First Step to Learning New Vocabulary in Chapter Books

I enjoy using chapter books with my older students.   Before we read a chapter,  I look for vocabulary and assess whether the students recognize the meaning of the word.  What is even better, is that the students do most of the work by evaluating whether they recognize the terms for themselves.  I offer the students what I call a Vocab-O-Meter. The students make a judgement on whether they know the meaning of a word, have a basic understanding of a word, or do not have a sense of the meaning of the word.  A rating scale from 0-4 is used.   

Students evaluate their own understanding

Once I collect the Vocab-O-Meter, I use it as a first step to create my lessons on specific terms and teach the words before reading the chapters.  I like to take 1-3 chapters at most and then pull out words from those chapters that may be unfamiliar to my students.  Once the students determine the understanding of the words, I analyze their responses and then choose a model/approach to teach the words in context and/or isolation.  I have really enjoyed using this tool and if you will like to use it, I have it available for free at my TpT store.  

Here is the link if you will like to grab it:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocab-O-Meter

Hope it is useful for you and your students!

Beverly