Victoria Binetti

Professor Riley
EDUC 359
Fall 2017
Understanding Vocabulary Reflection

Through this mini lesson of teaching students unknown vocabulary words, we each were

to choose five words to define. We would ask each other if we know the word and can give the

definition or use it in a sentence. The first two words that we all did not know were the ones we

used to try and teach the word to one another. These words were very complex words that we do

not use on a daily basis and would be called Tier III words because they are advanced. For the

two words that I focused on, pule and vibrissae, those two words were words that can be shown

as a picture. To get students to understand what the word means, I think using pictures is a very

good way to teach students. Also, showing students the word in a sentence and giving a synonym

can really help all students who may understand words at different levels.

The objective of the lesson was to teach unknown vocabulary words to students for the

first time. Using technology such as pulling up pictures can help students to know what a word

means. I provided two images for each of my words and let the students try and figure out the

definition. By looking at the pictures, the students picked up on what the word meant. By doing

this, I achieved the objective of teaching students a new vocabulary word. Like I also mentioned,

using the words in a sentence can be helpful because there may be context clues in the sentence.

Context clues are effective about 40% of the time, but can be very helpful in teaching vocabulary

to children. In terms of teaching ELL students vocabulary, it is important to use different

strategies in helping the student understand a word. A picture, a sentence, and a synonym are

three beneficial strategies to teach all students including ELL students vocabulary. Pictures will
work well because the students are still learning English and pictures do not require any words

for the student.