A Descriptive Study on the Use of Materials in Vocabulary Lessons

Abstract

Vocabulary knowledge is important because it is highly correlated with content area learning. Strategies for vocabulary instruction recommend using new words in multiple contexts as key to learning. To date, the term multiple contexts emphasizes written contexts, not three-dimensional concrete material contexts. This article describes the results of 507 observations of vocabulary lessons in K–3 classrooms to determine how often concrete materials were used to augment learning. The results of this descriptive study showed that teachers' use of concrete materials was greatest for mathematics and science lessons and lowest for language arts lessons. The use of concrete materials also varied among the districts' accreditation levels. Districts with the lowest accreditation levels also had the lowest number of lessons that included concrete materials.