Strategies for vocabulary instruction in a social studies classroom

1. Strategies for vocabulary instruction in
a social studies classroom

2. Steps taken
The overall following steps are taken inside my classroom when I
am introducing new words to my students.
• I explain a new word(s) and what the definition is.
• I then ask the students to explain to a partner next to them in
their own words what it means.
• Throughout the unit the students will then see the words used
throughout literature, primary sources and other forms of
media.
• For homework or during class time I may ask the students to
create or find a picture that represents the vocabulary word.
• The end result is a discussion with a partner what the new
word/concept means and its impact on history.

3. Tier 3 Vocabulary
• Great Leap Forward
• Cultural Revolution
• Communes
• Red Guard

4. Images of vocabulary
I like to use
visual
images to
have the
students
make
connections
with the
vocabulary
words and
the meaning
behind
them.

5. Images of vocabulary

6. Instructional strategies
• “Digital tools have advantages. For example, many
allow students to:
• Read words in a variety of authentic examples;
• Hear pronunciations;
• View photos and images related to words
• Reinforce word learning through interactive games
• Play with and manipulate language
• Discover rhyming words; and
• Collaborate with classmates to create virtual words walls”
(Tyson, 2013)

7. Instructional strategies
examples
I love using Wordle in my
history classes because much
of what I look at are speeches
and other primary sources. By
inserting the speech into
Wordle the students are given
the chance to see which words
are key. Key questions that can
be asked are the following:
• The word cloud suggests
what about the speech?
• What are the most important
words?
• What connection can you
make about the most
important words and the
message of the speech?

8. Instructional strategies
examples
Free Rice is a website that I use in Global
Cultural Studies class based on a students
suggestion. For each answer they get right,
Free Rice will donate 10 grains of rice
through the World Food Program to help end
hunger. The kids loved this idea because
they felt like it centered around the “global”
part of our class.

9. Literature
All of the Tier 3 words appear in the book
Red Scarf Girl. Once the students have an
understanding of the definition they will then
have repeated exposure to the words
throughout the book. Research states,
“words are usually learned only after they
appear several times. Repeated exposure
could be in the same lesson or passage, but
the exposures will be most effective if they
appear over an extended time” (U.S.
Department of Education)

10. Example Connection from
Red Scarf Girl
• As we read in Red Scarf Girl, during the Cultural
Revolution, the Red Guards emerged as an
important social group for young people. In late
spring of 1966, Red Guard groups started to form
across China’s university and middle school
campuses as a reaction to an article exposing
bourgeois tendencies in the Communist Party.
Chairman Mao immediately expressed his support
for the Red Guards, resulting in the growth of Red
Guard groups throughout China. Former Red
Guards offer different reasons for becoming Red
Guards.
(Facing History and Ourselves, 2009).

11. Example Connection from
Red Scarf Girl
• One legacy of the Cultural Revolution is a robust commitment
to education. An entire Chinese generation was denied the
right to an education, a right articulated in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. When schools reopened in 1977,
millions of young Chinese took university entrance exams. Of
the 5.7 million who took the 1977 exam, only 300,000 were
admitted to universities. Many of these students have become
part of China’s cultural, political, and business elite, and others
have become political dissidents and democracy activists.
Their experiences during the Cultural Revolution have shaped
their ideals, often in terms of embracing more intellectual and
economic freedom than they experienced in their youth. Some
argue that the policies advanced by this generation have
resulted in the economic progress China has enjoyed over the
past three decades.
(Facing History and Ourselves, 2009).

12. Video clips
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGpmVs0_Dbc
By also providing the students
an opportunity to watch a video
on the Cultural Revolution and
Mao Zedong they will be able to
hear the vocabulary words and
placed with visual images to
help make connections.

13. • Facing History and Ourselves. (2009). Teaching Red Scarf Girl.
Brookline, MA:
• Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2012a). Improving adolescent literacy:
Content area strategies at work (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn &
Bacon.
• Tyson, K. (2013, February 10). 21 digital tools to build
vocabulary [Blog post]. Retrieved from
http://www.learningunlimitedllc.com/2013/02/20-digital-tools-
for-vocabulary/
• U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). Explicit vocabulary
instruction. Retrieved June 30, 2014, from
http://www.adlit.org/article/27738/