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Dictionary Skills Lesson One • Dictionary Skills Lesson Two

This is number 3 in a series of lessons designed to teach students the sometimes forgotten art of using a dictionary and is designed for students aged 9+ although many teachers will adapt it for younger students.

Curriculum: Written Language, exploring language, shaping text, editing text.

Introduce the idea that there are many words we come across often but we are not really sure what their exact meaning is. Sometimes this means we use the wrong word, eg

Can students tell you the difference between …

1. climate and weather
2. hotel and restaurant
3. less and fewer
4. big and huge
5. fair and honest
6. sport and recreation
7. profession and occupation
8. goals and aims
9. overcast and cloudy
10. flutter and flap

Using the dictionary have students clarify and explain the meanings of the above words. Point out that a dictionary is very useful for helping us get the correct meaning of words.

Have students write sentences using the correct word in each case.

Although students subconsiously understand that the same word can mean different things depending on the context, they will be totally surprised to find the number of different meanings that some words can have.

To illustrate this, have them use the dictionary to find the different meanings for the following common words:

1. safe
2. signal
3. strike
4. fast
5. margin
6. point
7. sale
8. tumble
9. over
10. high

Each group or student chooses one word from the list and writes a series of sentences that shows the differences in meaning of that words depending on the context used.

Have groups challenge the class on a regular basis by finding words in the dictionary which have multiple meanings and being able to use them in the correct context.