When students do not understand an author's vocabulary, they cannot fully understand the text. Good vocabulary instruction emphasizes:

1. Level I Words: useful words (words that students see frequently),
2. Level II Words: important words/specialized words (key words that help students understand the text, common to all subject areas),
3. Level III Words: and difficult words/and subject specific words (idiomatic words, words with more than one meaning, etc.).

 In providing vocabulary instruction teachers can help students by:

1. Activating their prior knowledge
    
2. Defining words in multiple contexts
    
3. Helping them see context clues
    
4. Helping them understand the structure of words, e.g., prefixes, roots, and suffixes
    
5. Teaching them how to use a dictionary and showing them the range of information it provides
    
6. Encouraging deep processing. Students need to integrate new words into their working vocabularies.
    
7. Giving them multiple exposures
    
8. Focusing on a small number of important words. Ideally, the words should be related so that the depth of concept development can be increased.
9. Specific Strategies:                        
   • Analogy Graphic Organizers
   • Classifying Words
   • Concept of Definition Map
   • Concept Wheel
   • Cooperative Group Structures in Vocabulary Instruction
   • Direct Vocabulary Instruction
   • Focus on Words With Multiple Meanings
   • LINK Strategy
   • List-Group-Label Strategy
   • Literary Language
   • Parts of Speech to Learn Vocabulary
   • Peer Vocabulary Teaching
   • Pre-Assess Vocabulary
   • Quiz-Me Vocabulary Cards
   • Role Play Vocabulary
   • Semantic Feature Analysis
   • Shades of Meaning
   • Specialized Word Lists
   • Semantic Word Map
   • Structural Word Analysis
   • Teaching Vocabulary in Context
   • Visual Representations to Understand Word Meanings
   • Vocabulary Notebooks
   • Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy
   • Wide Reading
   • Word Games
   • Word Sorts
   • Word Walls
   • Writing Specific Word Lists 
10. On-Line Resources
    • A Very-Brief History of the English Language: Helps to explain the variety of forms of English due to multicultural influences. Includes the Lord's Prayer in Old, Middle, and Modern English.
    • Literacy Matters: Vocabulary Instruction Sites
    • English Web Teacher: Etymology:

      This page focuses on etymology. Other resources for teaching vocabulary are available on the Spelling and Vocabulary page and the Words at Play page.