Standard 4: Vocabulary

Students will expand their working vocabularies to effectively communicate and understand texts.

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will continue to infer relationships among synonyms and antonyms.

• Students will infer relationships among words that have the same spelling but are pronounced differently (homographs) (e.g. bass = fish, bass = instrument).

• Students will infer relationships among words that sound the same, but have different spellings and meanings (homonyms) (e.g. pair = set of two, pear = piece of fruit). 

• Teachers explain and review synonyms and antonyms.

• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback when inferring relationships among synonyms and antonyms.

• Teachers explain that homographs are words that have the same spelling but are pronounced differently.

• Teachers model using homographs and provide examples.

• Teachers provide opportunities for students to use their vocabulary knowledge to explain relationships among words that have the same spelling, but are pronounced differently.

• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback when inferring relationships among homographs.

• Teachers explain that homonyms are words that sound the same, but have different spellings and meanings.

• Teachers model using  personal vocabulary knowledge to show the relationship between words that sound the same, but have different spellings and meanings.

• Teachers provide opportunities for students to use their vocabulary knowledge to explain relationships among words that sound the same, but have different spellings and meanings.

• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback when inferring relationships among homonyms.

Supporting Resources 

Teacher Insights 

• Synonyms are words which have the same meaning (e.g. example, instance, occurrence)

• Antonyms are words which have opposite meanings (e.g., hot and cold).

• There are acute differences between homonyms, homographs, and homophones.

• Homonyms are words that have the same spelling but different meanings and origins (e.g., left [not right] and left [to leave behind]).

• Homographs are words that are spelled the same but are not necessarily pronounced the same and having different meanings and origins (e.g., tear [from the eye] and tear [rip open a present] ).

• Homophones are words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings, origins, or spelling (e.g., new and knew).

• For more information and clarification on these, the following article is helpful: Homonyms, Homophones, and Homographs for ESL Students.

• Inferring is making a reasonable assumption about meaning that is not explicitly stated in the text.

• The intent of this standard is for students to experience the process of inferring and to apply the skill of making reasonable assumptions by closely examining how words are related to each other (based on synonyms, antonyms, or multiple-meanings) for the purpose of vocabulary development.

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.