RW - Vocabulary in Context Lesson

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Vocabulary in Context

There is a strong link between vocabulary and reading comprehension. When readers have a strong vocabulary, they are more likely to understand what it is they are reading and much more likely to figure out what words mean in context. It is not practical to think that words can be learned in conversation alone. Studies have also shown that learning vocabulary words in isolation are not necessarily the best approach either.  Students must develop the skills to gain what they need from their reading.

The SAT will focus on vocabulary words that appear frequently in written texts but are not overly used in oral conversations. These words are used by mature language users and can be found across a variety of domains. The College Board refers to these words as "Tier Two Words." In the past, the SAT focused on words that were rarely found in written texts. These words are referred to as "Tier Three Words."

Students will still encounter difficult words within the SAT passages. They must read and understand these words in context. The exam will also assess the multiple meanings of a word and require students to determine the meaning based on context clues. Students will also be given the challenge of analyzing word choice rhetorically and improving written expression.

Example Question

The following passage shows how students will be asked to demonstrate an understanding of relevant words in context on the SAT:

The food pantry was in desperate need of donations. Food was scarce, and the need to help people with little to no income was substantial. The families who receive food from the pantry have typically lost their jobs and have no way to purchase food for their children. A benevolent minister heard of the food pantry's need and donated over 100 units of food! In addition, the minister worked with a local bread store to ensure that all of the unsold bread would be donated to the pantry as well. The volunteers at the food pantry were very appreciative of everything the minister did to help them out.

As used in the passage, the word "benevolent" most likely means

  1. emotional
  2. determined
  3. kind
  4. brilliant
  5. selfish

This question asks students to analyze how the word benevolent is used in context. Based on the context clues, answer choice C is the best answer.   Benevolent means kind and well-meaning; it can also mean charitable. The question draws students back to the text rather than rewarding isolated vocabulary knowledge.  

The SAT may also require students to recognize the shifts in the meaning of the same word. Let's take a look at President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address to understand what this means:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

Source Links to an external site.

The word dedicate is used several times throughout Lincoln's speech.  Early in the speech, Lincoln uses the word to mean "committed."  For example, Lincoln describes the United States as "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."  However, when Lincoln writes that "we have come to dedicate a portion" of the Gettysburg battlefield "as a resting place," he uses "dedicate" to mean setting aside for a memorial purpose.

The SAT questions may focus on how two different uses of a word vary in meaning, tone, and rhetorical effect as seen in the example above. In isolation, the word dedicate is not difficult. However, the important skill is understanding how a word can be used differently within a text.

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