STANDARD-BASED LESSON PLANNING

Lesson Plan Design

The daily lesson plan is the most detailed standards-based plan that a teacher will
develop. It outlines the purpose and activities of what will be done on a specific day or
across several days. Unit plans help to turn year-long plans into daily plans. Standards-
based daily lesson plans are composed of objectives and activities that are based on
the unit plans. The standards-based daily lesson plan allows the teacher to make
academic learning relevant to students by intertwining content knowledge, information-
processing skills, and life experiences. The daily lesson plan includes the following
components:

1. Lesson Information
The teacher begins to plan each lesson by considering the students’
characteristics as well as the learning context. This consideration entails a
deep understanding of what he or she is to teach (content standards,
standards-based curriculum, and guidelines), what students should be able to
do, and what performance will look like when instruction has been completed.
Lesson information includes not only the content but also the learning and
developmental needs of the students. The teacher must consider the time he
or she has to complete the lesson and other resources available, and should
decide whether or not the lesson should take one class period or several.
Questions to ask include:

 Am I planning the right amount of activities for the time I have?

 Is the scope of the lesson too ambitious for the time allotted?
 Will students be able to stay on task, or will they become
disengaged because they’re spending too much time on one small
aspect of work?

Success in the lesson depends on how appropriate the focus, time frame,
activities, and assessments are for the students. It also depends on the skill
with which the teacher is able to match instructional strategies to student
learning needs.

2. Lesson Topic
The lesson should begin with a topic derived from the adopted standards-
based curriculum for a school or district. Because it relates to specific
information the teacher is trying to impart, the topic should be part of the
larger curriculum (such as unit instruction) required at your grade level.
 However, the specific topic for the lesson may emerge from student questions
or interests (e.g., a lesson about the environment or space exploration), from
community resources (e.g., the Rio Grande River, Manzano Mountains,
Carlsbad Caverns), from local expectations included in the content standards
(e.g., cattle ranching, New Mexico water rights, the connection between
language and culture), and other topics listed in the standards (e.g., data
analysis, geometry, life science).
 
3. Benchmarks and Performance Standards
Decide on the benchmarks and performance standards you will address
during the lesson. These may come from one content area or integrate
standards and benchmarks from several content areas. Remember to
consider how much time you have for the lesson.
 
4. Intended learning outcomes
“When first planning for instruction, teachers frequently focus on the selection
of content, teaching method, and instructional materials. These are all
important elements of instructional planning, but the entire process is more
effective if attention is first directed toward instructional objectives” (Gronlund,
2004, p. 3).

Intended learning outcomes:

 Are tied specifically to the standards or benchmarks addressed in

the lesson.
 Clarify intended learning outcomes for both the teacher and the
student
 Provide a focus for instructional planning
 Set the stage for teaching, learning, and assessment
 Identify specifically how learning will be evidenced

In the lesson plan, state your intended learning outcomes using the following
language:

 By the end of the lesson, students will be able to… (e.g., recognize
the leaves of piñon, aspen, and juniper trees; create a timeline of
nineteenth-century New Mexico.)

Clarify the intended learning outcomes for students by writing them on the
board or through some other visual format.
5. Instructional Resources
In your planning, carefully consider the resources that will support student
learning during the lesson.

These might include:

 Textbook or other reading materials

 Websites
 Word processors or other specific computer software
 Movies, CDs, of other media
 Guest speakers
 Project supplies, including posters, paper, markers, or tape
6. Arrangement of the Environment
Arranging the environment is a decision closely related to the ways in which
students will complete components of the lesson.

Questions to consider:

 Will students work in cooperative groups or independently?

 Will several activities take place during the lesson or require more
than one desk arrangement? How will transition between activities
take place?
 Will students move among learning centers that are set up in the
classroom?
 What arrangement will best support movement among these
centers?
 Will accommodations for special needs students need to be made
to support movement among centers or any other activities?
 Will students need to focus attention on a screen or guest speaker
at one point in the room?
 Where will supplies be located for easy access?
7. Instructional Activities
A good daily lesson plan will include at least the following:

a. Introduction
The beginning of the lesson should engage the students’ attention
and focus on the topic. Remember, activities should be based on
the standards-based curriculum. Activities might include a
challenging question, a quick survey of attitudes or beliefs about
 the topic, or a movie clip or other short media device to stimulate
discussion. Reviewing what the students know or have previously
experienced is key to the activity and would be an appropriate
introduction, as well.

