LESSON IDEAS #2: THE COLLECTIVE VOCABULARY ANALYSIS IDEA

It’s interesting to think about how you approach vocabulary when students are working on texts. There should be quite a lot of unknown words in any text when the level is appropriate. Here’s an idea I’ve been developing that feels like the correct way to approach vocabulary in a collaborative, social way.

THE IDEA

1 I tell students to go through their text and note down all words that are either completely unknown or somewhat unclear. I stress to students they must not read their text in any detail – they are only scanning for unknown words

2 Students add each words into a numbered list

3 After completing their lists, students work through their numbered lists together and help each other undersand meaning where they can

4 After pairs have completed their work, we compile a class list on the board of all the words collected

5 We go through the lists and check comprehension as a group

I think the idea has several advantages – the creation of the list makes is systematic and also functions as a kind of assessment of the level of any text. You know there’s an issue, for example, when you have students in a class who aren’t writing any words at all. Conversely, if students are producing lists of 20+ words then you have a problem in the other direction.

This approach is organised and productive and helps both you and the learner see the scale of the learning challenge when it comes to texts.

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