Context Clues
Context Clues
Context clues are hints that an author gives to help define a difficult or unusual word. The clue may appear within the same sentence as the word to which it refers, or it may follow in a preceding sentence.
-Dictionary.com
For my Capstone Project, I implemented the context clues strategies for seven weeks through February and April. The research provided convincing evidence about the effectiveness of such strategies so I introduced and used the strategies for approximately two months. Below is an outline of how I taught and implemented specific strategies throughout the seven weeks as well as how I concluded and connected each strategy to what we were currently reading at the time.
Action Plan
Second Step: Introduce Context Clues and begin modeling, teaching, and providing independent practice.
Week 1: Introduce Context Clues, discuss the benefits and importance of why to use this strategy, introduce the four steps: 1) reread and read ahead, 2) Identify the context clues, 3) decide on a meaning, and 4) check to see if that meaning makes sense in the context, and explicitly model how to use context clues.
Week 2: Review the importance of context clues and the four steps that go along with the strategy, explicitly model using context clues to determine the meaning of an unknown word again, monitor guided practice with using context clues as a class ("we do"), have students practice using context clues in the group books they are reading.
Week 3: Explicitly model through guided practice in minilesson, begin independent practice on Context Clues worksheets. Sudents and I did number one together and they were to complete numbers 2 and 3 independently. Students were to follow all four steps, underline the context clues that would give them clues or hints to what the meaning of the bolded words were within each sentence.
Weeks 4, 5, 6: Go over the four steps that go with the Context Clues Strategy, complete an example together as a class, complete the context clues worksheets. For each week, students completed three of the context clues sentences/problems independently.
Week 7: Final data collection by having students orally explain how they use context clues strategy to help them determine the meaning of unknown words. I recorded students' responses as well as took anecdotal notes to whether or not they were using context clues correctly, effectively, and independently.
After the interviews, I noticed all students were able to give the definition of context clues and at least one reason why they are important for good readers to use. The majority of students were able to give the four steps in the correct order for using context clues. Although it was still difficult at times for students to do a think aloud explaining everything they were thinking, with more practice, I know students will become more comfortable in using this strategy to help them with new vocabulary and reading comprehension.
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