b. Lesson development
Teachers should make students aware of the intended learning
outcomes of the lesson. Your description of each activity should
include a discussion of what you will do as the teacher and what
the students will do, as well. It is important for students to employ
higher order thinking skills so they may apply and synthesize new
content. Explain what modifications will be made for special needs
students. Remember that the time frame you have established for
this lesson. How long will each activity take to complete? How
many activities can students realistically engage in during the time
allotted?

c. Assessment activities
During the lesson, you should monitor student learning. Describe
specifically and in measurable terms how you will determine
whether students have met the intended learning outcomes. For
example, your description of the assessment process might include
statements such as the following:

 All students will actively participate in each

activity.
 All students will complete a timeline that
includes the important events discussed
during the lesson.
 All students will write a statement at the end of
the class about what they learned during the
lesson.
d. Wrap up:
End class with a restatement of the intended learning outcomes.
Decide on a way to close the activities. Will students reflect on
what they have learned? Will they turn in their work or complete it
as homework? Have you clearly defined expectations for their
homework assignment (if applicable)? Does the homework
assignment extend or complete the intended learning outcome?
 8. Teacher Reflection
When you have actually taught each lesson, write a reflection on
what occurred during the process. Did students meet the intended
learning outcomes of the lesson? Why or why not? Consider your
part in their success. Was the timeframe appropriate? Were your
directions clear? Did the activities you planned actually support the
intended learning outcomes or were they somehow off-track? Were
activities adequately modified for special needs learners in your
class? What activities would you do again? What would you do
differently next time?

It is important to recognize and incorporate students’ cultural and linguistic differences

while developing standards-based lessons. Listen as kindergarten teacher Veronica
Nolan explains how she includes her students’ culture into her classroom activities
(time: 1:34).

ANSWER:

1. What is a standard-based lesson plan?

2. What are the components you need to create a standard-based
lesson plan?

https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/cnm/cresource/q4/p16/

THE TEACHING OF LISTENING, READING, WRITING, SPEAKING, AND VIEWING

Language serves many purposes. Absence of language is mere dearth of

communication. The role that language plays is immense, since time embarked.
Identified as the need of the hour, the four necessities in language or commonly known
as the four skills- Reading, writing, listening and speaking plays a vital role in any
language learning quest… The four skills are the pinnacles of language which will take
you to greater heights. They are separate yet bound together with an inseparable bond.
Teachers should set high standards for an ESL classroom. They should work to create
the necessary condition for students to learn effectively and reach the desired outcome.
For the teaching of English to be successful, the four skills, reading, listening, speaking
and writing, should be integrated in an effective way. These skills should be addressed
in a way that helps students meet the standards you set for them and develop their
communicative competence gradually.
This encompasses : Listening and speaking: these two skills are highly interrelated and
work simultaneously in real life situations. So, the integration of the two aims at fostering
effective oral communication. This integration will assure real-life and purposeful
communication. Reading and writing: they form a strong relationship with each other as
skills. They are tools for achieving an effective written communication. Students need
opportunities to develop their reading and writing skills. Developing students’
competencies in reading and writing requires exposing students to gradually challenging
reading materials and writing tasks. The aim is making students read and write
effectively. In fact, the integration of listening and speaking with reading and writing will
make learners good listeners, speakers, readers and writers so as to be able to
communicate effectively. The mastery of these skills is a gradual process. Teachers, for
instance, should expose learners to gradually challenging tasks and material.
http://journals.euser.org/files/articles/ejls_jan_apr_15/Lorena_Manaj.pdf

Basic Ideas And Techniques For Teaching The Four Language Skills

Stages of teaching a listening activity

Before listening:

Prepare students for the listening activity by:

 Making them interested with an interesting introduction to the topic.

 Giving them a reason for listening asking them a question to answer.
 Explaining the new words.
 Explaining the new structures.

During listening:

 Students listen to the text for the first time.

 Helping them guess what will happen next after listening to a part of the text.
 They compare their predictions after their first listening.
 Ask some questions to answer before they listen a second time.
 Students listen a second time.
  They do some activities e.g. filling in a table while listening the second time.

Post listening

 Check students’ understanding of the whole listening text by asking more

questions on details.
 The teacher reads aloud the text (the story) from the audio script with five or six
mistakes (not the grammar of course). Students correct these mistakes either
immediately or by making a list of these mistakes and tell the teacher of them
after listening.

