Teaching Strategies for Vocabulary Development.

If young people are to read with understanding and enjoyment, they must develop their vocabularies. Obvious? Of course, but teachers can speed up vocabulary growth by involving students in discovering and comprehending words and the ideas they convey. One especially useful technique for doing that is categorization. This technique improves prediction and problem-solving skills, but more importantly, it helps students find some sense and order in their own experiences. Three aspects of categorization, Word Fluency, the List-Group-Label Lesson, and Feature Analysis, are useful from primary grades through graduate school. The greatest benefit will come from using them in the order presented below.