Kindergarten teacher Emma Orsby-Jackson uses picture cards to introduce her students to new vocabulary words, then reads a story that uses the new words. She also takes time several times a day to talk with students, recasting their simple vocabulary during the conversation to use newly acquired target vocabulary words. These conversations give students valuable experience using new vocabulary and talking with an adult.
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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