Techniques to teach reading:

1. KWL Technique (What I know – What I want to know – What I learned)

In this technique:

 The teacher uses a picture or the title to ask the students to say everything they
know about the subject they’re talking about and lists their pieces of information
(What I know)
 Students ask questions to get information about the topic they are reading about.
The teacher accepts any questions that the students ask (What I want to know)
 He/she gives answers to the questions the students asked. The teacher lists
these pieces of information (What I learned)

2. DRTA Technique (Directed Reading Thinking Activity)

In this technique:

 The teacher asks students what they think a story or text with a title like this
might be about. Students then read part of the story or text.
 The teacher asks the students what they think now. Are their guesses right or
wrong?
 The teacher asks students what it is in the story or text that makes them think
this.
 The teacher asks the students what they think will happen next.

Teaching Speaking
Speaking problems and their solution
Problem Solution

Some students are afraid of making Be patient and encourage group work.  Correct
 mistakes. only serious mistakes.

Some students don’t get a chance to

Speak to them after the lesson.
take part in speaking.

Passive students don’t participate in

They need help and attention from the teacher.
speaking.

The topic is not interesting to students. Move on to a different topic.

Some of our students speak very

Encourage them to speak loudly.
quietly.

Speaking activities

There are six activities a teacher should use in speaking:

1. Students make sentences about themselves.

2. The teacher asks a question to one student who, in turn, asks another friend to
answer.
3. He/she tells a learner to ask another learner one question.
4. The teacher asks a question and encourages students to give short, realistic
answers.
5. He/she asks the students to give a response of more than one sentence.
6. The teacher gives a real answer and asks the students to make a question for it.

Teaching Writing

There are three stages to deal with writing: before writing, during writing, and after
writing.

Before writing (4 steps):

Students get enough ideas and information necessary for writing. It helps learners focus
on the purpose and possible readers of their written work before starting writing.

1. Grouping discussion.

Encourage your students to discuss a certain topic in groups. The advantages of this
are:

 It helps students get different viewpoints.

 Stronger students can help weaker students.
  It helps the teacher find out whether his students have enough vocabulary and
are good at language structures.

2. Sunshine outline.

 Students draw rays coming from the sun and write a question word on each ray:
who, what…etc.
 Help students think of possible questions that begin with these question words.
Then, they write a phrase or two to answer these questions.

3. Oral brainstorming.

This is done orally. It involves the use of questions. The teacher can write these
questions on the board and ask each student to think out answers to them. The teacher
should bear in mind the following points:

 Accept all students’ answers.

 There are no wrong or right answers.
 Never force the students to follow your viewpoints.
 Never interrupt the students during answering.

The teacher discusses the answers with his students. Then, he asks them to go to the
next step.

4. Interviewing.

Students interview each other. They share viewpoints and ideas. They usually share
their personal experiences and think about them during the interview. This makes
students relaxed and reduces the fear of writing.

During writing (3 steps): 1. Drafting, 2. Revising and 3. Editing.

 The teacher tells his students to write on every other line of their paper to allow
room for revising and editing.
 They write the first form of their writing.
 Then they revise whether the content of their writing is clear or not, either in pairs
or alone.
 Students edit their writing, either in pairs or alone, as they focus on grammatical,
spelling, and punctuation mistakes they might have in their writing.
 In the end, they write the final form of their writing.
After writing (3 steps):
1. Publishing students’ writing:

The teacher encourages his students to publish their writing in different ways, e.g. in
classroom, school, newspaper or magazine. They can collect their written work in a
classroom book. They can put it in the classroom, school library. Students can borrow it
and read it.

2. Classroom discussion:

Students can read their writing to the whole class, in groups or in pairs. This helps
students practice listening to and speaking about their writing.

3. Drawing pictures based on the writing:

Students start drawing pictures based on their writing. This helps students realize that
learning English can be fun, enjoyable and interesting.

https://elttguide.com/basic-ideas-and-techniques-for-teaching-the-four-language-skills/

ANSWER:
1. What is the relationship between the four language skills?

11 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR STUDENTS’ ORAL LANGUAGE SKILLS

 JANUARY 23, 2018

Oral language is one of the most important skills your students can master—both for
social and academic success. Learners use this skill throughout the day to process and
deliver instructions, make requests, ask questions, receive new information, and interact
with peers.

