• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Course
    • Teaching Every Reader
  • Subscriber Freebies
  • About
  • Contact
  • Shop
  • Member Login

The Measured Mom

Education resources for parents and teachers

  • Alphabet
  • Reading
    • Structured literacy
    • Printable Books
    • Pre-Reading
    • Phonics
    • Sight Words
    • Comprehension
    • Fluency
    • Vocabulary
  • Writing
    • Grammar
    • Handwriting
    • Spelling
    • Writing in Pre-K
    • Writing in K-3
  • Math
    • Counting
    • Number Recognition
    • Addition & Subtraction
    • Colors, Shapes & Patterns
    • Visual Discrimination
    • Time, Money & Measurement
    • Place Value
    • Graphs
    • Multiplication & Division
    • Fractions
    • Problem Solving
  • Book Lists
    • Letter of the Week
    • Early Childhood Themes
    • Pre-Reading Skills
    • Math Concepts
    • Writing Mentor Texts
    • Versions of Familiar Tales
    • Holidays and Seasonal
    • History
    • Leveled Book Lists
  • Join Membership
Home
  • Shop
  • Blog
    • Alphabet
    • Reading
    • Writing
    • Math
    • Book Lists
  • Podcast
  • Courses
    • Teaching Every Reader
    • Teaching Every Writer
  • Subscriber Freebies
  • About
  • Membership
  • Contact

PSPKK1234 Comments

Vocabulary quick win

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sharing is caring!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

TRT Podcast#21: Vocabulary quick win

“Example/Non-Example” is an easy way to help your students nail down new vocabulary words. Listen in so you can add this trick to your toolbox!

Listen to the episode here

Full episode transcript

Transcript
Email Download New Tab

Hello, and welcome back to our Quick Win series. Today we're going to look at a very simple way that you can help your students understand new vocabulary.

This is called "Example/Non-Example," and it's from the book "Bringing Words To Life," which I highly recommend, by Beck, McKeown, and Kucan. At the very end of the book there's a menu of instructional activities, they call it, which is just a selection of different things you can do to help students master vocabulary along with examples. I'm going to share with you their "Example/Non-Example" method of helping students understand vocabulary.

Let's say the new vocabulary word is "anxious." You would say, "If I say something that might make you feel anxious, say 'anxious.' If not, don't say anything."

Your examples could be learning to do something new, getting a piece of candy from your dad. The first one would be anxious, and the second one, of course, they would say nothing.

Another variation on this activity would be to add a little creativity to how students indicate their response. So you might say, "If any of the things I say are things that could make you feel anxious, I want you to gasp. If not do nothing."

Another variation that we use quite often asks students to choose which of the two alternatives illustrate the word. So you could say, "Which might make you anxious? Diving off a diving board for the first time or buying a new swimsuit?" Now, for me personally, buying a new swimsuit would make me anxious, but I don't think that's going to be too much of an issue for our young students.

Another variation of "Example/Non-Example" asks students to choose, which of two target words represents a situation. So in this case, you're actually working with TWO vocabulary words that you've taught.

Let's say that some of the words we've taught in this lesson are "anxious" and "jubilant." So you might say, "If you just got $20 in a birthday card, would you be anxious or jubilant?"

So those are some examples of how to do "Example/Non-Example." And again, the back of the book "Bringing Words To Life" has many other ideas for making vocabulary stick, so I would for sure check that out, but I hope you'll try "Example/Non-Example" the next time you teach a new vocabulary word.

I'll see you next week for another Quick Win episode. You can find the show notes for this episode at themeasuredmom.com/episode21.

Scroll back to top

Sign up to receive email updates

Enter your name and email address below and I'll send you periodic updates about the podcast.

powered by

Reference

  • Bringing Words to Life, by Beck, McKeown, and Kucan

SUBSCRIBE AND REVIEW IN ITUNES

Are you subscribed to my podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don’t want you to miss an episode!  Click here to subscribe in iTunes!

Now if you have an extra minute, I would be really grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes , too. Those reviews help other people find my podcast, and they’re also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review. You’ll need to click to “Listen on Apple Podcasts” and “write a review.”  Let me know what you appreciate about the podcast. Thank you!

