Vocabulary Development Lesson

Book Club Lesson – Vocabulary Development
Becoming familiar with content-area vocabulary words – 3rd Grade

We have been reading Sing Down the Moon for awhile now, and as students progress through the book, they encounter many unusual or unfamiliar words along the way. I would like for students to become familiar with these words, and use their knowledge of the story to determine what scenario these words could have occurred in.

Introduction: Briefly summarize the book up to the point we have read, or the entire book if that’s where the class is at. Explain that there are some vocabulary words that many students have not come in contact with, or words which are simply not that commonly used. I will show the students the vocabulary words, and have tem share their ideas about what they think these words mean, and observe how it was used in the context of the story/sentence it was in. I will explain that they will define the words by looking in the dictionary, and then have them make a graph that includes different scenarios of the story, and place the words where they occurred in the book, using the sentence the vocabulary word was in, along with the definition (they can go in more than one place if students can find multiple sentences using this word).

Words Scenarios
Mesa Fiesta - Living at Canyon de Chelly
Hatchets Tortilla - Bright Morning is kidnapped, and made a servant
Navaho ravine - Bright Morning escapes
Hogan canyon - Bright Morning’s tribe is trapped in the canyon
Senora gourd - The Native American sent to Spanish prison camps
- Bright Morning and Tall Boy escape

During: Students will see how the vocabulary word is used, and will use the dictionary or any other (credible) source to define the word. They will then make a graph or chart with areas designated to different parts of the story, which were given, and students will fill these areas with vocabulary words that were used in these scenarios.

After: Students will display their charts, and share them if they choose to do so. We will then go over the definitions of each word, and students will volunteer to make their own sentences using these words, and I will write them on the board for all to see. They will be assessed on their overall completion, accurate definition, and matching the vocabulary word to the place in the story where it belongs.