As a teacher, there’s a lot you can do during your everyday lessons to support the
development of strong oral language skills in your students. Today’s post, excerpted
and adapted from Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, OWL LD, and Dyscalculia, by Berninger &
Wolf, gives you 11 ideas for supporting oral language development in your students
who are verbal. These teaching strategies can help students with specific language
disabilities (including dyslexia), and they can boost the language skills of your other
learners, too. Try these and see which ones work best for your students!

Encourage conversation.
Every social interaction gives students a new opportunity to practice language. Some of
your students might need a little guidance from you to engage in conversations, so
spark interactions whenever you can. Ask questions, rephrase the student’s answers,
and give prompts that encourage oral conversations to continue.

Model syntactic structure.

Your students may not use complete oral syntax in informal speech, but encourage
them to do so when they’re in the classroom. When a student uses fragmented syntax,
model complete syntax back to them. This builds oral language skills and gives students
practice in a skill necessary for mastering written language.

Maintain eye contact.

Engage in eye contact with students during instruction and encourage them to do the
same. Maintaining eye contact will help learners gauge their audience’s attention and
adjust their language, their volume, or the organization of their speech. This will help
them be better understood, communicate more clearly, and successfully interpret
nonverbal cues about their clarity.

Remind students to speak loudly and articulate clearly.

Ask students to feel the muscles used for speech while they’re talking and monitor their
volume and articulation. Remind them that clear and loud-enough speech is essential
for holding the attention of the group and communicating their information and opinions
effectively.

Explain the subtleties of tone.

Your students have probably experienced playground arguments related to tone;
misunderstandings are common when students are using loud outdoor voices. Remind
your students how tone of voice—which includes pitch, volume, speed, and rhythm—
can change the meaning of what a speaker says. Often, it’s not what they say, it’s how
they say it that can lead to misunderstanding of motives and attitudes. Ask your
students to be mindful of tone when they’re trying to get a message across, and adjust
their volume and pitch accordingly.
Attend to listening skills.
Ensure that your students are listening by using consistent cues to get their attention.
You might use a phrase like “It’s listening time” to give students a reminder. Some
students might also benefit from written reminders posted prominently on your wall.

Incorporate a “question of the day.”

During each school day’s opening activities, ask a question to encourage talk. (You can
even write one on the board so your students can read it and start thinking about their
answer as soon as they come in.) Start with simple one-part questions like “What is
your favorite animal?” If a student doesn’t answer in a complete sentence, model a
complete sentence and ask the student to repeat your model. Once your students are
successfully answering these simple questions in complete sentences, move to two-part
questions that require more complex answers: “What is your favorite animal? Why?”

Compile a class booklet of students’ phrases.

Give your students a sentence to finish, such as “When my dog got lost I looked…”
Have each student contribute a prepositional phrase to complete the sentence (e.g., at
the grocery store, in the park, under the bed). Then have your students create a class
booklet by writing and illustrating their phrases. When all the phrase pages are
assembled into a booklet, students can practice reading the very long sentence with all
the places they looked for the dog. Encourage them to come up with a conclusion to the
story.

Question to boost comprehension.

Asking questions before and after a reading assignment not only helps sharpen oral
language skills, it also helps students think about what they’re reading and absorb
information from the words. You might try the following strategies to facilitate reading
comprehension:

 If there’s an introduction to the story or passage, ask students to read it and

answer purpose-setting questions: “Where does the story begin? “What kind of
story or article is this? Why do you think so?”

 Ask students to predict outcomes: “What will happen? How do you know?”

 After the reading, ask students to reveal whether their predictions were correct
and identify where the ending or conclusion begins.
  Have students summarize the passage: “Who were the characters?” “What was
the plot?” “What was the outcome?” “What was the main idea?” “What were the
supporting details?”

Never assume students understood your instructional talk.

You use oral language every day to teach—but some students may not be getting your
message. In this chart from Berninger & Wolf’s book, Beverly Wolf shares some
examples of how students in her classroom misinterpreted sentences delivered orally:

Be aware of the potential disconnect between what you say and what your students
hear. Go over your message and present it in multiple ways to be sure all students
understand.

Teach concept words.

Some students may have difficulty with abstract concepts such as before,
after, or following, and with sequences such as days of the week or months of the year.
To help students learn and retain these concepts, you may need to present and review
them many times and in multiple ways. For example:

 You might ask students to identify which holiday comes in each month and then
review holidays for other months in sequence: “Groundhog Day is in February.
What holiday is in March? In April?”

