Let’s Take a [Chapter Vocabulary] Walk!

When introducing this Before activity to students, the teacher should present the vocabulary slideshow so that all students can see how the slideshow will be completed. 

This can be a digital or paper-copy resource depending on the need/available resources.

The teacher can say to the students: “I have made a big master list of vocabulary words that you will find in this novel unit. Take a second to look that over - and don’t lose this! This is your reading “baby” until this novel is finished (give students time to glance over it). I want you first to highlight in YELLOW the words you do NOT know (give students a second to complete this). Then, take that GREEN highlighter, and highlight the words we DO know (again, give students time to complete this).”

“Great! Are you surprised by what you do know versus what you don’t? Our goal is to get that entire sheet GREEN before the end of this novel. We can do it! Now I will also give you some working vocabulary slides in a Slideshow to complete. You do not have to have read the book before completing this. This will actually help you in your reading. You’ll know the word’s meaning before seeing it. Once you see it, the context will make so much more sense. Some of these words are words you will start to notice in your day-to-day conversations, others you will only notice in texts that relate to the culture/geographical area we are studying.”

“Let’s look at slide #1. This is your title slide. Here, we will fill in the blank with our reading piece title. Let’s put that together (the teacher will type it in or write it in - a Doc Cam would be useful here if writing). Now, to slide #2. Any volunteers to read these instructions?”

(Either teacher or student(s) read those out loud.)

“Great - now the only way to really learn is to jump in and do it. I will coach you through this first word.”

(Together, the class should fill in the following on the first VOCABULARY slide):

1. Chapter title and vocabulary term. Teachers will need to duplicate Slide #3 as many times as required for each set of vocabulary words given to students - so the terms should already be placed in before they are given to students.
2. Use physical dictionaries or head to dictionary.com to look up the first term, then record its part of speech and definition.
3. Use physical copies or head to thesaurus.com to then find one (1) antonym and one (1) synonym for the word.
4. Finally, let’s insert a picture that is relevant to the term!
5. Allow students about 15 minutes to work independently or with a partner to complete pre-reading vocabulary slides.

“Now that we are done, my question to you is this: Initially, were the words you knew - that you highlighted in green - words you actually knew? If so, place a checkmark next to those. If not? Circle the word. Now, if there were words you did NOT know, and now you do because you looked them up, also circle those. When you feel like a master of those circled words (i.e., seeing it in the reading), then I want you to keep your circle and place a checkmark next to that circled word. At the end of this, we will post, on sticky notes, all the words we have learned.”