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5 Tips to Help Students Master Vocabulary Hi, teacher friends! Let’s talk about an important topic that is part of just about every classroom…teaching vocabulary! We know that understanding vocabulary is highly connected to reading comprehension, and allows students to communicate their thoughts and express ideas about a topic. Vocabulary acquisition is a BIG part of our science and social studies units. Check out 5 ways to help students acquire vocabulary in your classroom starting NOW!   1.         Exposure, exposure, exposure!!!! --Did you know that it can take students anywhere from 4-40 exposures to learn a new word? This is all dependent on their previous vocabulary knowledge, but for many of our students, this background knowledge can be limited. It is our job to provide direct and indirect exposure of words, so make sure to provide many opportunities for this!    2.     Read Alouds and Independent Reading ...

  We love this easy system for getting students to write about an informational topic. After students understand how each graphic organizer is used, then YOU will save time with procedures and allow students to spend more time writing.  1.   Identify the topic Make it clear and concise.  2.      Get the Gist to identify the most important part of the topic Have students talk with a partner or work independently to decide what the most important part of the topic is in just ten words or less. This is essentially, the “main idea” of an informational text. 3.     Brainstorm important facts or details onto a Graphic Organizer Students will brainstorm by writing their top 4 interesting facts on the graphic organizer. This organizer can also be used to write adjectives to describe the topic which is an easy way to differentiate. Grab a FREE graphic organizer right here that can be used with any topic! 4.      Paragrap...

Do you find that it is difficult for some of your students to demonstrate their knowledge on informational topics whether it be through speaking or writing? Some students could read informational text over and over without being able to adequately show you what they know. Reasons for this include limited schema on the topic, communication limitations and an inability to organize their thoughts. One strategy that is extremely beneficial for helping students organize information to improve their ability to verbally explain or write on an informational topic is to use visual anchor charts. Incorporating anchor charts for any type of learning will benefit your visual learners. While it does take a little prep work on the teacher’s part, the benefits are well worth it!!! The perfect time to create an anchor chart is after you present learning and before they are expected to demonstrate their understanding at any level. We present learning in the format of a PowerPoint presentation paired ...