 Have students identify the month before or after a given month. “May is before
June and after April.” “May is between April and June.”

Oral language is one of the foundational building blocks of learning. Try these
suggestions with your students, and give them the boost they need for future academic
and social success.

 https://blog.brookespublishing.com/11-ways-to-improve-your-students-oral-language-
skills/
GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE

Grammar is important because it provides information that helps the reader's

comprehension. It is the structure that conveys precise meaning from the writer to the
audience. Eliminate grammatical errors from your writing, and reward your readers with
clear communication.

Different Methods of Teaching Grammar

English grammar is notoriously difficult to learn for both native and second-language
speakers. There are so many intricacies, obscure rules, and exceptions that it comes as
no surprise that different generations of teachers have used various approaches to
teaching grammar to train literate English writers. In the past, memorization-based
techniques that relied on repetition slowly gave way to more creative methods. Today,
we live in a society that prizes literacy and is willing to adapt to more effective methods
to achieve the best results in teaching grammar.

Inklyo has a Grammar Boot Camp you might want to check out. Below, you’ll learn
some of the other methods for teaching grammar.

Diagramming Sentences
One of the older forms of teaching grammar, diagramming sentences, first appeared in
the 19th century. This method involves visually mapping the structures of and
relationships between different aspects of a sentence. Especially helpful for visual
learners, this method disappeared from modern teaching at least 30 years ago.
Different forms of diagramming are used to visualize sentences, from the Reed-Kellogg
System to dependency grammar, but all organize the functions of a sentence in a way
that illustrates the grammatical relationships between words. More recently,
diagramming sentences has had a small pop-culture resurgence in prints of famous
opening sentences and websites that allow you to diagram to your heart’s content.

Learning Through Writing

This method is often used in schools in the U.S. and Canada. Students are encouraged
to explore language through creative writing and reading, picking up correct grammar
usage along the way. If there are specific problems with certain grammatical rules,
these are covered in a more structured lesson. An emphasis is now being placed
upon language acquisition over language learning, as it has been observed that
learning grammar by memorization does not work well and that students are better able
to recognize and understand grammatical rules when lessons are more interactive (i.e.,
they have to apply these rules in their own writing). Repeated practice is also important
and easily achieved through creative or personal writing exercises. This article, posted
by The Atlantic, suggests that to better equip future adult writers, teachers in the 21st
century should consider dropping outdated grammar teaching techniques in early
education and opt for learning through writing techniques.

Inductive Teaching
The inductive method of teaching grammar involves presenting several examples that
illustrate a specific concept and expecting students to notice how the concept works
from these examples. No explanation of the concept is given beforehand, and the
expectation is that students learn to recognize the rules of grammar in a more natural
way during their own reading and writing. Discovering grammar and visualizing how
these rules work in a sentence allow for easier retention of the concept than if the
students were given an explanation that was disconnected from examples of the
concept. The main goal of the inductive teaching method is the retention of grammar
concepts, with teachers using techniques that are known to work cognitively and make
an impression on students’ contextual memory.

Deductive Teaching
The deductive method of teaching grammar is an approach that focuses on instruction
before practice. A teacher gives students an in-depth explanation of a grammatical
concept before they encounter the same grammatical concept in their own writing. After
the lesson, students are expected to practice what they have just been shown in a
mechanical way, through worksheets and exercises. This type of teaching, though
common, has many people—including teachers—rethinking such methods, as more
post-secondary level students are revealing sub-par literacy skills in adulthood. As one
former teacher states, deductive teaching methods drive many students away from
writing because of the tediousness of rote learning and teacher-centered approaches.

Interactive Teaching
Another method of teaching grammar is to incorporate interactivity into lessons. Using
games to teach grammar not only engages students but also helps them to remember
what they’ve learned. This method allows teachers to tailor their lessons to the different
learning styles of students. For instance, each student can be given a large flashcard
with a word on it, and the students must physically arrange themselves into a proper
sentence. Other games can include word puzzles or fun online quizzes.

