Meaning-Based Cue Card

This cue card can be used to extend the depth of vocabulary comprehension for learners with typical vocabulary and phonological skills.

Thanks to Rose Brooks, Independent Education Consultant for the creation of this resource.

---

Download

More Information

Research indicates that vocabulary is associated with phonological (sound-based) skills until around age 8 (Wagner et al., 1997), and that once these skills are in place, vocabulary becomes increasingly linked to reading comprehension and the meaning of words.  Therefore, once speech skills, phonological awareness and phonics are in place, it may be more efficient and effective to use teaching time to increase the depth of word meanings.

The meaning-based cue card can be used for learners with typical vocabulary and phonological skills (often beyond age 8) to extend their depth of vocabulary comprehension.  The learning cues are based on evidence-based principles of rich vocabulary instruction (Beck et al., 2013).  Work through each of the green meaning prompts to enrich the child’s understanding of the target word using the STAR approach described above.

References

Beck, I. L., McKeown, M., & Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. Guilford Press.

Blachowicz, C. L. Z., & Fisher, P. (2014). Teaching vocabulary in all classrooms. (5th Ed.). Pearson.

Duff, F. J., Reen, G., Plunkett, K., & Nation, K. (2015). Do infant vocabulary skills predict school‐age language and literacy outcomes? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 56(8), 848-856. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12378

Lowe, H., Henry, L., & Joffe, V. L. (2019). The effectiveness of classroom vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 62(8), 2829-2846. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_JSLHR-L-18-0337

Munro, N., Lee, K., & Baker, E. (2008). Building vocabulary knowledge and phonological awareness skills in children with specific language impairment through hybrid language intervention: A feasibility study. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 43(6), 662-682. https://doi.org/10.1080/13682820701806308

Parsons, S. & Branagan, a. (2017). Wordaware: Teaching vocabulary across the day, across the curriculum. Routledge.

Perfetti, C., & Hart, L. (2002). The lexical quality hypothesis. In L. Verhoeven, C. Elbro, & P. Reitsma (Eds.), Precursors of functional literacy (Vol. 11, pp. 189-213). John Benjamins Publishing.

Silverman, R. (2007). A comparison of three methods of vocabulary instruction during readalouds in kindergarten. The Elementary School Journal, 108(2), 97-113. https://doi.org/10.1086/525549

St John, P., & Vance, M. (2014). Evaluation of a principled approach to vocabulary learning in mainstream classes. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 30(3), 255-271. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265659013516474

Wagner, R. K., Torgesen, J. K., Rashotte, C. A., Hecht, S. A., Barker, T. A., Burgess, S. R., Donahue, J., & Garon, T. (1997). Changing relations between phonological processing abilities and word-level reading as children develop from beginning to skilled readers: A 5-year longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 33(3), 468-479. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.33.3.468