Marzano’s Six Step Process

1. Provide a description, explanation, or example of the new term. (Include a non-linguistic representation of the term for ESL kids.)

2. Ask students to restate the description, explanation, or example in their own words. (Allow students whose primary existing knowledge base is still in their native language to write in it.)

3. Ask students to construct a picture, symbol, or graphic representing the word.

4. Engage students periodically in activities that help them add to their knowledge of the terms in their notebooks.

5. Periodically ask students to discuss the terms with one another. (Allow in native language when appropriate)

6. Involve students periodically in games that allow them to play with terms.

 Looking up words in dictionaries is not useful for teaching vocab

 Provide a context for the term

 Introduce direct experiences that provide examples of the term

 Tell a story that integrates the term

 Use video as the stimulus for understanding information

 Ask students to investigate the term and present the information to the class (skit, pantomime, poster, etc.)

 Describe your own mental picture of the term

 Find or create pictures that explain the term

 Monitor and correct misunderstandings

 Must be student’s original ideas, not parroting the teacher

 Model, model, model

 Provide examples of student’s drawings (and your own) that are rough but represent the ideas

 Play "Pictionary"

 Draw an example of the term

 Dramatize the term using speech bubbles

 Let them find a picture on the internet, if necessary

 Highlight prefixes, suffixes, root words that will help them remember the meaning of the term

 Identify synonyms and antonyms for the term

 List related words

 Write brief cautions or reminders of common confusions

 Translate the term into another language for second language students

 Point out cognates to words in Spanish

 Write incomplete analogies for students to complete

 Allow students to write (or draw) their own analogies

 Sort or classify words

 Compare similarities and differences

 Think-Pair-Share

 Compare their descriptions of the term

 Describe their pictures to one another

 Explain to each other any new information they have learned ("aha’s")

 Identify areas of disagreement or confusion and seek clarification

 Students can make revisions to their own work

 Pictionary

 "Oops" (formerly known as "Bang")

 Upset the fruit basket

 Memory

 Jeopardy (vocab words are on the board, players make up a question to define)

 Charades

 Name that Category ($100,000 Pyramid)

 Password

 Talk a Mile a Minute (like Catch Phrase)

 Bingo (you give definition, kid marks the word)

 Create a skit (assign groups of 3-4 kids 3 vocab words to make a skit out of)

 Swat Game (post 2 sets of words, kids on 2 teams compete to find words first and swat with fly-)