Vocabulary: Classification

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Vocabulary Classification
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• Explain to students that categorizing words can
  help them think about how words are related.
  Point out that categorizing is more helpful than
  trying to memorize a random list of words.
• When students learn new words, have them look for
  similarities and place them into categories.

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• By placing words into categories you can better
  remember their meanings. Categorization is a
  strategy that can help you learn new words in any
  subject.

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LA. A. 1.2.3

• The student uses simple strategies to determine
  meaning and increase vocabulary for reading,
  including the use of prefixes, suffixes, root
  words, multiple meanings, antonyms, synonyms, and
  word relationships.

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Objective

• Students classifying vocabulary words by relating
  them to other words with similar meanings or
  related groups.

TASTE COLORS CAREER WORDS
bitter indigo designer
sour crimson ambassador
delectable ivory employ
tangy teal geologist
violet professional
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• Teach Students the Meanings of Specific Words
• 300-400 new word meanings can be taught per year
  through direct instruction. This is a significant
  proportion of the words that students who are at
  risk will learn. (Stahl Shiel, 1999)
• Select words to teach that are important for
• understanding text.
• Words that students will encounter often,
  functionally
• important words.
• Use both context and definitions
• Find a synonym or antonym
• Classify the word with other words

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Key Words

• The word _______ probably means
• __________ is a kind of
• __________ is a synonym for
• __________ means the opposite of

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The Frayer Model
Example field prairie pasture Nonexample mountain ocean tundra
Definition A grassy area often used for growing hay Other connecting information The meadow that
meadow
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Semantic Feature Analysis

• This strategy effectively teaches vocabulary by
  activating prior knowledge and classifying new
  words by their features. A matrix is created with
  vocabulary words that have similarities on the
  left-hand side, and features of those words at
  the top of the matrix.
•  

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Hierarchical Arrays

• Heirarchical Arrays help students understand
  how words are related to each other and show the
  relationships among word meanings. A sample
• hierarchical array is shown below.
•  

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Example
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Item Type

• Multiple Choice
• Sample
• Which words from the story have almost the same
  meaning?
• Complained, wondered
• Passed, waited
• Puffed, popped
• Watched, looked

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Word Parts

• affixes (prefixes and suffixes), base words, and
  word roots.

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Affixes

• word parts that are "fixed to" either the
  beginnings of words (prefixes) or the ending of
  words (suffixes). The word disrespectful has two
  affixes, a prefix (dis-) and a suffix (-ful).

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Base words

• words from which many other words are formed.
• For example, many words can be formed from the
  base word migrate migration, migrant,
  immigration, immigrant, migrating, migratory.

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Word roots

• words from other languages that are the origin
  of many English words. About 60 of all English
  words have Latin or Greek origins.

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Third Grade FCAT

• Distractors may include, but not limited to the
  following
• Incorrect meanings of words or phrases
• Correct meanings of words or phrases
• that do not fit the context
• Words with construct similar to correct response
  (e.g. same prefix)
• Incorrect interpretations of contractions

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Fourth Grade

• Distractors may include, but not limited to the
  following
• Incorrect meanings of words or phrases
• Correct meanings of words or phrases that do not
  fit the context
• Words with construct similar to correct response

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Fifth Grade

• Distractors may include, but not limited to the
  following
• Incorrect meanings of words or phrases
• Correct meanings of words or phrases that do not
  fit the context
• Words with construct similar to correct response
• Plausible but incorrect responses based on the
  text

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Response Attributes

• Items assessing antonyms should not include
  synonyms as distractors similarly, items
  assessing synonyms should not include antonyms as
  distractors.