Standard 4: Vocabulary

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

5.4.R.3 Students will use context clues to determine or clarify the meaning of words or distinguish among multiple-meaning words.

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students use context clues to determine and clarify the meaning of words.
• Students use context clues to determine the meaning of words that have multiple meanings.
• Students identify types of context clues (website) and demonstrate application of context clues to infer meaning of grade level text.
• Students underline or highlight the type of context clue used to identify the meaning of a word or phrase.  
• Students use vocabulary words in sentences and include a context clue in their sentence.

• Teachers explain that context clues are the information from the text that helps identify a word or phrase.
• Teachers define and explain types of context clues, model how to use them, and provide students with opportunities to use context clues to determine the meaning of words.
• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback about students’ use of context clues to determine word meaning.
• Teachers model how to and provide students with opportunities to use context clues to determine the meaning of words when the words have multiple meanings.
• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback about students’ use of context clues to distinguish among multiple-meaning words.

Supporting Resources 

Teacher Insights 

Solving Word Meanings Using Context Clues

Context clues PDF

Read, Write, Think Lesson: Types of Context Clues (website)

4th-5th Student Centered Activities for Language (website) 

Overlapping Vocabulary and Comprehension: Context Clues Complement Semantic Gradients (webpage)

Identifying and Classifying Verbs in Context (website)

Flip-a-Chip (webpage)

Acquiring New Vocabulary Through Book Discussion Groups (webpage)

Using Word Webs to Teach Synonyms for Commonly Used Words (webpage)

Teaching Science Through Picture Books: A Rainforest Lesson (webpage)

My World of Words: Building Vocabulary Lists (webpage)

Knowing How Words Work Using Semantic Feature Analysis (webpage)

To, Too, or Two: Developing an Understanding of Homophones (webpage)

Peek, Peak, Pique: Using Homophones to Teach Vocabulary (and Spelling!) (webpage)

• Context clues are the information from the textual setting that helps identify a word or word group.

• There are four common types of context clues: definition, synonym, antonym, and inference.

• The context clue may appear within the same sentence as the word to which it refers, or it may follow in a preceding sentence.

• Multiple-meaning words are words that are spelled the same, are pronounced the same, but have different meanings that can be determined based on the context of the text. (For more on these types of word, see standard 4.R.4.)

• I will park the car so we can walk to the park.

• I left my phone on the left side of my desk.

• While you are at the play, I will play with my dog. 

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.