Vocabulary Ladders

Last month, we discussed two ways to teach more words: semantic and thematic clusters. This month, we’ll take a closer look at semantic clusters by using Tim Rasinki’s work on Vocabulary Ladders.

Vocabulary Ladders provide a framework to teach semantically related words within a cluster. Similar to Burkins & Yates Word Chains where a letter or letters are changed or taken away to go from a beginning word to a word at the other end of the ladder, Vocabulary Ladders are a gradient, or ordered intensity, of words related to a topic. With Vocabulary Ladders, the emphasis is not so much as learning a large number of new words as it is to understand the nuances, or shades of meaning, of words the child may have already encountered.

So What? The Why

Ordering words according to their essential meaning (microscopic vs. small) or nuance (cute vs. stunning) produces rich discussion as “word relationships are complex, and there may be several reasonable interpretations of how words should be arranged along a continuum” remarks Zutell in Vocabulary Ladders: Understanding Word Nuances. This talk is important as we nudge students to use more precise language during literature discussions and to consider word choice when writing. These conversations provide an authentic reason for multiple encounters with a word and creates a deep understanding of its meaning. Vocabulary Ladders almost act like a thesaurus sorting synonyms. The ladders can be expanded to merge into opposite meanings at the other end of the continuum. Some teachers like to build the ladder with student-friendly definitions alongside each word.

The How

When building vocabulary ladders, it is best to have children work in partnerships or small groups to encourage talk and debate. Even when working as a whole class, students should have a talking partner. Work with vocabulary ladders can go across days, needing only a few minutes a day for this work.

This might go like this:

Day One: match words to the definition

Day Two: order the words based on meaning (LOTS of discussion!)

Day Three: Give sentence clues for each word

Example:

Topic: Weather: Go from a little sun to a lot of sun

Words: murky, foggy, cloudy, fair, clear, sunny

Sentence Clue: The sailboat disappeared into the __________ harbor.

Vocabulary Ladders are fun and bring JOY to word learning!