vocabulary development in children. The more words and phrases a child knows by the age of two helps them to develop the language skills they need to be successful readers. As a mom, I tried to use conversational language with my kids to boost their vocabulary. And although parenting is HARD, this was something I think we did right. But as a teacher, I always felt like teaching vocabulary needed much more than the conversations we had in the car to and from soccer practice. My students needed more vocabulary instruction and I found it difficult to find the time.
Steps For Close Reading Vocabulary Growth
There is a big correlation between poverty and vocabulary as well. I’m by no means wealthy and we’ve had our times where we lived paycheck to paycheck. But I know that I am fortunate to have much more than some of the families I’ve taught. I say this without an ounce of judgment, because we’re all doing our best.
So what do you do when there is a vocabulary divide in your classroom? By the time your students walk through your door, they’re already five or six years old. Since vocabulary increases exponentially, they should already know over 2,000 words. Not only that, but you’ll be expecting them to learn twice as much this school year alone.
When students are behind with vocabulary, it’s a momentous task to help them get caught up.
When Do You Find Time To Teach Vocabulary?
Ages ago, when I first started teaching, we had time built in the day for vocabulary. We also had the resources we needed. I could spend 10-15 minutes each day on 3-4 new vocabulary words. We also had vocabulary notebooks specifically designed for my kiddos to draw a picture and use the word in a sentence.
Today, you don’t have either of those. You don’t have the time, and chances are, you don’t have the money for the notebooks or the supply of copy paper to make your own. This is a huge problem when you have so many vocabulary words to catch up on.
Using Close Reading For Vocabulary Instruction
There isn’t just one solution for this problem, but there are some things you can do to help your students understand and use new words and phrases. My favorite strategy for vocabulary development is teaching close reading.
When you teach close reading, you will see so much growth in your students. As I learned how to adapt my close reading lessons for my beginning readers, I thought I’d see more comprehension growth. And I did. But what surprised me the most was how GOOD they got at learning new words and phrases. And here’s the best part. They LOVED it. The day that we focused on new and tricky words in our close reading passages was by far their favorite day.
Watch, learn, subscribe to the entire series
Close Reading Series
Have you struggled teaching close reading with your beginning readers? These strategies are not one-size-fits-all, and if you teach lower elementary students, it’s hard to adjust the steps for a close read lesson so your younger kiddos understand the concepts.
In this video, you’ll learn how to use close read symbols effectively. There are three tips to help your students understand what annotation symbols are and how they should be used. These tips will prevent random squiggles and doodles all over your reading passages. (Which is what happened in my classroom before I figured all of this out.)
Do you spend your entire planning time trying to find the right reading passages? Plus, if you’re teaching a close read lesson each week, you’ll need plenty of passages available for your students.
After you watch this video, you’ll know what levels your reading passages should be and how long you’d like them. Once you have your “just right” passages, you’ll be able to continue your lessons.
Teaching close reading to beginning readers takes some adjustment. You’re not able to use the same strategies for that older students use. These strategies are not one-size-fits-all, so knowing how to teach a reading lesson to elementary students is important. You might be tempted to skip teaching it altogether, but you’ll be missing out on the benefits that these reading lessons gives to your young readers.
Teaching close reading to beginning readers is hard. You probably only know strategies that fit with older students. But your kiddos are young readers, and this is not one-size-fits-all. When I first started teaching a close read lesson a million years ago, I did such a poor job that most of the time I just skipped it entirely.
After you watch this video, you’ll learn what NOT to do. This will stop you from having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad experience. It will also help you realize that you’re not a terrible teacher (teacher guilt is REAL, my friend) and will lead you to see that you are phenomenal at teaching your students to read.
What do you do if you can’t find close reading passages for your beginning readers? Take what you are already teaching and write your own text. Teaching reading is hard enough when you’re trying to adapt the a close read lesson to elementary students. So instead of wasting your time searching for the right texts, write your own.
After you watch this video, you will learn:
– Why you should write your own reading passages.
