LESSON ONE: Heroic Vocabulary: Using Decoding Strategies and Thesaurus

                             

LESSON DESCRIPTION

Develop vocabulary through text using a thesaurus. Apply decoding strategies to problem-solve unknown words when reading. 

 

GRADE-LEVEL EXPECTATIONS

R1C         Apply decoding strategies to problem-solve unknown words when reading

R1E         Develop vocabulary through text using roots, affixes, and context clues

 

LESSON MATERIALS

§         Source of Literature

o            Copies of The Man in the Water (Billings’ Heroes: 21 True Stories of Courage and Honor—with Exercises for Developing Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking Skills, p.4, Jamestown Publishers, 1999)

 

§         Supplies 

 

§         Handouts provided

o        Formative assessment for Lesson One

 

§         Words to know

o        affixes

o        context clues

o        decoding strategies

 

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT 

From a quote by Theodore Roosevelt, rewrite the word valiantly as it is broken into syllables and use a thesaurus to expand the definition of hero.  Scoring guide provided.

 

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Part One

 

  1. Using a prewriting activity, discuss the general concept of heroes in today’s society. Students define the word hero in their own terms.

 

Idea  

Prompt:

Identify the characteristics of a hero by selecting someone you believe is heroic and list/map the qualities on paper.

       

Strategy

Identify and /or gather a variety of definitions or characteristics for “hero”.

 

  1. After completion of task, students orally share response while you record responses on board. Once all definitions/adjectives are listed, students create a class definition of a “hero” they all agree on.   

 

Questions

for

Students

Do heroes exist in today’s society?

Is there a difference between being a hero and being famous?

How does our culture honor heroes?

Are heroes found more often in particular occupations? If so, which ones and why?

 

Part two

Strategy

Several copies of a thesaurus or class set if possible.

 

  1.  Students use the thesaurus to identify other terms that will be synonymous with the terms selected in the            

class definition.

 

Strategy

Prompt:

Using a thesaurus, expand the class definition of a “hero” by identifying other vocabulary terms synonymous with or mean the same thing as the terms you selected. Write the new words on paper.

 

  1. When task is completed, students make amendments to the class definitions, if needed. This can be done

orally with students sharing new ideas/terms. 

 

Questions

for

Students

Which words mean the same as the original terms or close to it?

Which words are easier to understand?

How much has the definition changed by the new term, if any?

 

Strategy

Copies of the excerpt from The Man in the Water

List of words for practice:

§         carnivorous

§         preposterous

§         adventurous

§         ambiguous

§         continuous

 

  1. Model breaking words into syllables using Think-Aloud strategy (see Willhelm, Jeffrey, Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies, Chapter 12).

 

Strategy

In order to do this, students need to read a short excerpt from the every-day hero story, The Man in the Water.

Prompt:   You will be reading paragraph five only from the story A Man in the Water. Raise your hand if you can pronounce or sound-out the first word in line three (hideous).

 

Questions

for

students

How do you know where to break the word into parts?

In what tools/books can you find assistance in breaking words into syllables?