Over the years, many methods have been developed for teaching grammar and have
been built upon, abandoned, or combined, all with the same goal in mind—teaching
students how to communicate effectively and understand how to use the English
language. Because of the grammatical complexity of English, each method has its pros
and cons. Some lessons are less likely to be remembered, while others may require
more in-depth explanation and practice. Regardless of how grammar is taught, a well-
rounded understanding of English grammar is the most important factor in improving the
literacy of students.

https://www.inklyo.com/methods-of-teaching-grammar/

Five Suggestions for Teaching Grammatical Structures

• Form reinforces content. Throughout the writing process, idea development is
influenced by choices of grammatical structures within and among sentences.
• Use the term grammatical structures rather than grammar rules. Students need to
focus on the structuring of ideas, not the memorizing of rules.
• Emphasize a limited number of grammatical structures and editing conventions at any
one time. Address more throughout the school year.
• Each class is different. Only through analysis of your student writing can you
determine which grammatical structures and conventions you need to teach each year.
Depth, not breath is foremost.
• Learning to write well is like learning to paint well: the study of the masters and daily
practice, including sentence modeling, is essential. In Constance Weaver’s The
Grammar Plan Book (2007), the following ideas are suggested for implementing these
five thoughts.
A Framework for Teaching Grammatical Structures
1. Share a mentor model from the following possible sources: literature previous
student or a current student created by you, the teacher, in anticipation of this lesson
composed by you, the teacher, during the class spontaneously
 2. Create another sample: First by the teacher and next by the teacher and students
together
3. Practice composing the sentence in small groups or pairs and discuss as needed.
4. Students compose a sentence or sentences individually and report out and share.
5. Have students use the new grammatical structure in their own draft writing piece.
6. Provide a checklist for students to include the sentence structure in their final revision
or in the editing stage.
7. Plan for peer feedback and/or teacher feedback. 8. When the need arises, re-teach
the grammatical concept using different mentor samples.
http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7581/urlt/0064045-fivesuggestions.pdf

ANSWER:
Why do we need to learn grammatical structures?

USING A STORY AS A SPRINGBOARD IN A GRAMMAR LESSON

Story Springboards in a Grammar Lessons is a series designed to help teachers teach

grammar with confidence and make vocabulary, grammar and punctuation a stimulating
and fun learning experience for all learners using a story or narrative.
Story grammars seek to heighten student awareness of the structure of narrative
stories. As an instructional technique, teachers use story grammars to help students
identify the basic elements of narrative text, including setting, theme, plot, and
resolution.
https://www.consortiumeducation.com/grammar-springboards-3

ANSWER:
How can story springboard help a teacher in teaching grammar lesson?
DEVELOPING VOCABULARY AND SPELLING SKILLS

Spelling tips

1. Know the rules. They aren’t consistent and there are plenty of exceptions, but it’s
still worth learning some spelling rules in English. When you learn a rule, be sure
to review a set of common examples that demonstrate it, as well as words that
break the rule. You may decide to pick up a page of English text and underline all
of the words that conform to the rule. When you’re done, look for the exceptions,
as you are sure to find a few! 
 
2. Study Dolch Words. Also called Sight Words, these are among the most frequent
words in English and account for up to 50% of most texts. They include
prepositions, verbs, adjectives, articles and adverbs and overlearning them will
allow you to spend more time learning the spelling of harder, less frequent
vocabulary. 
 
3. Recognize prefixes and suffixes. When one or two letters appear at the start of a
word and change the meaning in a consistent way, it is called a prefix. For
example, re- means to do something again, such
as review, regenerate, reiterate. A suffix added to the end of a word functions in
a similar way. For example, we use –s or –es to make a noun plural. English is
full of common suffixes and prefixes that you can learn. Familiarizing yourself
with them will help you to see the various parts of a word and improve your
spelling. 
 
4. Read as often as you can. Every language has common combinations of
consonants and vowels. The more you read, the more you will be exposed to
them and the more familiar they will become. It’s easier to learn the spelling of a
word that you already recognize.
 
5. Look for patterns. The human brain is very good at spotting patterns. If you
present it with examples of words that contain a similar letter combination, you
can learn English spelling rules indirectly. Try taking a highlighter and underlining
words with the same or similar spelling across a newspaper page. Next, see if
you can write out a rule that describes what you see. Acquiring rules in this way
 makes them easier to remember, thanks to the extra cognitive energy you
expend figuring them out on your own.
 
6. Use mnemonics. Hard to spell words can sometimes lend themselves to visual or
auditory cues that create a more robust memory. For example, the
word Wednesday can be tricky to spell because the d is silent. To help you spell
it correctly, you might picture a bride and think that she is to
be wed on Wednesday. 
 