– How to take what you’re already teaching and write text for that topic.
– Which vocabulary words or phrases should you include in your passages.
– How to write both fiction and nonfiction text without taking twice the time.
– How long should your reading passages be?
– What your published text should look like.
– What an effective writing process looks like.
– How to organize your reading passages when you’re done creating.
This sounds daunting, but it’s so worth it to write your own passages. You can add your student’s names into the text to give them ownership. You can take the topic that you don’t have a lot of time to cover and touch on it during a reading lesson. Because who has time to cover a topic the way you want to anymore!
Vocabulary development is vital for beginning readers. One of the best ways that I found time to teach my students new and unfamiliar vocabulary words and phrases was during a close reading lesson.
Because who has time to do it all? Teach vocabulary and everything else in your lesson plan book? Not only that, we’re learning that vocabulary should not be taught in a vacuum. Instead, best practices say that vocabulary should be taught in context for the most understanding.
This video gives you five great ideas to make vocabulary instruction work for your students. You’ll learn how to lead your students in a discussion about their new vocabulary words that is more than just memorization. The new words will be meaningful to them. Do you know your students who don’t memorize things well? This is going to give them a whole new approach to learning and retaining the meaning of new words.
You’ve taught a good close reading lesson and you’ve read your reading passages… now what? Looking at reading comprehension skills based on your text is going to help your students look deeper into the meaning of the passages, instead of just the surface level.
After you watch this video, you’ll get an idea of how much time to spend reviewing your reading passages and asking leading questions to help your students understand what is going on in their text.
You have taught a close reading lesson. Now what? It’s time to get creative. Take the topic from your reading passages and do an interactive writing activity. Interactive writing differs from a writer’s workshop because your students will be doing the work on your chart with you as their guide.
If your students ever have trouble coming up with something to write about, this is a perfect solution. You’ll be taking a topic and showing your class how to write in different genres and styles. And this video shows you how.
Or, if your students have trouble with a particular writing skill, use interactive writing to help them practice that skill. You’ll be there to assist and help them, but they’ll be doing the writing themselves.
After your reading lesson, take the topic from the passage and find a reading strategy, a spelling skill, or even a math word problem and use that for your interactive writing.
It is the last day of your close reading lesson. Want to have some fun? Here are some great ideas to review your reading passages that are hands-on and memorable. Your students will still be reviewing the topic of your text, but they’ll also enjoy the activities you’re providing.
This is also a good way to use your passages and review a topic that you didn’t get to throughout the week. Maybe you had a three-day weekend, so you only had four days to teach reading. Use the last day to combine the topic of your text with a craft, an experiment, or a class project.
After you watch this video, you’ll see how to use the reading passages to create a really fun review activity. Your kiddos will be learning and reviewing, but having a great time doing it.
Want to know how to build hype for next week’s reading lesson? Watch this video!
What close reading tools do you have already in your classroom? When you’re teaching a close read lesson, it’s hard enough to remember all the steps. And also try to find all the supplies you need in your cabinets. You probably don’t want to spend a lot of money on supplies either. I mean, c’mon, you’re already so generous for your classroom. All of that, and who has the time to search for the right kind of tools each time you begin teaching reading?
After you watch this video, you’ll see which tools you’ll want to use each time you teach a close read lesson. You’ll learn how to keep your supplies organized, and you’ll realize that a lot of these materials are probably already in your classroom.
Do you teach close reading? Part of your reading strategies can be assigning your reading passages to partners in your classroom. Especially with so much digital learning, your kiddos probably need some classroom management with their activities. This will help your students learn to talk to each other and communicate about their reading passages.
After you watch this video, you’ll learn some important classroom management strategies like how to help your students find a partner, how to teach them to speak to each other, and how to help them listen to each other.
Have you ever had your students partner up only to see them off task the whole time? This video helps you see what you can do to keep your students focused on their reading passages.
Or, have you watched partners struggle with what to say about their text? In this video, you’ll see some steps for partner work that helps your students have conversations about what they’re learning.
