One of my favorite books about Vocabulary Instruction is Bringing Words To Life by Isabel Beck.
In it she says: Studies estimate that of 100 unfamiliar words met in reading, between 5-15 will be learned. She goes on to saying, "A robust approach to vocabulary involves directly explaining the meanings of words along with thought provoking, playful, and interactive follow up. Playful...that is right up my alley! One way I playfully review vocabulary is with my own version of this game:
This game is all the rage among the 8-10 year old group now. My fourth grade daughter went to a birthday party this past week and the birthday girl got 2 of these. We can use this same idea in our classrooms to reinforce vocabulary. This is super simple, I just write the vocabulary words we are working on right now on cards (many being content area or science/social studies words). Students meet up with a few friends, an elastic headband and a set of vocab cards. The player pulls a card without looking at it and places it in the headband so the other students can see the word. The other students give the child with the headband three meaningful clues related to the mystery word to help the child guess what it is. My third graders really had fun with this and as the teacher, the clues given help me determine who really has a good grasp of the vocabulary.
What do you do to reinforce the meanings of your new words?
Words, words and more words! Did you know that research is saying 8 plus meaningful exposures to new vocabulary is really needed before students will truly be able to remember and apply it? I needed even more than that for those students with learning disabilities last year. I immerse my students in language and vocabulary. I explicitly teach it and then consciously reinforce it. One way to keep my math vocabulary in students' sight is with the vocabulary vine. As we learn a new math term, we post it to the vine so that the vine is constantly growing. I cluster similar words together so my students can keep them connected in their minds. The vine is simply colored duct tape that I stick to my wall at the beginning of the year. It comes off cleanly and easily at the end of the year. Duct tape, it's a good thing! 
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