Reading Between the Lines: 5 Ways To Boost Vocabulary Development With Context Clues

Educators are including increasingly complex texts in their lesson plans to build students’ academic language. State standards emphasize the acquisition and use of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases. This requires students to find the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary using various strategies. One strategy is to rely on reference materials, while another involves applying knowledge of word structure and parts of words, such as stems, root words, prefixes, and suffixes. Teachers can help students develop the ability to use the context of an unfamiliar word as a clue to the word’s meaning.

What Are Context Clues?

Context clues are hints within a sentence or passage that help readers determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. They can appear in the surrounding words, phrases, or sentences, allowing students to infer meaning without using a dictionary. To build reading comprehension, students must build a strong vocabulary.

Reading comprehension refers to the ability to understand and make meaning from what has been read. It involves using background knowledge, decoding skills, vocabulary, and critical thinking strategies to construct meaning from text. It is one of the five pillars of reading instruction, a model supported by science of reading research. Other pillars include phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and fluency. Each component plays a crucial role in developing strong reading skills, and educators who understand and effectively teach these pillars increase the chance their students can read proficiently.

To build vocabulary and reading comprehension, readers must engage in purposeful interaction with a text. Strategic readers think about words in context, looking for meaning in the sentences that frame an unfamiliar word. With this in mind, students can follow a series of steps when they come across a word or phrase they do not know: 

• Step 1: Reread and read ahead
  Stop and reread the words that come before and after the unfamiliar word.

• Step 2: Identify context clues
  Think about the meaning of the words in the text that surround the unfamiliar word.

• Step 3: Decide on a meaning
  Use what you know from the context to make an educated guess about the meaning of the unfamiliar word.

• Step 4: Check that meaning in the context
  The meaning you decided on should make sense in the sentence and in relationship to the text's main idea.

Even if your students know these steps and have used them successfully, they must continue to practice context clues strategies. 

5 Fun and Effective Context Clues Activities

Developing context clue strategies enhances reading comprehension, increases vocabulary knowledge, and encourages independent learning. Students naturally expand their vocabulary by learning to find surrounding text to infer word meanings. These strategies can also help them develop critical thinking skills as they analyze word relationships and make logical inferences about the meaning of a text. Here are some fun ways to boost student reading comprehension through context clues.

1. Sentence Search

Display related sentences with blanks for missing—but familiar—words. For example, Raymond was the youngest ___ in his family. He had two sisters and one ___. The family ___ in a little house. Encourage students to suggest words that fit into each blank and talk about other words in the sentence that helped them make their suggestions. Providing scaffolded practice with words students can pull from their mental "word bank" builds confidence and proficiency by looking for clues in the surrounding text.

2. Silly Sentences

Write sentences that contain a fun, made-up word in place of a focus word. For example,  After dinner, I was so moozled from the day’s busy activities that I fell asleep two hours before my bedtime. I woke up feeling hungry the next morning and sebberly ate breakfast. Have students work in pairs to determine the likely meanings of the made-up words and then replace the made-up words with a real word or words. Finally, ask students to explain how they used context clues to determine the made-up words’ meanings. Like the previous one, this activity requires students to use sentence constructs to determine word meaning. Creating made-up words that mimic verb tenses (-ed) or parts of speech (-ly) reinforces the value of using more than one strategy (context clues and morphology) to determine word meaning. As a bonus, this activity can also help students internalize newly learned vocabulary terms.

3. Chart It

Work with students to create a Context Clue Anchor Chart. List and describe five common kinds of clues (direct definition, definition after a comma, antonym, synonym, and example) with an example of each. Then, ask students to explain the underlined words in the examples. Discuss how they determined the meaning and what clues they found in the context. The process of creating the Anchor Chart helps students solidify their understanding of each kind of context clue. In addition, students can use the chart as a go-to reference before asking a teacher for help.

4. Partner Practice

Divide students into pairs or trios. Have them read passages from informational texts together, recording any challenging words and collaboratively applying the four steps of using context. Once students are finished, ask them to share the words they found and provide examples of how they used context effectively. This type of peer collaboration is a fun way to incorporate speaking and listening into the text-based process of looking for and using context clues to determine meaning.

5. Strategy Swap

Present other strategies that readers use when they encounter an unfamiliar word. Explain that in addition to context, readers can think about a word’s parts (prefix, root/base word, suffix) and use resources—such as a dictionary or thesaurus—to determine its meaning. Present examples where context does not work effectively, and have students apply these other methods. By encouraging flexible thinking and persistence, you can help your students develop habits that will benefit them beyond the classroom. 

Exposing students to vocabulary in context plays a critical role in developing language and literacy. However, teaching them to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words using context clues serves as just one part of effective vocabulary instruction.

Students “own” words they can:

• Read or hear in multiple and repeated rich contexts.

• Define and determine in relation to other words.

• Connect to known information or personal experience.

• Use and manipulate in expressive language activities.

Whenever you give your students an opportunity to identify and determine the meaning of unfamiliar words in context, you reinforce the value of reading as a portal to a world of knowledge. Even if students sometimes miss the target in assigning word meanings, they increase their awareness of and interest in words and their meanings. 

Creating a Vocabulary-Rich Classroom

You can add creativity to word learning through more interactive games and methods. Here are some strategies you can use to infuse vocabulary into your classroom and make learning it more engaging:

• Create an interactive, virtual word wall where students can hear and see vocabulary words, their definitions, and pronunciations. You can present words on a smartboard or through platforms like Google Classroom.

• Play games like Go Fish, Pictionary, Charades, and Vocabulary Headbanz to gamify vocabulary learning.

• Place vocabulary words around the room on sticky notes and ask students to write original sentences using each word.

• Create vocabulary word “stations” throughout the classroom where students must come up with different ways to use each word at each station.

• Encourage students to get theatrical and act out vocabulary words to deepen their understanding of complex words.

• Ask students to research topics they’re interested in, where they’ll likely encounter new vocabulary naturally.

• Encourage students to write and define new words in vocabulary journals.

Want more classroom activities? Check out “Ten Fun In-Class Letter-Correspondence Activities” to deepen your students’ word knowledge.