Standard 4: Vocabulary

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

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will use context clues to determine the meaning of words.
• Students will use context clues to distinguish among multiple-meaning words.

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

• 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. Multiple-meaning words can also be called homonyms. (For more on these types of word, see standard 4.R.4.)

• Example: 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.