Vocabulary Strategy List Group Label Define Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt Edition: New York: Berkley JAM, 2002

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1 Vocabulary Strategy List Group Label Define Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt Edition: New York: Berkley JAM, 2002 Statement of Purpose: Developed by Hilda Taba (1967) to help students work with new terminology and technical vocabulary, the list group label strategy helps students brainstorm previous knowledge about a topic, pools group knowledge to learn collectively, and introduces new vocabulary. In addition, this strategy requires students to engage with categorization and organization skills. While this strategy usually centers around one topic within the novel s context, it teaches students important skills of pooling knowledge, organizing information, and learning new vocabulary all skills that they can apply in other classes and reading/writing assignments. The additional Define segment of the strategy teaches students how to find the definition for words they don t know from the List Group Label exercise (and eventually any word from their assigned reading of the novel), and associate them within the groups and labels on the class wall. Being familiar with the Civil War context and terminology will help students with comprehension and reading fluency as they encounter these words in the novel, and give them the tools to understand new words they encounter in the novel. Context: This strategy works best as a pre assessment activity before reading Across Five Aprils. Because the novel alludes to many of the events of the Civil War without fully explaining the context of the war, it is important for the teacher to assess what students already know about the Civil War and what students still need to know to understand the novel. The novel contains several undefined war terms such as Mason Dixon Line, Emancipation, and Armistice that might be confusing to students without a context for the war. This strategy introduces students to new vocabulary within the civil war context from their classmates that are crucial to their understanding of the novel. This strategy will likely take about minutes depending on how long it takes for students to group, label, and define the terms. Directions: 1. This activity should be done shortly before starting Across Five Aprils and after at least one pre reading activity that starts students thinking about the Civil War. 2. Hand each student 2 large sticky notes and write the word Civil War on the board. Ask students to think quietly of all the events or terms they known that are associated with that era.

2 3. Ask each student to write down two terms associated with the Civil War (one on each sticky note in large letters). Be sure to tell them that no one in the class can have the same word, so students should think of very specific or less common words. 4. Have each student put their sticky notes up on the board in front of the class as soon as they write them down. This should take less than 5 minutes to introduce the activity and get the words up on the wall. 5. Ask students to arrange the words into groups, by associating words with each other, but not labeling the groups yet. Ask students to raise their hands if they have a suggestion for where a word should be moved. Students should have previously learned about coming to a consensus as a group, but you may need to remind them of the rules. Probably not all of the students will agree on where each word should be placed, but remind students that some words can go into many categories, and pick the category that the majority of students seem to vote for. Students may get excited and start calling out and interrupting each other as they offer suggestions. If it gets too rowdy, remind students to raise their hands. 6. To refine the categorization skills of students, assign labels as a class to the various categories that have been developed. For each category, you might take a few suggestions from students before coming to a consensus on which one to use, as labeling can be a refining process to narrow down to a more precise word. 7. After students have created categories, ask students to pick two words from the combined collection that they are unfamiliar with. Explain that students will take these two words and create a Four Square poster for a large word wall in the classroom to help students as they read about the Civil War in the novel. In addition to the words from the List Group Label strategy, put up a list of war terms from the book they may also choose: Industrialism Mason Dixon Line Secession Emancipation Copperhead Armistice 8. Hand out two 8X11 pieces of postor board to each student and show them an example of a Four Square poster. Students should divide the poster into four sections and write the word in one space, define the word in one space (using a dictionary and any research they do), draw a picture of the definition in one space, and write a contextually rich sentence using the word in another space. You may need to show them examples of a contextually rich sentence. Students may complete the posters for homework

3 9. After teaching this strategy, make a poster for each of the labels the class came up with and put them on the classroom wall. When students bring their posters in they can place their words under the appropriate category, and students can refer to these words and definitions throughout the novel. 10. As students continue to read the novel, have them keep a running list of words they do not know and have them continue to add to the word wall with additional Four Square posters throughout the unit. Materials: 2 large sticky notes for every student, 2 pieces of 8X11 poster for each student, examples of a Four Square Assessment: The LGLD encourages students to teach each other as they pool their knowledge together on the topic of the Civil War in preparation for reading the novel. It teaches students to organize their thinking and to look up words they don t know and associate them within an appropriate context so they will remember the new vocabulary. This skill will help students in their future reading with comprehension and fluency. Summary and Segue: At the close of teaching this strategy, remind students that this strategy of brainstorming, pooling knowledge, and organizing can be applied to writing papers and exploring new topics. In a later assignment after starting the novel, have students write a short paragraph on each of the categories, using some of the terms inside and giving an overview of the civil war era. This will allow them to apply the words into writing and cement the strategy of categorizing. Also remind students that this strategy of looking up words they don t know is a great way to increase their vocabulary as they read any novel. When students bring back their Four Squares. Have them briefly present their words to the class as they put them up on the wall so they are all exposed to the definitions before beginning the novel. This will help them remember them more easily when they come across similar terms in their reading.

4 Sample List Group Label Civil War List: slavery white slave holders underground railroad Abraham Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation secession Confederacy Union General Grant Battle of Gettysburg General Lee deserters democracy soldiers massacres Mason Dixon line industrialism armistice race guns Battle of Bull Run Federals Army of Potomac draft Fredericksburg death uniforms Groups and labels: Civil War Political Actions -draft armistice Mason Dixon line secession Emancipation Proclamation underground railroad Causes of War slavery Industrialism race War Components guns death uniforms Battles in the Civil War: Battle of Bull Run Battle of Gettysburg Fredericksburg Leaders from the South: General Lee Leaders from the North: -Abraham Lincoln General Grant Civil War Groups: -white slave holders confederacy deserters soldiers Federals Army of Potomac Union

5 Armistice Definition: An agreement made by opposing sides in a war to stop fighting for a certain time; truce The Northern and Southern armies only stopped fighting after their two generals signed an armistice, agreeing on certain terms.

6 Vocabulary Strategy Reflection This List Group Label Define strategy will help students to comprehend Across Five Aprils better, as it introduces them to Civil War terminology and events prior to reading the novel. In addition, students learn the definition of at least two words they don t know relating to the Civil War, and collectively create a word wall they can reference throughout the novel. Because this book references many Civil War events but does not explain many of them, this wall will become crucial to students comprehension of the book. Students will be asked to keep a running list of unfamiliar war terms/events in the novel and regularly add to the word wall under the categories they came up with as a class. This will not only teach them new vocabulary, but will help them file it into a certain context and associate it with other words in the same category. This is important for long term memory and application of the vocabulary. This strategy will help students to get excited about learning new words because it is a bit more active and involved than just giving them a list of vocabulary words to learn. It also gives students the tools they need to comprehend additional words they come across in the novel and get in the habit of learning vocabulary while they read instead of just skipping over unfamiliar words. This is important especially for struggling readers. The Four Square strategy for the word wall also helps students learn and remember the words better because they are defining, drawing, and using the word, giving them three ways to remember the word. It is important when teaching this strategy to make sure students pick words for the word wall that are truly unfamiliar to them and most others, or the strategy will not

7 be as affective. As a teacher, I may need to have an additional list of words to supplement the class list.