Description & Research
Strategies that are the most beneficial for students are those that teach students what to do when they are faced with an unknown. That “unknown” can be a challenging math problem or a word in a textbook. By teaching students how to use context clues, we are providing students with a strategy to determine the unknown. Often times, authors use direct clues such as definition/explanation clues, restatement/synonym clues, contrast/antonym clues, or gist clues (Beers, 2003, p. 186-187). We cannot assume that students will accurately infer these clues, particularly in the younger grades. In this case, we may need to teach context clues by utilizing contextual redefinition, which “combines word level clues (such as using knowledge of word affixes) with context clues in the sentence” (Miller & Veatch, 2011, p. 30). The concept of hierarchy in teaching context clues is not new; in fact, as early as 1967, Emans and Fisher conducted a study that “showed that it was possible to identify a hierarchy of easy to difficult exercises for orienting the child towards the use of context clues” (p. 246). Rydery (1986) made this hierarchy more complete by arguing that students might explore context clues within the paragraph rather than just the sentence as they progress through school. Indeed, research shows us that there are various ways to teach context clues (Fuqua 1985). It is up to us as practitioners to identify the ways that are best for our level and population of students.
Resources
http://www.k12reader.com/effective-strategies-for-teaching-vocabulary/
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/using-context-clues-understand-word-meanings
http://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/issue/learning-from-the-polar-past/teacher-resources-for-making-inferences-using-context-clues
http://powerupwhatworks.org/strategy-guide/context-clues
https://ethemes.missouri.edu/themes/1641
Video
This video utilizes a think-aloud to model the use context clues to students.
Strategies that are the most beneficial for students are those that teach students what to do when they are faced with an unknown. That “unknown” can be a challenging math problem or a word in a textbook. By teaching students how to use context clues, we are providing students with a strategy to determine the unknown. Often times, authors use direct clues such as definition/explanation clues, restatement/synonym clues, contrast/antonym clues, or gist clues (Beers, 2003, p. 186-187). We cannot assume that students will accurately infer these clues, particularly in the younger grades. In this case, we may need to teach context clues by utilizing contextual redefinition, which “combines word level clues (such as using knowledge of word affixes) with context clues in the sentence” (Miller & Veatch, 2011, p. 30). The concept of hierarchy in teaching context clues is not new; in fact, as early as 1967, Emans and Fisher conducted a study that “showed that it was possible to identify a hierarchy of easy to difficult exercises for orienting the child towards the use of context clues” (p. 246). Rydery (1986) made this hierarchy more complete by arguing that students might explore context clues within the paragraph rather than just the sentence as they progress through school. Indeed, research shows us that there are various ways to teach context clues (Fuqua 1985). It is up to us as practitioners to identify the ways that are best for our level and population of students.
Resources
http://www.k12reader.com/effective-strategies-for-teaching-vocabulary/
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/using-context-clues-understand-word-meanings
http://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/issue/learning-from-the-polar-past/teacher-resources-for-making-inferences-using-context-clues
http://powerupwhatworks.org/strategy-guide/context-clues
https://ethemes.missouri.edu/themes/1641
Video
This video utilizes a think-aloud to model the use context clues to students.