Vocabulary Workshop - Using Dictionaries

Using dictionaries and other reference aids

Students must learn how to use dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses to help broaden and deepen their knowledge of words, even though these resources can be difficult to use. The most helpful dictionaries include sentences providing clear examples of word meanings in context.

Workshop example

As his class reads a text, a second-grade teacher discovers that many of his students do not know the meaning of the word board, as in the sentence, "The children were waiting to board the buses." The teacher demonstrates how to find board in the classroom dictionary, showing students that there are four different definitions for the word. He reads the definitions one at a time, and the class discusses whether each definition would fit the context of the sentence. The students easily eliminate the inappropriate definitions of board, and settle on the definition, "to get on a train, an airplane, a bus, or a ship."

The teacher next has students substitute the most likely definition for board in the original sentence to verify that it is "The children were waiting to get on the buses" that makes the best sense.

• Vocabulary Workshop
• Workshop 1 - Using reference aids
• Workshop 2 - Using word parts
• Workshop 3 - Using context clues