Teaching close reading is hard, especially if you have beginning readers. It’s important to keep your students on task, but how? When you’re introducing a reading text, how do you keep your students motivated?
After you watch this video, you’ll learn how to build hype for your reading passages. You’ll see how to keep your students motivated throughout their reading lesson. And you’ll learn some classroom management strategies that you can use for any lesson you teach.
Here are some suggestions to make vocabulary development fun when you follow the steps for close reading.
Steps For Close Reading For Vocabulary Activities
The first thing to do is build hype. If you are excited about learning new words, they will be too. Now would be a good time to down the coffee that’s been sitting on your desk and do a couple of jumping jacks to get the endorphins pumping because you’re going to need your energy to make this work.
I usually treated close reading like we were unlocking secrets the author left for us within the text. As we read through our close reading passage, I would pause for a moment and use my best teacher-talk voice. “Um. Hmm. I don’t know what this word is. This is a tricky word, right? Let’s circle this one because the author probably wants us to figure this word out!”
A little side note: I rarely used the word “hard” when talking about words. I like the phrase “tricky words” because I found that my kids were not intimidated by something tricky. But use the word hard, and they’re like NOPE, I’M OUTTA HERE.
Use Annotation Symbols To Mark Tricky Words
Annotation is huge when it comes to close reading. Using close reading marks to show student understanding or questioning of a text gives your students ownership and responsibility for their text passages. It’s also something that you shouldn’t skip just because you think it’s over their heads. If you’d like to know more about close reading annotation with younger students, make sure to visit the blog post in this series.
When you annotate the tricky words, you’re pulling them out of the passage for your students to see. You’re identifying them as important and you’re making it abundantly clear that you’ll be working through these words together.
When you’re first beginning to teach close reading to your students, make sure you only choose one MAYBE two words. Later on in the year as they’re getting better at the vocabulary instruction steps for close reading, you can introduce more.
Cooperative Learning With Partners
Remember the example of my early years in my classroom? Sliced bread had just been invented and I was using vocabulary notebooks to teach my students new words and phrases. I was a young teacher and I really didn’t have the best classroom management skills when it came to cooperative learning. So my vocabulary instruction looked like this:
- The teacher tells her students what the new words are this week.
- The teacher writes them on the board. Students write them in their notebooks.
- Teacher gives the students new sentences to write that she comes up with all on her own.
- A picture is drawn, but it’s a copy of what the teacher attempted to draw on the board.
Do you see a problem here? The teacher already knows the words. When a child is developing their own vocabulary, it has to be what they understand from the words. Not what your teacher already knows.
Student Centered Vocabulary Practices
Instead, vocabulary must be student-centered. This is when partner activities come into play. Now, it can look like this:
- Students find a partner.
- The teacher reminds the students of the tricky word we found and asks leading questions like: “Have you ever heard this word before?”, “What does this word remind you of?” “When might we use this word today?”
- Partners discuss the word and try to use it in their own context.
Do you see the difference?
Now, I’m realistic, and I know that some of my students may not be able to fully understand the new words with this one conversation. However, I know for certain that they won’t be any further along if I do all the work for them by telling them the definition.
Using Vocabulary Words In Context
When you’re teaching vocabulary steps for close reading, context is everything. The most important question you can ask is “How Can We Use This Word In Our Classroom Today?”
During this part of your close read lesson, you can ask for volunteers or you can indeed bust out a current version of a vocabulary notebook if you’d like. I found that scratch paper or dry erase boards work just as well. You only need three instructions for this task. I’m sure they’re familiar to you, but remember, you’re not giving your understanding of the word, you’re leading them to find THEIR understanding of the word. Have your students write the word at the top.
Then ask for volunteers to come up with their own sentences with the vocabulary words. It’s okay if you write the sentences out so struggling writers can successfully complete the task. After that, make sure to encourage your students to draw a picture of their sentences. If you’d like to model this as well, I think that’s acceptable, but remember that teacher talk during your picture as you’re deciding what to draw.
Later in the year, your students will need less modeling from you as they complete this task. You will be amazed at their growth.
