"Sing Down the Moon" - Vocabulary development

My activity on vocabulary development is going to focus on applying context clues to figure out unfamiliar words. The following passages have been taken from the story and include an underlined word that is most likely unknown to the student. There are six different context clues to use to assist students in learning the meaning of the word: definition, example-illustration, contrast, logic, root words and affixes, and grammar. In many instances, students can use more than one of the context clues to help them understand the word’s meaning.

“Then—while Running Bird and I watched a squirrel in the piñon tree, trying to coax him down with a nut—I saw from the corner of an eye a puff of smoke rise slowly from our village.” (71)

• For this passage, student will use the context clues of both logic and grammar to determine the word’s meaning. The reader will have to think about the rest of the sentence and then identify the word’s function in the sentence to be a verb, or action.

“On the barrels of their rifles were fastened long, sharp-looking knives. That is why we always called them the Long Knives.” (14).

• For this passage, students will use the context clue of definition to determine the word’s meaning.

“The Navahos, his people, were captives of the Long Knives and there was nothing he could do to free them.” (84).

• For this passage, students will use the context clue of contrast to determine the word’s meaning. Readers understand the word “captives” because it can be contrasted with the word “free” in the sentence.

It is important to remind students that context clues may only provide partial information that is required to fully understand the word’s meaning. Often times, the information can even be misleading. However, students should still be taught how to use the clues while they read through challenging text. When reading aloud as a class, teachers can also introduce other strategies to figure out the meaning of unknown words. Encourage students to look at the word in relation to the sentence and use their peers to help them out. Remind students that they are encouraged to look up the word in the dictionary to see which meaning fits the sentence. Since learning words in isolation is rarely effective, teachers should try to teach words in concept clusters whenever possible. “Sing Down the Moon”, which is historical fiction, is a great instance to teach concept clusters that help explain the characters and setting before a child begins reading.