This video from SERVE illustrates how kindergarten teacher Cathy Garner using three methods to boost her students’ vocabulary. First, she shows students picture cards to help them put a name to each image. Then Garner reads a story aloud that uses the vocabulary from the picture cards. Finally, she takes time throughout the day to engage in rich conversation with her students, recasting their simple vocabulary to use the newly acquired target vocabulary words.
In the classroom featured in this video, ten target vocabulary words are introduced each week and are associated with a common theme. The themes are aligned with the state kindergarten thematic units from the Mississippi science and social studies standards. The target words are part of the general academic knowledge that all students would be expected to learn. Teachers are trained in five strategies for the explicit vocabulary instruction component: quick definitions, novel-name nameless-category strategy, repeated exposure to the words embedded in book reading, extension activities, and teacher-student conversations or discussions using the words.
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