Teaching Strategies

Word Work

These vocabulary strategies help students build their comprehension and language skills by using key words from Perspectives texts in their own reading, writing, speaking and listening.

20 TEACHING STRATEGIES

Making Words

Making Words is a hands-on activity in which students learn how adding and moving letters can create new words.
Grade Level
3-5
CCSS
RL.3-5.4, RI.3-5.4, L.3-5.4

Meet New Vocabulary

Meet New Vocabulary uses a graphic organizer to help students acquire new vocabulary while reading. This strategy is most effective when teaching challenging, domain-specific words (Tier Three).
Grade Level
3-5
CCSS
RL.3-5.4, RI.3-5.4, RF.3-5.4, L.3-5.4, L.3-5.6

Traits Matrix

In this semantic feature analysis strategy, students use a grid to show how vocabulary words relate to one another and to conceptual frameworks (e.g., masculine versus feminine).
Grade Level
6-8 9-12
CCSS
L.6-12.4, L.6-12.5, L.6-12.6

Vocabulary Frames

Students use this tool to identify a word’s meaning, its parts and its opposite. After organizing the information on an illustrated flashcard, students practice using the word in a sentence.
Grade Level
6-8 9-12
CCSS
L.6-12.4, L.6-12.6

Vocabulary Rounds

This contextual redefinition strategy encourages students to use the structure and context of words to predict their meanings. Students arrive at the definition through exposure to increasingly rich clues.
Grade Level
6-8 9-12
CCSS
L.6-12.4, L.6-12.6

Vocabulary Tableaux

A tableau is a representation of a scene or picture by people posing silently without moving. In a vocabulary tableau, a group of students use their bodies to create a frozen picture of a vocabulary word.
Grade Level
6-8 9-12
CCSS
L.6-12.4, L.6-12.6

Word Wall

A word wall is an organized display of vocabulary words drawn from central texts students are reading.
Grade Level
3-5
CCSS
L.3-5.4, L.3-5.5, L.3-5.6

Word Web

Word webs are mind maps that promote active learning and help students develop higher-order thinking skills. Students map their thinking in a graphic organizer based on a Frayer model.
Grade Level
3-5
CCSS
RL.3-5.4, RI.3-5.4, L.3-5.4, L.3-5.5, L.3-5.6

Word Wheel

Students use a concept map to organize their vocabulary learning. This tool requires students to define words, find examples, draw on prior knowledge and connect related concepts.
Grade Level
6-8 9-12
CCSS
L.6-12.4, L.6-12.5, L.6-12.6
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Welcome to Learning for Justice—Formerly Teaching Tolerance!

Our work has evolved in the last 30 years, from reducing prejudice to tackling systemic injustice. So we’ve chosen a new name that better reflects that evolution: Learning for Justice.

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