Context Clues Lesson Plans with Activities

A weeks worth of engaging lesson plans to teach students how to use context clues to determine unfamiliar words. These lesson plans are designed to be low prep for the teacher, but keep your kids engaged and challenged the entire week!

There is a whole group and a small group lesson for each day, so that you can differentiate and reach each learner.

All the materials are provided, besides books. All the lessons are engaging, low prep, and rigorous for your upper elementary students.

Why these lessons?

Engagement- I saw that my students needed more engagement and relation to their real life in order to fully understand the skills, so I created these lessons to keep kids excited and involved the whole time.

Tiered Approach- We start with a real life lesson, then practice as a whole group, work in a small group, work in partners, and finally work alone. We start with support on the skill and slowly take it away to really push the kiddos.

Rigor- The lessons keep kids thinking the entire time and push them to reach their potential.

Low-Prep- These lessons just need to be printed, copied, and they are ready to go! Most activities require little work beforehand for the teacher which makes a teachers busy life easier!

The lessons include:

Monday- Students will work as a group to determine unfamiliar words in under 10 minutes. Then, you will show them how to use context clues using an anchor chart. Lastly, students will use dictionaries to create their own context clues.

Tuesday- An explicit teaching lesson where you put a story that is provided on the board and go over how to use context clues. Then, you read "The Word Collector" by Peter H. Reynolds and do discussion questions. Then, they will get a word from the book to look up and create a sentence with. Lastly, you will play a game of four corners to practice context clues.

Wednesday- Play "Left, Right, Center" with a context clue worksheet. Then, put students in groups and give them a nonfiction passage. They will do a worksheet that goes with their paragraph where they determine context clues and create a skit. Students will perform skits and the class will determine the words with the clues.

Thursday- Put the pictures and words provided on the board to work on context clues. Students will be put in pairs where they will read a short story and do an engaging companion. They will define words and create a silly story. Then, they will get with another group to read each others silly story.

Friday- You will play music and go over sentences using context clues in a whole group game. Then, read "Freaky Faces" by David Armentrout (which is on EPIC for free). There is a interactive companion to go with it where the students will define the words and then check their definitions using the glossary in the back. Give the assessment.

There is one small group lesson per day. You can do this with every group or just do the lessons you think the groups need. You differentiate them by what books you choose.

Monday: Students will use dictionaries to find interesting words. Then, they create sentences and use context clues to determine other student's words.

Tuesday: Students will work on context clues using a set of task cards.

Wednesday: Read "I Wanna New Room" by Karen Kaufmann Olaf and do a work sheet that goes over vocabulary words in the story.

Thursday: Students will write a letter using the words from the previous lesson. You will show them how to make sentences using context clues.

Friday: Do a close read provided and practice context clues.

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