During this part of your close read lesson, you can ask for volunteers. Or, if you found a vocabulary journal you like, bust it out. I found that scratch paper or dry erase boards work just as well.
You only need three instructions for this task. I’m sure they’re familiar to you, but remember, you’re not giving your understanding of the word, you’re leading them to find THEIR understanding of the word.
Vocabulary Exercises
Have your students write the word at the top. Then ask for volunteers to come up with their own sentences with the vocabulary words. It’s okay if you write the sentences out so struggling writers can successfully complete the task. After that, make sure to encourage your students to draw a picture of their sentences. If you’d like to model this as well, I think that’s acceptable, but remember that teacher talk during your picture as you’re deciding what to draw.
Later in the year, your students will need less modeling from you as they complete this task. You will be amazed at their growth.
Celebrate Your Vocabulary Victories
You’re not done just yet. Remember that hype we talked about? It’s time to bring that back because you’re going to want to celebrate the words you’ve learned! You can do this in several different ways, and it’s great to mix things up to keep your celebrations fresh.
Sometimes, I would have my students write their words on their dry erase boards and we’d have a parade through the school. Helpful hint: make sure you mass email your staff so they know to stop your kiddos and ask about their new words.
Other times, we would decorate posters with our new words and hang them in the hallway so it’s the first thing they would see in the morning as they arrived.
I think my favorite was to make vocabulary stickers. I inherited a bunch of random things from a teacher friend of mine who retired. One of the best items was a whole box of printer labels. Again, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I began teaching and printers were a bit, well… different. Anyway… I had thousands of printer labels that did not fit in a laser printer, so we used them for vocabulary. I would bust out the fun markers that I was too stingy to let my students use on a daily basis, and we make stickers based on our new words.
Then, my kiddos would wear the stickers home for their family to see!
Teaching vocabulary doesn’t have to be as difficult as it seems. When you incorporate close reading with your vocabulary instruction, I think you’ll find a great deal of success.
Good luck!
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This FREE guide will teach you the close reading strategies that will make a close read lesson successful.
As an elementary teacher, it’s hard to adapt close reading successfully for younger readers. I didn’t have a manual when I began, but I wish I had an easier start. So I wanted to give teachers like you a head start when you’re teaching close reading to beginning readers.
With this free guide, you’ll know what to do to keep your kiddos engaged all week.
You will learn what supplies and materials you need for a successful close reading lesson. You’ll learn what to do on each day during your week of close reading. This was another struggle for me.
I read through the text passage with my students, NOW WHAT?
You’ll have vocabulary ideas to boost your students’ mastery of words and phrases, imagine how great it would be to have time for vocabulary instruction! I’ll show you how it works!
Comprehension is hard for younger readers. They learn to decode words and now they have to understand what everything together means too?
With how much we have to teach in a week, the idea of “Fun Fridays” went out the window years ago. At least it did for me. I didn’t have time to do the fun crafts and activities that first-graders love and frankly deserve to do! I always thought this was so sad, and I wanted to bring it back somehow. So I devoted the last day of close reading to a fun extension activity about the topic of our close reading passage. I’ll show you how to find time for a fun activity, where your students are still learning in the FREE guide for close reading!
I also added the best classroom management tips I used during our close reading week, so you can actually teach your students, rather than correcting unwanted behavior or trying to keep your kiddos attention.
And best of all? I’ve added two close reading passages WITH lesson plans to get you started.
When you download the FREE Guide For Teaching Close Reading To Younger Readers, you’ll learn:
- How to teach your students to annotate.
- Which supplies you need and which ones you don’t!
- What you need to know about the best reading passages for close reading.
- What to teach on each day of a close reading week.
- How to improve your student’s vocabulary with close reading.
- Techniques to improve your student’s reading comprehension skills.
- Extension activities that take the topic of your close reading passage further.
- Classroom management during close reading, including partner activities and effective transitions.
You’ll also get two close reading text passages with TWO WEEKS of lesson plans!
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