Lesson : Context Clues: 5 Fun Activities to Boost Vocabulary Development

Step 1: Reread and read ahead
Stop and reread the words that come before and after the unfamiliar word.

Step 2: Identify context clues
Think about the meaning of the words in the text that surround the unfamiliar word.

Step 3: Decide on a meaning
Use what you know from the context to make an educated guess about the meaning of the unfamiliar word.

Step 4: Check that meaning in the context
The meaning you decided on should make sense in the sentence and in relation to the main idea of the text.

Even if your students are aware of these steps and have used them successfully in the past, using context clues is a strategy that improves with practice. Try the activities here to give your students the boost they may need to make the most of their exposure to rich academic language.

1. Sentence Search
Display related sentences with blanks for missing—but not unfamiliar—words. For example: Raymond was the youngest ___ in his family. He had two sisters and one ___. The family ___ in a little house. Encourage students to suggest words that fit in each blank, and talk about other words in the sentence that helped them make their suggestions. Providing scaffolded practice with words that students can pull from their mental "word bank" builds confidence and proficiency with the strategy of looking for clues in surrounding text.

2. Silly Sentences
Write sentences that contain a fun, made-up word in place of a focus word. For example: After dinner, I was so moozled from the day’s busy activities that I fell asleep two hours before my bedtime. I woke up feeling hungry the next morning and sebberly ate breakfast. Have students work in pairs to figure out the likely meanings of the made-up words and then replace the made-up words with a real word or words. Finally, ask students to explain how they used context to figure out the meanings of the made-up words. This activity, like the previous one, requires students to use the construct of the sentence to determine word meaning. Creating made-up words that mimic verb tenses (-ed) or parts of speech (-ly) reinforces the value of using more than one strategy (context clues and morphology) to determine word meaning. As a bonus, this activity can also be used to internalize newly learned vocabulary terms!

3. Chart It!
Work with students to create a Context Clue Anchor Chart. List and describe five common kinds of clues (direct definition, definition after a comma, antonym, synonym, and example) with an example of each. Then, have students suggest meanings for the underlined words in the examples. Discuss how they determined the meaning and what clues they found in the context. The process of creating the Anchor Chart helps students solidify their understanding of each kind of context clue. In addition, the chart itself can be used as a go-to reference before asking a teacher for help.