TV411
How Many Languages Do You Speak When You Speak English?
What do the words pizza, broccoli, and ciao have in common? Why they are all English words that originally came from Italian. Ask your middle schoolers to guess the origins of a list of words by matching the word with the language from...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Infer the Meaning of a Word in Context
Work on developing strategies for determining the meaning of unknown words and phrases with a quick context clues exercise. Class members choose two words from their reading and write down what they think they mean and why. See the...
Curated OER
Context Clues Worksheet (Part 3)
Ask your pupils to become amateur detectives and use clues to determine the meaning of words. Once they have analyzed the clues, they write the meaning on a provided blank line. If they internalize this process, they can use context...
Curated OER
Context Clues Worksheet (Part 2)
One way you can help your learners with reading comprehension is by teaching them how to use context clues to help them figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words. Here is a resource that asks class members to practice that very skill....
Curated OER
Context Clues Worksheet (Part 1)
Practice using context clues to determine the meaning of specific words. Learners read a sentence and write the meaning of the underlined word on the line below each sentence. By practicing this skill, class members will soon be ready to...
Curated OER
What Does PAN Mean?
Do your middle school scholars need practice decoding words while reading or for spelling? The root word pan is the focus of a nine-step lesson that asks learners to discover ways to figure out the meaning of words built on a root that...
Curated OER
Symbiosis: Help, Hinder or Destroy
Use background information and vocabulary to familiarize your students with the concept of symbiosis and the role agriculture plays in the shared relationship. They then write the vocabulary in their lab books or journals, and read the...
Curated OER
Fruit or Vegetable?
Watermelon is a vegetable? A tomato is a fruit? Believe it or not, this debate is decades old. Groups examine rulings by the US Supreme Court, the USDA, and state statutes before developing their own criteria to use when labeling the...
Curated OER
A Tough Nut to Crack
Children, based on a set of criteria, evaluate the quality of pecans. They research recorded history of pecan trees as well as how their seeds moved across western Missouri into southeastern Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Mexico. In...
Curated OER
DNA Blueprint for Life
Did you know that meat tenderizers contain DNA cutting enzimes? Did you know that you can isolate your own DNA? Or the DNA of fruit? Explore with your learners the DNA world with a series of experiments using readily available materials...
Curated OER
Circles in the Landscape: Irrigating Oklahoma Crops
How do you grow crops in a area with insufficient rainfall? Why you irrigate, of course. Class members investigate irrigation systems by designing a system of their own. After examining irrigation related concepts, vocabulary terms, and...
Curated OER
Are You Thirsty? The Effects of Pollution on Drinking Water
Discuss the availability of clean, plentiful water and the causes of water pollution. In groups, sixth graders discuss problem-solving methods for keeping water clean. They explore the function of water treatment plants and perform...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Solving Word Meanings: Engaging Strategies for Vocabulary Dev.
A 5-lesson unit where students learn to use context clues and semantic gradients together to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words.
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Context Clues
[Free Registration/Login Required] This flipchart gives students practice using context to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Included are practice activities and assessment pages.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Diction
This lesson uses text and an accompanying audio to discuss diction including its definition, what it includes, and an explanation and an example of how word choice, word order, and phrasing can change the tone of writing.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Using Sentence Structure (Part of Speech)
This slideshow lesson focuses on using sentence structure and parts of speech to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. It explains how to look for parentheses or commas after unfamiliar words to help determine meaning; it also shows...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Vocab Tip: Create a Sentence
This video lesson provides a tip to learn new vocabulary. Look up the word in online dictionary, and then create a short sentence using the word including context clues and a familiar topic. Real Player is required.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Understanding New Vocabulary Within Context
Learn how to find the meanings of words through analogy and other word relationships.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Understand New Vocabulary Within Context (English 7 Reading)
You will learn how to determine or clarify the meaning of words using context within a sentence and in larger sections of text.
Student Achievement Partners
Achieve the Core: "Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution"
Lesson plan explores the meaning of the words in the Preamble to the Constitution.
PBS
Pbs: Academic Vocabulary in the Common Core: Middle School English Language Arts
This video [14:33] shows a demonstration of academic vocabulary instruction through the context of a complex work, a poem. The teacher demonstrates how to access the literal meaning of new vocabulary and then infer the deeper meaning....
Merriam-Webster
Merriam Webster: Word of the Day
This daily resource gives the word for the day, definition, example sentence and a "Did you know?" about the word.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Vocabulary: Understand New Vocabulary Within Context
A learning module that teaches students how to use context clues to understand new vocabulary words with six mini-lessons: Introduction, The Clues in Context, General/Inferential Context Clues, Definitions/Example Context Clues, Synonym...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Understanding New Vocabulary Within Context
This lesson focuses on ways to understand new vocabulary words in context. It provides an introduction with examples, information about how our language changes and how words get into the dictionary, and how to look outside the word to...