Another Vocab Strategy...cloze!

Here is another technique that I knew...but may have forgotten.  Back in the days when I taught k-2, I always made charts and used color.  I still do...but then, I was more interactive. I would often give students a word card and have them place it on a big book page, or in a pocket chart or even on a chart.  Why did I never think to do this with upper grades? 

Here is another strategy I "re-learned" at the FOSS embedded language workshop.  Why not take the information from your study guide and make a review chart on it?  Then hand out the vocab cards and have the kids tape them in the right spot? You can use it more than once...simply take the cards off and do it again. Our students with limited language knowledge really benefit from the repetition, the color and the concrete application. 

Next, I stepped it up a notch and added one for a scientific diagram.  Here in Virginia, we have to teach the students all the names of the part of the flower.  It is REALLY HARD for me to remember, much less, the students.  So, I made a diagram with the terms on them to practice several times as a warm up or review.

Let me caution,,,this does NOT take the place of the hands-on activity.  I wouldn't use either chart until the kids had had multiple exposure to plants in a hands-on way. Active engagement is KEY to understanding.  However, review and practice is too...