Vocabulary for Early Learners or Special Ed

I've adapted this vocabulary lesson with Special Education students in secondary for inclusion in the regular classroom. Nevertheless, this lesson can be used for regular students in pre-k and up to grade 2. This lesson can also be used for older students with a very minimal level of competency in English.

These objectives are from the Primary National Strategy Frameworks Review.   See the external link below.

1.Word structure and spelling

Children learn to:

• use knowledge of word structure (phonemic, etymological and morphological) to extend vocabulary and spell accurately
• use a range of strategies to secure spelling accuracy

Foundation Stage*

• link sounds to letters naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet
• hear and say sounds in words in the order in which they occur
• use their phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and make phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words

Year 1

• segment sounds in order to spell longer words including words with common digraphs and adjacent consonants
• write correct spelling for common vowel phonemes including long vowel phonemes
• use knowledge of related words and familiar suffixes in spelling new words

Year 2

• spell new words using phonics and a range of self checking strategies
• spell correctly common inflections, including plurals, tenses (-ing, -ed), words with double letters and common prefixes

2. Speaking

Children learn to:

• speak  competently and creatively for different purposes and audiences, reflecting on impact and response
• explore, develop and sustain ideas through talk

Foundation Stage*

• enjoy listening to and using spoken and written language and readily turn to it in play and learning
• speak clearly and audibly with confidence and control and show awareness of the listener, for example by their use of conventions such as greetings, ‘please' and ‘thank you'
• extend their vocabulary, exploring the meanings and sounds of new words.

Year 1

• tell stories and describe incidents from their own experience in an audible voice
• retell stories, ordering events using story language
• interpret a text by reading aloud with some variety in pace and emphasis

Year 2

• speak with clarity and use intonation when reading and reciting texts
• tell real and imagined stories using the conventions of familiar story language
• explain ideas and processes using language and gesture appropriately

1. Students will be shown simple pictures of: everyday objects, people, places (can be cut out from magazines).
2. They are asked to say the word that represents each picture and he/she is asked to repeat or pronounce each word.
3. Students choose 10-15 pictures to focus on for the lesson.
4. Students are shown how to write the first word representing one of the 10 or so pictures on the blackboard, with the help of the teacher
5. Next, the student glues the picture in a scrapbook and leaves room to write the word that represents the picture next to it.
6. The student has to copy out the word that best represents the picture from the blackboard  
7. The students complete about ten to fifteen words in the scrapbook this way.
8. The teacher prepares hand-outs with word recognition, fill in the blanks as well as, cut, put in order and paste (see hand-out#1 attached).  these handouts should be based on the words in the scrapbook.
9. After the student has learned the ten or so words, he or she is asked to look at the word list (words in the scrapbook and in the hand-outs) and place the vocabulary words he or she has learned in the correct places in the story.
10. Finally, the students are asked to illustrate each of the filled-in vocabulary words in the box provided next to the missing words (see handout #2 fill-in the blanks story) and then read the story as a group, individually, and with the help of the teacher.

Materials: magazines, scissors, glue sticks, scrapbook for each student (or folded paper homemake books), pencils, erasers, blackboard, chalk, coloured markers or coloured pencils, handouts in this lesson (handout #1 and handout #2)