Vocabulary

I wish I knew where I found the vocabulary levels so I could give the author proper credit.

Each week when introducing the new vocabulary words the students would rate the words.  It can be done on paper (make a list of the words for the students and they each rate the words) or it can be done using the smartboard.  (Each student had a card with the levels and meanings and a clicker.)  


Personally I liked the smartboard (using clickers) because of the graph generated by the results.     We would spend a little time discussing the graph and how about half the class really knew the word or less than a fourth of the class knows the word.  The graph fascinated the students.

I had to remind students to be honest about their knowledge of the words.  At the beginning everyone put their knowledge level of all words at 3 or 4.  Once they were comfortable with the knowledge that no one would know who put the rating of 1 or 2 they were honest.

Once we rated and discussed the graphs we moved on to a powerpoint with the words.  The powerpoint was loaded with pictures, clip art and video clips that were intended to help the student understand the meaning of the word.  The powerpoint was set up so the word did not appear until clicked to appear.  The students spent some time thinking about what word was represented, then discussed with a shoulder partner and finally I would make the word appear.  They loved being right.  I showed them an example of the word in a sentence then they spent some time thinking of a sentence to share with their shoulder partner.

Here are the levels (if you know who created this, please let me know):

1.  I never saw it before.
2.  I've heard it, but I don't know what it means.
3.  I recognize it in context as having something to do with...
4.  I know it well.