Strategy 3: Vocabulary
Zooming In/Zooming Out Level of Expertise: 5
What is the instructional strategy?
The instructional strategy being used for a single vocabulary concept is Zooming In/Zooming Out. This strategy will assist my students with developing their knowledge and understanding of key content vocabulary that is essential to the unit, while reading pp. 666 – 670 in the American Journey textbook (Doty, Cameron, & Barton, 2003).
Why does the strategy work?
This strategy is an effective tool that is used to facilitate student understanding of new content vocabulary (i.e.: nationalism). This strategy encourages students to make connections between vocabulary words and other related content, summarize the importance of the concept, determine the most and least important information, and identify opposite concepts. Zooming In/Zooming Out also helps students recognize where the concept of nationalism fits into the context of Social Studies (Doty, Cameron, & Barton, 2003, p. 103).
How does it work?
1) First, I determined the new essential single vocabulary concepts (i.e.: nationalism) that students should know and understand for this unit.
2) Then, I adapted the Zooming In/Zooming Out framework for this concept.
3) Students are given the organizer and are asked to brainstorm what they already know about the concept as a class prior to reading the assigned text.
4) After reading the assigned section of the text, students determine the information that was most important and least important.
5) Next, students employ their prior knowledge and determine what the concept of nationalism is similar and related to.
6) Then, students determine what is not related to the concept of nationalism.
7) Finally, students will compose a summary statement that represents their new understanding of the concept.
Sources Referenced: Doty, Cameron, & Barton, 2003.
What does it look like?
*See hard copy of graphic organizer
*See hard copy of graphic organizer
