Three Vocabulary Strategies for Middle School

Three ways to learn new vocabulary words

1. Three Vocabulary Strategies Dictionary Word Parts Context Clues

2. Dictionary Use the definition that fits the best in context. Don’t look up every word you don’t know. Choose a few per page or per reading. Choose words that seem important or are repeated.

3. Context Clues Context - the words surrounding the unknown word. Context is the best way to learn new vocabulary because you are most likely to remember the word and it takes less time than the dictionary. Example : John let go of the extraneous information and concentrated only on what was most important . Context clues may be synonym , antonym or general sense of the passage

4. Word Parts Look at prefixes, suffixes and word roots to decode new words For example “ pre ” means before. “ Scribe ” means to write . “ Tion ” is a noun (person, place or thing) ending. Pre scrip tion is something a doctor writes before the patient is able to receive medicine.