The Automatic Vocabulary Lesson Plan

Debbie Willingham
Jul 21, 2008

Do you ever need an assignment to serve as a worthwhile "filler" when students are with you longer than usual on those out-of-the-ordinary days? Do you ever wish you could leave a substitute plan that would really help your students continue to learn when you are absent? If you have an ongoing word wall or vocabulary chart  related to the unit under study, or if you include important vocabulary on your student learning map, you have the basis for a strong extending thinking activity for your students to complete whether you are with them or not! By following the "Automatic Vocabulary Lesson Plan" explained below, you can leave a substitute with easy-to-use instructions for an organized period, or you can use it yourself as a review and to check for continued student understanding of vocabulary in context. Set up as any good extending thinking lesson plan, here is how it works:

Lesson Essential Question: How can I increase my understanding of the important vocabulary terms in the unit we are studying now?

Activating Strategy/Mini Lesson: Put the word IMPORTANT on the board, overhead, or chart paper. Ask students to individually take just two minutes and silently come up with as many other words as they can that mean the same or close to the same thing as the word "important." At the end of the two minutes, have them count their words and see who has the most. Ask two students to come to the board, and have other students take turns calling out words they thought of as the two students at the front take turns writing them down around each term on the board.  Then have the two students be seated and tell the class that the reason they focus on certain words in each unit is because they are important to the unit being studied. Today's assignment is going to help them better understand and be able to show their understanding of the words in this unit. It will be a great way for them to see if they know and understand them, so they will not have to study them as much before the next test.

Task: Have students choose any five (or more) words from the Vocabulary Wall or their vocabulary chart that they think are among the most important.  On their own paper (or on 4 x 6 index cards), have them complete the following for each word:

  •     The word:

  •     Page number:

  •     Book sentence:

  •     What it is in my own words:

  •     Why I included it as an important word (constructing support):

Then have students create a paragraph that includes each of their words and shows their understanding of the words in the context of their use in this unit (at the bottom half of their sheet of paper or on the back of the index card).

Summarizing Strategy/Sharing: If time allows, have students swap papers and read each others' paragraphs; then let students volunteer to read each others' paragraphs aloud. If time is running out, call on students who have finished, and ask them to take turns reading their paragraphs aloud. If none have finished, take a few of the words and have different students share what they put for page numbers, sentences, what it means in their own words, and why it is important. Take up the papers from students as they leave class as their "ticket out the door."

Extending thinking activities, such as this one can also be expanded to have students use the vocabulary words to write their own historical narrative or historical fiction; or they can be adapted in terms of the number of words used. We, as teachers, are always so rushed to move forward with our curriculum that we must take the time to continually assess whether students are really understanding what they are learning in the context we intend it. This is one easy way to do it.