Vocabulary in Activity Classrooms

Multimeaning Luck

In every field there are words with a subject-specific meaning for which students have a more commonly used meaning. Music class can be pretty confusing when the teacher is talking about keys, scales, and notes, and the students are picturing car keys, bathroom scales, and messages to their friends!  Common words such as rack and tolerance have very specific meanings when used in a mechanics class. Students who are becoming computer experts must realize that you can’t fish with this net, bet with this chip, and shouldn’t scream at this mouse!

Multimeaning Luck is a fun activity to review the content-specific meaning for words. Prepare for the lesson by writing down each word, with one math-related and one non-computer-related definition. (Overhead transparencies work best for this lesson, but you can also write the words on the board.) On the bottom of the transparency or on a part of the board you can cover temporarily, write one sentence for each word. Be sure to include in these sentences both subject-related and unrelated meanings, as students will have to guess which definition your sentence uses. If you use only subject-related meanings, they will easily figure out the system. Here is a sample lesson from a computer class. Begin the lesson by displaying the words and their two definitions:

menu           

1. list of available foods 

2. options in a computer program

boot              

1. footwear often used in rain or snow 

2. load an operating system into a computer

ram/RAM     

1. Random Access Memory 

2. crash into

virus             

1. an infection from a submicroscopic organism

2. a computer program that can attack other programs

bug               

1. error in a program

2. small insect

As you read each word and its two definitions, have each student write the word and a 1 or 2 to indicate a guess of which meaning you have used in the covered sentences. Be sure to tell students that doing well on this part of the lesson is simply a matter of luck. You may want to tell students this is a way to find out how their luck is running today.

When all students have made their guesses, display the sentences one at a time. Have students give themselves five points for every lucky guess and deduct five points for every unlucky guess. The person with the most points is the lucky person for the day. Once lucky and unlucky persons have been applauded and commiserated with, respectively, review the subject-related definitions. Remind your students that they will often find words in your subject for which they have other meanings, and that they must not let those words lead them astray but must try to figure out and remember the appropriate meaning.

Are you curious as to how you did with your guesses? If so, you will see one of the advantages of Multimeaning Luck. Once you have made a guess, you want to know how you did. You care about and pay attention to which meanings the multi-meaning words had. Here are your sentences:

You can check your spelling by pulling down the edit menu.
The only clue at the scene was a size 11 boot print.
I was just sitting there and I saw this car ram right into the house!
I found a virus on my computer.
There must be some kind of bug in this program.

Give yourself five points for every lucky guess and subtract five for every unlucky guess. Are you having a lucky day? Did you pick only the computer-related meanings even though we told you to include others?

Word/Symbol/Picture Board

Fortunately, many of the new meanings that students must learn in activity courses are words that represent concrete, real things. Learning the names of the parts of the lathe becomes a much simpler task when a picture or diagram is displayed with these parts labeled. Coaches have long made use of diagrams for various plays and positions. A music board might display the symbols for sharp, flat, note, repeat, and so forth, along with the words for which they stand. A display of art labeled for its style and media catches the eye while simultaneously giving reality to confusing terms such as impressionist, neoclassical, and acrylic.

Word Detectives

Just as in all areas, many of the new words your students will encounter are big words for which your students have other words that will help them figure out and remember pronunciations, spellings, and meanings. Students in an art class who are dealing with the concepts of foreground and background and whose attention is drawn to words such as forehand, forehead, backhand, and backpack should have no trouble understanding and using the new art terms. The strange new words micrometer, variometer, and magnetometer are not so strange when connected with speedometer, thermometer, microscope, variations, and magnetic. With a little help, students can even be led to see the “strong” relationship in such words as fortress, fortitude, fortify, and fortissimo.

When you are on the lookout for these morphemic relationships between words and point them out to your students, your students benefit in two ways. The obvious benefit is that they can more easily learn your new vocabulary and retain it fairly effortlessly. Less obvious—but actually more important in the “scheme of things”—you help your students become “word detectives” who, whenever they encounter a new word, are apt to look for clues in already-known words and thus can grow independently in vocabulary knowledge from all the reading they do. Not a bad return on a small investment of time and energy!