National Behaviour Support Service
Academic Vocabulary Building Activities
Suggestions for using Roberto Marzano's six-step approach to academic vocabulary instruction are detailed in a packet that includes graphic organizers, worksheets, and activities.
Curated OER
Shizuko’s Daughter: Graphic Organizer
Help young readers align character relationships in an activity for Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter. After kids discuss the characters and how they relate to each other, they use index cards and a graphic organizer to outline the ways...
2012 Teaching Resources
Analyzing Character Traits
Character analysis becomes easy with a 24-page packet packed with mini-lessons, graphic organizers, and activities. A must-have for your curriculum library.
Curated OER
Walk Two Moons: Word Frame
Middle schooler practice their dictionary and thesaurus skills with this vocabulary assignment. Using the provided graphic organizer and the word list from Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech, readers define each word, and find a synonym...
Curated OER
Shizuko's Daughter: Concept of Definition Word Map
Help your class use critical thinking when it comes to unfamiliar words. With vocabulary from Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter, kids write the word in the center of a graphic organizer, and find its category, comparisons, examples, and...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: Animal Action ABC (Pandell)
Get your kinesthetic learners engaged in a vocabulary study using Karen Pandell's book, Animal Action ABC. They move around as you read, and raise their hands whenever they hear one of the words you are learning. Pre-teach the terms:...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Barrett)
Although this vocabulary strategy would work in the context of any text, it's a piece of cake if you're reading Judi Barrett's book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Go over the terms they will hear so pupils are ready to raise their...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: Countdown to Kindergarten (McGhee)
Budding readers will relate to Allison McGhee's story Countdown to Kindergarten in which a young girl is worried about not being able to tie her shoes once she gets to school. This is a fun way to teach vocabulary in context, although...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: Curious George Rides a Bike (Rey)
Are your learners curious about new words? Take them on an adventure with Curious George as they learn vocabulary in the context of H.A. Rey's book, Curious George Rides a Bike. Prepare budding readers by introducing the terms before...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: Firefighters (Mitten)
Your budding readers know what it's like to get to a word and think, "What does that mean?" Expand their vocabulary in context using Christopher Mitten's nonfiction picture book Firefighters. Get them ready by pre-teaching the new words...
EngageNY
Reading for Gist, Answering Text-Dependent Questions, and Determining Author’s Purpose: Industrial Organic Food Chain
After re-reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma using a Reading Closely: Guiding Questions handout, class members use sticky notes to annotate and determine the gist of the text. Finally, they use an Author’s Purpose graphic organizer to...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Vocabulary: Word Meaning, Oh My Word!
Ever come across an unfamiliar word while reading and can't decipher its meaning? Use a worksheet and graphic organizer that tracks and helps bring meaning to unknown words as learners read a text. A worksheet and graphic organizer come...
Lawrence Virtual School
Context Clues
Considering a lesson on using context clues to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words? This packet includes a brief reading passage about strategies readers can use and 12 very different graphic organizers, including a template for a...
Curated OER
Using Prefixes, Suffixes and Root Words to Improve College Level Vocabulary
Grow vocabulary skills with an understanding of affixes and word roots. Included here are a few activities and plenty of materials you can use to support your learners as the focus on building vocabulary.
EngageNY
Mid-Unit 2 Assessment: On-Demand Informational Writing
Lesson 7 focuses on building academic vocabulary and writing an explanatory letter with supported textual evidence. For the first five minutes of the instructional activity, the educator reminds the class of how to read and refer to the...
Curated OER
Making and Using a Graphic Organizer for Solving a Mystery
Students create tables in a word processing program which helps them organize their text clues when reading a mystery story. They develop reading comprehension strategies while using a computer based graphic organizer in order to solve...
PB Works
“George Washington’s Socks”: Vocabulary Part 1
Supplement a class reading of George Washington's Socks with this list of vocabulary words. Including a mixture of verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, this resource asks young readers to record the page number and a synonym for each...
K20 LEARN
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death: The Journey to Revolution
The words of "Common Sense" and Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech ring throughout history. Scholars explore the nuances of each patriot's argument using excerpts from the famous pamphlet and speech and a recorded...
Cornell University
Electric Vocabulary
Practice electric vocabulary using multiple methods. Learners begin by watching a video that explains vocabulary related to electric currents. They match vocabulary cards to practice and then create an electric circuit. Using the...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Unit 4 Math Vocabulary Cards (Grade 2)
Enhance math vocabulary instruction with a set of flash cards. The set displays words with bold font and corresponding picture cards with labels. Terms include estimate, regroup, round, add, and sum.
Curated OER
Vocabulary Instructional Routine: Multiple Meaning Words in Context
Tackle multiple-meaning words with your youngsters using this scaffolded instructional activity which features a detailed script. Begin with the word shoulder, using context clues to help scholars understand the meaning. Next, they...
Curated OER
Verdi
Third graders explore language arts by answering study questions about a book they read. In this reading summary instructional activity, 3rd graders read the book Verdi by Janell Cannon and identify the plot, characters and sequence of...
Curated OER
Understanding and Using Root Words to Expand Vocabulary
Middle schoolers engage in a lesson plan which reminds them that root words indicate the base meaning of a word, and that those roots are found in many different words that have similar meanings. Pairs of pupils use construction paper...
EngageNY
Relationships Between Key Scientific Concepts: What Causes Hurricanes?
A storm is brewing in the sea. Scholars complete multiple reads of How Does a Hurricane Form to determine gist, cause-and-effect relationships, and deepen vocabulary understanding. To finish, they complete graphic organizers to record...