Listen and Subscribe On:

Free Reading Printables for Pre-K-3rd Grade

Join our email list and get this sample pack of time-saving resources from our membership site! You'll get phonemic awareness, phonics, and reading comprehension resources ... all free!

Sharing is caring!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Vocabulary, Reading, Podcast Tagged With: first grade, second grade, third grade

You May Also Enjoy These Episodes:

What did the National Reading Panel say about teaching phonics? The best decodable book series for a tight budget From balanced to structured literacy: A conversation with Christina Winter
Fluency quick win
Comprehension quick win

Reader Interactions

4 Comments

  1. Grace Kratovil

    November 2, 2020 at 7:41 am

    NannyPiggins is being held for my pickup!!

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna Geiger

      November 2, 2020 at 8:11 am

      I think the series is hilarious, Grace! I hope you love it!

      Reply to this comment
  2. Anna Geiger

    October 31, 2020 at 8:04 pm

    Thanks so much for sharing it, Lynne!

    Reply to this comment
  3. Lynne Snyder

    October 30, 2020 at 5:58 pm

    Thanks so very much for your support. I teach special education but also have a granddaughter who is homeschooling and another daughter working from home with a 6 and 9 year olds. Love your ideas and am sending the transcript to them both!

    Reply to this comment

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Grade Level Key

  • PS Preschool (ages 2-3 years)
  • PK Pre-K (ages 4-5 years)
  • K Kindergarten
  • 1 1st grade
  • 2 2nd grade
  • 3 3rd grade

Hello, I’m Anna!

Welcome to The Measured Mom. I’m so glad you’re here!

Meet Our Team

Free Reading Printables for Pre-K-3rd Grade

Join our email list and get this sample pack of time-saving resources from our membership site! You'll get phonemic awareness, phonics, and reading comprehension resources ... all free!

Shop these popular reading resources!

Editable Reading Games for Every Season – MEGA PACK!

$24.00

Phonics Books & Games – Complete Set

$49.00

Reading response sheets & Early chapter book lists

$18.00

Shop All Resources

Members get more!

The Measured Mom Plus is the perfect online membership for Pre-K to third grade educators.

Learn More

Love Freebies?

Subscribing to our email newsletter is completely free. And when you do, you'll get access to our library of subscriber freebies! Sign up below to get access to a wonderful variety of math and literacy resources.

Join our online course and get the tools you need to teach every learner in K-2!

Confidently teach every reader in your classroom. Still have time to live your life.

Learn More

Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher

Check out these recent podcast episodes:

  • What does the research say about alphabet instruction? with Dr. Shayne Piasta
  • What is set for variability? A conversation with Dr. Marnie Ginsberg
  • How to help students improve language comprehension – a conversation with Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan
More Episodes

Check out these FREE email courses...

Get strategies and tools to teach a particular topic with a free 5-day email series! Just click an image to sign up. We recommend signing up for just one at a time.

For Pre-K Educators

How to teach phonological & phonemic awareness

How to teach phonological & phonemic awareness

Learn how to develop this important pre-reading skill with a free 5-day email series!

How to teach preschool math

How to teach preschool math

Learn exactly what to teach your preschoolers in this free 5-day series!

For Kinder & 1st Grade Educators

How to teach kids to sound out words

How to teach kids to sound out words

Learn my top strategies for teaching kids to "sound it out"

How to teach sight words

How to teach sight words

Get strategies and tools for teaching sight words to young learners!

Tips for teaching phonics

Tips for teaching phonics

Sign up for our free 5-day email series to learn what phonics skills to teach and how to structure your phonics lessons!

For 2nd & 3rd Grade Educators

How to build reading fluency

How to build reading fluency

Learn smart strategies for helping your learners become fluent readers with this free 5-day series!

How to build reading comprehension

How to build reading comprehension

Discover the essential reading comprehension strategies for 2nd & 3rd grade and how to teach them!

“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” –Matthew 6:33

Copyright © 2023 The Measured Mom •  All rights reserved  •  Privacy & Disclosure Statement  •  Site Design by Emily White Designs