Subject Vocabulary in Context

1. Write "current" on the board. Ask: "What does it mean?" Most will say "happening now" or "electricity."
2. Then write: "The fast current on the outside of the bend wore the riverbank away." Ask: "Does happening now fit here?" It does not. Take a guess at the river meaning: water that is moving in one direction.
3. Say that subject texts are full of words that mean one thing at home and another in science or history, and that today's job is to let the text tell you which.

1. Display: "Rivers shape the land through erosion. As water flows, it picks up tiny bits of rock and soil, called sediment, and carries them downstream. The fast current on the outside of a bend wears the bank away, while slower water on the inside drops sediment and builds a sandy beach. Over thousands of years, this process can carve a whole valley."
2. Introduce the four clue types on the anchor chart, each with an example from the passage. Definition: "tiny bits of rock and soil, called sediment" — the text names it for you. Restatement: "erosion" is explained by "wears the bank away." Contrast: "fast current" against "slower water... drops sediment" tells you current is moving water and its speed matters. Example: "carve a whole valley" is an example of what the process does.
3. Model "sediment" on the word chart. Word: sediment. Clue: "called sediment" (definition). Meaning: "tiny bits of rock and soil carried by water." Then a new sentence: "After the flood, a layer of brown sediment covered the park." Ask why that sentence proves understanding: it could not work with any other word.
4. Model "process" — an academic word that turns up in every subject. Ask what "this process" points back to: the water wearing away and dropping rock, over and over. Meaning: "a set of steps that happen again and again to cause a change." Everyday meaning: the same, which is worth saying — not every word has two lives.
5. Show a weak new sentence: "I like erosion." Ask: "Could you put any word in there?" Yes — "I like pizza." So it proves nothing. Rewrite: "Years of erosion had worn the cliff path so thin that it was closed."

“Before you guess, look around the word. Authors who write about science know you might not know their words, so they hide the meaning nearby — after "called," after a comma, or in the opposite next to it.”

1. Pairs read: "Bats hunt in the dark using echolocation. A bat makes high-pitched squeaks, and the sound bounces off objects and comes back as echoes. By listening to the echoes, the bat can tell where an insect is and how fast it is moving. Many bats are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night and rest during the day."
2. Pairs fill the word chart for "echolocation" and "nocturnal," naming the clue type for each. The answers to fish for: "nocturnal" — definition clue ("meaning..."), active at night; "echolocation" — restatement across two sentences, finding things by listening to the echoes of your own sounds.
3. Each pair writes one new sentence for each word that could not work with another word. Circulate and apply the "could you swap in pizza?" test to any sentence that looks thin.
4. Ask the whole class: "Does echolocation have an everyday meaning?" No — it is a pure subject word. "Does nocturnal?" Only in science-ish talk. Contrast with "current," which lives in both.

“Your new sentence should be a little test. If I covered the word, could someone still guess it from the rest? Then you have shown me you know it.”

1. Students complete the printable practice sheet alone, working out word meanings from the sentences printed on it.
2. Early finishers find a word in the river passage that has an everyday meaning and a river meaning (bank, bend) and write one sentence for each.

1. Read: "The river deposited sand at its mouth." Ask: "Does mouth mean a body part here? What clue tells you?" Take one answer that names a clue.