7. Spell out loud. Sometimes spelling a word aloud can make it easier for people
with learning difficulties who struggle to put letters down on paper. Create a list of
words that you want to learn and practice spelling them while you are in the
shower or on your way to work. Speaking them and hearing yourself say each
letter will create auditory memories that are especially helpful for individuals who
are not visual learners. 
 
8. Research the origin of words. English is a Germanic language but it has adopted
vocabulary from various other languages that it came into contact with over the
years. For example, it contains plenty of words of French origin thanks to the
Normans having ruled England for a few hundred years. When you research
where a word comes from, you may see similar spelling patterns for other words
with the same origin, such as Greek words, which tend to be found in science
related vocabulary.
 
9. Take a multi-sensory approach. When you learn the spelling of a word and
encode it physically, as is the case in handwriting or touch-typing, you are adding
muscle memory to the process. The more you generate a word, the more likely it
is that you automatize its spelling. 

https://www.readandspell.com/learning-to-spell

English vocabulary can be tricky, particularly if it is not a student’s first language.

Identical words can often have different meanings depending on the context in which
they are used. Lexicon can also change over the course of time, meaning words can
change meaning. Grammar and structure must be tackled to ensure that words are
being used correctly.

Here are 5 tricks and tips to help your students increase their vocabulary.
1. Take a systematic approach to vocabulary practice

Students should be encouraged to learn new vocabulary daily, but in short spurts. This
is the best way to make it stick, experts say.

Hours a day – too much at one time — means most of it will be lost in the long term.
Instead, if students commit to just 15 minutes a day of focused practice, they’ll soon
have a solid linguistic base of new words and definitions.

Students can incorporate this practice into their daily classroom routine this way.
Following up and testing can affirm and solidify the words they have learned.

2. Reading for meaning

Reading for meaning is a research-based strategy that helps all readers make sense of
challenging texts. Reading is one of the most effective ways to teach vocabulary and
regular reading is the strategy that gives students the opportunity to practice and master
the phases of critical reading that lead to reading success and improved word usage.
Strategies can include actively searching for new words during reading and reflecting on
what was learned after reading.
Much like physical exercise, one will see better results from small amounts regularly,
rather than large amounts infrequently.

In a classroom management context, studies show that students will be motivated if

interested in the topic. So let the students choose to read what interests them, as long
as it fits the educational rubric of improved learning. The more they read, the more they
will be reviewing vocabulary and that increased exposure will help the vocabulary get
stored into the students’ long term memory. This in turn will enable better spoken and
written production.

According to Oxford University Press: Bring a selection of different readers into the

classroom and scatter them around the class. Tell students to circulate the room and
simply discuss with each other which readers they like and which they don’t. They
should just look at the cover and the blurb on the back. Based on this, they choose the
reader they’d like to read.
3. Teach vocabulary in context

Going through a list of words that are not connected to a subject or story, or each other,
is the wrong approach. Instead, Use a subject like cars to build use of adjectives – fast,
big, compact, fuel, electric, automatic, manual, etc. Teachers can then ask students to
answer questions based on descriptions or create their own fill-in-the-blank
assignments.

Games, puzzles, songs and music and real life objects are important tools. For students
to effectively and accurately produce vocabulary, they have to spontaneously recall the
words.

4. Teach vocabulary specific to content

 Content specific refers to terms, concepts or vocabulary having explicit meaning critical
to understanding particular content.
A student’s maximum level of reading comprehension is determined by his or her
knowledge of words. Teach key words that children will need to comprehend texts and
learn the content in those texts.

Students must learn to define a word, recognize when to use that word, its multiple
meanings and spell that word. Some ways to do this is through pictures and symbols. It
is also important to assess a student’s use of words in writing and speaking.

5. Word association

Word association is an activity that can be used with large classes and limited
resources. How it works: Write a word on the board, and then get your students to say
the first word that pops up in their head which has a relation to the word on the board.
It’s a good idea to go around the class getting each student to give a word. If a student
can’t come up with a word, this is the perfect opportunity to go over the meaning.

https://dominicancaonline.com/classroom-management/5-tips-improving-student-
vocabulary/
ANSWER:
1. Give the relationship between vocabulary and comprehension skills and
spelling skills.
2. How will you teach vocabulary and comprehension skills and spelling skills
to primary learners? State a situation.