Which words tell me the most about the characters or actions?
Which words or phrases seem surprising or funny and so may have a fancy (figurative) rather than a normal (literal) meaning?
Which fancy words or phrases help me experience or understand the text in a deeper, more powerful way?
Are there words in a poem or song that repeat or rhyme? How does this add to my understanding and enjoyment?
Informational Text
K Gist: Students ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
They consider:
What words or phrases are hard for me?
What do I think they mean?
Do the illustrations give clues about the meaning of a word?
Are some words written in bold (to signal that they’re important)? Is there an illustration on the page that helps me understand the word in bold?
1 Gist: Students ask and answer questions to determine or clarify the meaning of unfamiliar words.
They consider:
Do the illustrations or text features (titles, headings, captions) help me figure out the meaning of a word?
Are there words the author uses repeatedly? (These often indicate the main topic, key ideas, or key details.)
Are there words written in bold?
Can I substitute another word in place of the unknown word that would make sense?
Can I use the words and sentences around the unknown word to figure out what it means?
2 Gist: Students determine the meaning of words or phrases in a text that are relevant to a content-area topic.
They consider:
Do the illustrations or text features (titles, headings, captions) help me figure out the meaning of a word?
Are there words the author uses repeatedly?
Are there words the author has written in bold? Is there a picture/caption or glossary that refers to the word in bold?
Can I substitute another word in place of the unknown word that would make sense?
Can I use the context to figure out special, important words (domain-specific words)?
Note: Although the questions listed above are too difficult for most young students to internalize and apply on their own, we share them to give teachers a detailed sense of what their students should be striving toward as learners. K–2 students may not be able to ask these questions of themselves independently, but teachers can use them as a jumping-off point for lesson content and as prompts and reminders to share with students. Over time and with instruction, students will be able to pose these questions on their own.
Grades K–2 Common Core Reading Standard 4: What the Teacher Does
To have students ask and answer questions about unfamiliar words and phrases in a text:
Explain to students that understanding what individual words mean has everything to do with how well they understand a text. It’s the reader’s job to be on the lookout for words he or she understands or doesn’t understand.
When working with students in whole-class and small-group settings, and when conferring one-on-one, encourage students to acknowledge when they don’t know what a word or phrase means. Explain that the best readers readily pause when they don’t know a word, admit to themselves they’re confused, and work to figure it out. Share words that you yourself find confusing; it’s also fine occasionally to pretend you don’t know the meaning of a word or phrase to demonstrate this process.
Using both fiction and nonfiction, think aloud as you decode a word, puzzling through how to read it, and contrast it with thinking aloud about your process for understanding what words mean. Chart various strategies for each of these processes and refer to them frequently to demonstrate the difference between decoding and comprehension (resources.corwin.com/literacycompanionk-2).
Instead of simply telling students the meaning of an unfamiliar word when reading aloud or sharing a text, mark the text with a sticky note and return to it later and help students figure it out. Provide students with sticky notes to mark their own texts when reading in small groups or independently.
Show students how to use the words and sentences surrounding an unknown word to figure it out. Also, be sure to explain and show examples of instances when using context clues is not helpful. For example, the sentence “These sod houses were very cozy” would not help a reader figure out the meaning of cozy.
To have students interpret the meanings of words and phrases as they are used in a text:
Work with students regularly to help them figure out the meanings of unknown words and phrases instead of telling them what the words or phrases mean.
Direct students to use the pictures that accompany stories, poems, and songs, and the illustrations, photos/captions, and diagrams in informational texts to determine the meanings of words or phrases.
Select words to teach explicitly that are most important to understanding an author’s message. For example, when reading Hurty Feelings by Helen Lester, we would teach the word fragile because the main character’s name is Fragility and she (a hippo) is most definitely sensitive and “breakable”—at least on the inside.
Show students how authors often include the meaning of a word in the sentence itself or in one that follows. Two examples are “Woodchucks dig burrows, or holes, in the ground, where they hibernate for the winter” and “Canine teeth are for biting and tearing your food.”
Guide students to identify root words and affixes to help them understand what a word means. Take apart compound words and work with homophones, synonyms, and antonyms as well.
Devote a large section of your wall space to the posting of vocabulary charts, word webs, and so on that you’ve generated with students so that you have easy access to them when you want to review or add to the lists.
To have students identify and determine the figurative meanings of words and phrases:
Keep a basket of books that contain rich vocabulary and figurative language to read aloud and for students to read on their own. Helen Lester’s and Margie Palatini’s picture books are among those you’ll want to include.
Provide each student with a copy of a poem or song containing figurative language or project the text on a whiteboard.
