1. Begin this session by reviewing a few of the student-generated sentences from Session 1, Step 8 showing examples of the four types of context clues. Reinforce how the meaning of an unknown word can be solved by identifying the type of context clue in the sentence. Review also the LPR3 mnemonic-students do not need to follow the mnemonic slavishly, but remind them that it is a good starting point. You may also wish to promote the mnemonic as a bookmark or wall chart.
2. Write the following sentence on the overhead or board:
"They ___________ across the street."
Have students fill in plausible answers. Make it clear that there are many good action verbs that may fit, but that students need more information, particularly what or who "they" refers to, to identify the unknown word.
3. Next, add to the context by writing:
"Kelly dropped her can of tennis balls. They ____________across the street."
Discuss how the context helps to narrow the words that would make sense in the sentence.
4. Demonstrate another example:
"They are still seeing the optimistic, charmingly loquacious teenager."
As opposed to filling in a blank, in this example, students are encountering a genuine word in an authentic context. Think aloud while you model the LPR3 mnemonic one more time. "I have no idea what loquacious means, but I'm going to try to figure it out. First, I need to look before, at, and after the word. I know the words charming and optimistic are positive traits, and that loquacious is another adjective describing the teenager. I predict that it will also be a positive trait...I'm going to say that it means pretty, just as a guess. Now, I'm going to reason a little more, but I'm not sure I'll be able to resolve the meaning from this sentence alone. Let me look at the next sentence."
"She was constantly on the phone for hours at a time."
"This is a huge clue-I'm going to redo my prediction and resolve that loquacious must mean really talkative-a motormouth-but not in an obnoxious way."
5. Distribute the Context Clues handout for guided practice. Have students complete the examples provided. Then, allow students time to add to the contexts. For example, in sentence 4, a student could have written, "Charlie was exhausted." The objective in this second part of the exercise is for students to enrich the context so that exhausted is explicitly called for in the sentence. An example would be, "After working a double shift, Charlie was exhausted." Collect the handouts and check for understanding.