Building a Robust Vocabulary: Engaging Strategies for ELA Students

Let’s talk about vocabulary. We all understand the importance of vocabulary building for our students, but making it both effective and engaging can be challenging. Thankfully, Inquiry By Design has some tried-and-true strategies that can help you turn vocabulary instruction into something your students actually look forward to. 

Create a Word-Rich Environment

• • Use a Word Wall to display new vocabulary prominently in the room, and update it regularly with words your students encounter in texts.
  • You can also incorporate Vocabulary Posters where students can add their own new words. Casual conversations are another great way to introduce new vocabulary—make it a point to drop in interesting words during discussions.

Make Vocabulary Personal
One of the best ways to get students invested in learning new words is to let them have a say in which words they learn. 

• • Try using the Word Hunt activity: set aside a few minutes at the beginning or end of a lesson for students to skim through their reading and pick out words they find interesting or challenging. Write them on the board, and then as a class, narrow it down to a manageable list. This not only gives students ownership over their learning but also ensures the words are relevant to them.

Integrate Words Into Daily Activities
Vocabulary shouldn’t be something that only comes up only during specific lessons. Integrate it into everything. The goal is to make these words a regular part of your classroom’s routine.

• • Use Semantic Mapping as a warm-up activity to help students connect new words to known concepts.
  • For a quick wrap-up, try the Word of the Day challenge where students create a sentence or find the word in their independent reading.
  • Another option is Quick Writes—short, focused writing tasks where students use new vocabulary in context. 

Context is Key
We all know that students need to see words in context to really understand them. Encourage your students to not just memorize definitions but to see how these words function in sentences and texts. This helps students move beyond rote memorization to actually using the words in their speaking and writing.

• • Use activities like Sentence Completion, where students finish sentences using their new vocabulary, or Using and Creating Contexts, where they craft scenarios that naturally incorporate the word. 

Assess and Reflect
Finally, it’s important to regularly check in on how well students are mastering their new vocabulary. But assessment doesn’t have to mean traditional quizzes. 

• • Use Word Rating Charts where students self-assess their knowledge of words at the beginning and end of a unit, or set up Vocabulary Conferences to chat about how they’re using new vocabulary in their writing.
  • For a more creative approach, try The Set Piece activity, where students write passages using as many of their new vocabulary words as possible. This kind of reflection helps solidify their learning and gives you a better sense of where they might need more support.