Context Clues

Proficient readers use context clues to help them understand unknown words.

Students try to make connections to other words in a sentence or paragraph to make sense of new words. Or they may read ahead or reread text to help them learn more about a word's meaning, structure, and use. These strategies can help students meet standards in the Vocabulary Acquisition and Use strand, as well as directly addressing K–5 Foundational Reading Skills.

Struggling readers need to be able to draw upon multiple approaches to using context clues to understand new words. This may include direct instruction, choice of reading materials, or options to interact with new words. They may also need lots of opportunities to experiment with using context clues. No one approach can address all of your students’ needs. In keeping with UDL principles, you will want to provide your students with flexible and differentiated strategies to ensure their success.

See the Slide Show Introduction to Context Clues

Teach students how context clues provide information about how a word fits in with the ideas around it.

Use a variety of differentiated strategies to help students identify context clues—words or phrases in the text that help with the understanding of the new word.

Mr. Williams' Grade 6 class has been studying the Middle Ages as part of the social studies curriculum. Now the class is starting a section on Humanism. They'll be exploring the impact that Humanists had on society. To begin this section, Mr. Williams wants his students to read a short text about Leonardo Da Vinci in the course textbook. He knows that most of his students will understand the text. But he wants to make sure that his three struggling readers—one who has recently arrived from Korea, one with significant learning delays, and one with a moderate reading disability—can keep up.

• Haneul recently arrived in the U.S. from Korea. She has rapidly picked up English, but she is still learning the language.
• Sam has very significant learning delays and cannot read most of the texts assigned in class on his own. He has a fairly good vocabulary and can participate in discussions, and his participation has been improving.
• Christie has a moderate reading disability. She is keeping up with the class, but she struggles to understand the textbook.

Lesson

Before Reading

Previously, Mr. Williams explicitly taught students about the different types of context clues. He explained that authors use context clues to help readers understand the text. And, he gave students examples of techniques that authors use (providing an example or definition for the word, a synonym or antonym, and/or descriptions of experiences associated with the word). In this lesson, he wants students to practice using these clues to understand words in context. He decides to have the whole class continue to work on their context clues skills. Before reading about the Middle Ages, he has scheduled time in the computer lab to visit a website that provides three levels of practice with context clues. There will be a level of practice that is appropriate for each of his students.

The first level has very simple multiple-choice cloze sentences where students select the correct word to complete the sentence based on context:

Later vocabulary words are more complex. Students use the context to select correct words and they may also draw on their word analysis skills:

During Reading

Today the students will be reading about Leonardo Da Vinci. The focus of the social studies content is Humanism. The core concept Mr. Williams wants students to understand is that thinking at the time changed society. As a first step, he helps students build background knowledge. He knows that the more students know in advance about the topic, the more likely they will be to make use of the context when trying to figure out word meanings during reading. (Mr. Williams focuses on Guideline 2.1 Clarify vocabulary and symbols to help students understand their text and learn how to negotiate words they do not know.)

Mr. Williams displays a short passage on the SmartBoard:

“Leonardo Da Vinci
1452 – 1519

“Leonardo was born in Vinci, Italy, to a peasant woman named Caterina. Shortly after Leonardo's birth, she left the boy in the care of his father. At a young age, Leonardo showed extraordinary skills in many areas. He was very musical, had a beautiful voice, and quickly learned to play the lyre. He often drew animals and plants and was talented in mathematics. By the time Leonardo was 15 years old, his father knew his son had amazing, artistic talent. He arranged for Leonardo to become an apprentice to the famous painter Andrea del Verrocchio.

“By 1472 Leonardo had become a master in the painter's guild of Florence. He worked in Florence until 1481, and then he went to the city of Milan. There he kept a large workshop and employed many apprentices…”

He carefully pairs students so that those who struggle have a partner. (By thinking carefully about the pairs, he reduces barriers for many of the students who might find the assignment too challenging if left on their own. For more examples, see Guideline 7.3 Minimize threats and distractions.) After the pairs have had a chance to read the passage, he asks students to come up and highlight words that were unfamiliar. The first word they highlight is lyre. He reminds students about using context clues to help define new words and asks them to think about the surrounding text to see whether they can make sense of the word. Students work with their partners and get ready to share their thinking. One pair suggests that it is a musical instrument since the sentence is about music and says that Leonardo learned to play the lyre. They explain that the author used the words music and play to provide the sense of what lyre means. (By asking students to explain their thinking, he supports Guideline 6.2 Support planning and strategy development as students become more cognizant of the strategies they need to use to maximize their learning.)

Mr. Williams asks for a show of hands and learns that most of the students agree. He then asks them to confirm their thinking and gives them a choice of looking the word up in a print dictionary or an online dictionary. Most students use the online dictionary since they can hear the definition and how the word is pronounced. In addition, some of the students go to Google images to see photos of lyres.

The second word students choose is apprentice. Mr. Williams has students decide which clues could help them determine the meaning of the word. They think that maybe they could figure out the word using logic: What kind of person would Leonardo employ in a large workshop? Does it have something to do with painting? But, they decide they don't have enough information. They need to consult a tool.

Mr. Williams opens the program Visual Thesaurus:

He types in the word, and students look over the definition, related words, etc. They discuss the most relevant meaning according to the context.

He then has students continue reading the remainder of the unit section. Some use the books, some e-books, and some laptops. He has them highlight or underline all of the words they "stumble over" and need to use context clues to understand.

After reading, the students identify the words and explain how they figured out the meanings. Mr. Williams prompts these "think alouds." He continues to point out the types of clue to emphasize what students are saying about how they were able to make meaning. This self-paced activity gives Mr. Williams a chance to move around the class, helping students, and discussing their questions. He can determine who will need additional support during reading.

After Reading

Mr. Williams asks students to choose a new partner and discuss at least two ways to learn the meaning of a new word. When the pairs finish their work, he creates a list with their suggestions and posts the list in a visible location. He adds two more items to the list: looking things up in the dictionary and looking words up online (like Google Images, Wikipedia, or Ask.com). During future lessons, when the class comes across a new word, he will direct them to the chart and talk about which method they want to use to figure out the word's meaning. This is one type of informal assessment that Mr. Williams prefers. He lets them know that next they will learn how to use word analysis to help them make meaning of new words.

Reflection

Mr. Williams paid close attention to each student's participation during discussions and activities. Now, he reviews the notes he took as students were working and thinks about how the lesson went. Overall, he feels the lesson was a success. He met his goals for students. The class had several great discussions, and the pair work was productive. Mr. Williams noted that students saw the benefit of using context clues when reading their social studies texts. They were motivated to dive right into practicing the strategy. Students remembered many of the types of context clues. And, most of them seemed to be more confident in using the strategy to attack new words. The website and visual thesaurus are great tools, and he'll keep encouraging students to use them. Still, there are a few things Mr. Williams wants to strengthen. Haneul, Sam, and Christie will need a lot more support before they internalize the strategy. He realizes the whole class will benefit from more explicit instruction and modeling, and he plans to build that into the next lesson. He will also remind students to keep using the strategy so it can become part of their reading skills repertoire. Mr. Williams records these reflections in his PowerUp Planner.

Find more resources in our PowerUp Resources & Research Database.

Find more resources in our PowerUp Resources & Research Database.