FREEBIE! W.A.C. Vocabulary Strategies
- valeriescoreclassrm
- Aug 5, 2016
- 1 min read
A few years ago, a colleague of mine introduced me to WAC vocabulary strategies. WAC. is an acronym that helps students remember the ways they can attack an unknown word to determine its meaning. This totally fits with Common Core language standards.
Basically, we WAC words! We even hit our papers! When we WAC a word, we look for word structure, apposition, or context clues. The graphic organizers I created are meant to help with students metacognitive skills as well as language acquisition. Students have to explain their thinking and show how they used each strategy.
The graphic organizers may be time consuming and require some modeling for sure! But, by the end of the year, my students (6th graders) were using the strategies and graphic organizers fluently.
These graphic organizers are not meant for large word lists. I think using WAC strategies works best when students self identify unknown words. I have my students create their own "Mystery Words" lists. They pull from this list when asked to do this assignment.
Do my students sometimes pick words they already know? Sure...maybe...who cares! This isn't really a problem that I see in my classroom. The point isn't that my students determine a correct meaning, it is that they stop and try to determine the meaning then explain how they did it! It's practice, which means it won't always be perfect!
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