How can we use what we know to help us with what we don't know?

Here’s the scenario: I’m observing a lesson. Students are working in pairs to answer questions regarding a text they’ve read. Most seem stuck. I start to ask questions, and I discover many do not know the meaning of various words, both within the text and the questions. I ask how they might find out. Seems they’ve used the glossary and Google, but still don’t “get it”.

Time and again I am frustrated when observing students encountering assignments with text they do not understand. Inevitably, when I seek to question, I discover students lack the prior knowledge and strategies to help them make sense of unfamiliar vocabulary.  Simply copying a definition, looking up a word in the dictionary or Googling it does not provide enough prior knowledge and context to proceed with a higher-level assignment.  

Next point: there is a difference in giving an assignment and teaching.  Teaching requires establishing a point of prior knowledge and relevance, providing students with the strategies to complete an assignment proficiently and modeling the strategies for students so they are empowered for self-sufficiency. 

Reading is integrated in every content area and most assignments. A key component for successful reading is vocabulary.  If students are hindered by not understanding the meaning of vocabulary, they cannot possibly be successful.  Successful strategies for retaining vocabulary include tapping in to prior knowledge. Below are six strategies I utilize and model with students, but I also employ them in my own reading, as well.

How can I make meaning from text when I encounter vocabulary I do not understand?  Stop and ask yourself questions!

1.     Ask yourself, “Have I heard a word that sounds like this one before?”  What does it mean?

2.     Is there are smaller word within the larger word?  What does it mean?

3.     Does the word have a prefix or suffix?  What does it mean?  How does understanding the meaning of the prefix or suffix help me infer the word’s meaning?

4.     Read around the word you don’t know.  Is there another word or are there words that makes sense in its place?

5.     Read around the word you don’t know.  Look for words and information you DO understand.  Are there any clues in the sentences or paragraph that includes the word that help me infer what the word might mean?

6.     Always reread!

When I facilitate the reading of a text during a Socratic Seminar, or any reading experience, for that matter, I first ask students to underline or circle vocabulary needing clarification.  Interestingly, I get consistent responses for a text most of the time, regardless of the scenario.

So, let me give you an example:

The Preamble to the Constitution is one of my favorite seminars to facilitate.  Three vocabulary words consistently identified by students for clarification are domestic, tranquility and posterity.

Let’s look at the word, domestic.  Using the first strategy, ask yourself, “Have I heard a word that sounds like this one before? What does it mean?”  Quite often a student will say domestic animals.  My next question is, “Where do we find domestic animals?”  The answer is in the home, of course.  Finally, I ask students to connect home to the context of the preamble.  “Where is home?”  They get it!  It’s the United States.  Another consistent response with my initial question is “domestic abuse”.  The same follow-up works.

The second strategy, Ask, “Is there a smaller word within the larger word? What does it mean?” works well with the word, tranquility.  Many students are familiar with the smaller word, tranquil, and can define it as peaceful.  Other students are not, and they need to combine the first two strategies. They’ve heard the word, tranquilizer, and associate it with a tranquilizer gun used to sedate an animal or a tranquilizer, which is used as a sedative. The follow-up question or questions need to lead students to connect the action of sedating with a peaceful state.

Posterity has an obvious smaller word within it, but that smaller word is also used as a prefix, which is a huge clue to its meaning. So, at this point, we’re combining the second and third strategies. When students identify the smaller word, post, I ask, “What does post mean when used as a prefix?” It means after.  Now most often this is not enough to fully infer the meaning of posterity, so I turn to my fourth and fifth strategies.  I ask students to read around the word thinking about what word or words might take its place, considering the clues and information given to them in the text surrounding posterity. Often students infer posterity is someone or a group of people from reading around and rereading, so I must go a step further to remind them of the prefix, post, again. Who are the people who came after? It may have taken four or five integrated strategies, but they’ve got it!

As adults, we must model these strategies, as well as our self-questioning and our thinking for students, so they have the skills to become proficient thinkers and readers. We are teaching students to use what they know to help them with what they don’t know. After a certain amount of practice, it becomes a habit of mind. Just what we want!