Focus Calendar:Weeks 1-4

Synonym and Antonym

FCAT Testing Cluster 1Strand A

LA.A.1.2.3: Grades 3, 4, and 5

Standard 1 – The student uses the reading process effectively.

 

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High vocabulary people not only know more words, they know more about the words they know. Beck, McKeown, & Kucan

Clarifying the FCAT Benchmarks

•Grade K, 1, and 2•Benchmark- LA.A.1.1.3• The student uses knowledge of

appropriate garde-, age-, and developmental-level vocabulary in reading.

Clarifying the FCAT Benchmarks

•Grade K, 1, and 2•GLE- LA.A.1.1.3• K-

• 1st

• 2nd: knows homophones, synonyms and antonyms for a variety of words.

Word

Choice

Clarifying the FCAT Benchmarks

•Grade 3, 4, and 5•Benchmark- LA.A.1.2.3• Uses simple strategies to determine meaning and

increase vocabulary for reading, including the use of prefixes, suffixes, root words, multiple meanings, antonyms, synonyms, and word relationships.

What Does It Look Like on FCAT?

3rd GradeItem Type – Multiple Choice

Passage Attributes:

• Passages may be literary text or informational text.

• Other stimuli could include, but should not be limited to, illustrations graphics, and charts with captions.

• Passages must contain a word or phrase unfamiliar to most third-grade students, and sufficient context must be present to enable students to infer the meaning of the word or phrase. Passages must contain appropriate words to assess knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, root words, multiplemeanings, antonyms, synonyms, homophones, compound words,and contractions.

What Does It Look Like on FCAT?

3rd GradeItem Type – Multiple Choice

Response Attributes: Items assessing antonyms should not include synonyms as distractors; similarly, items assessing synonyms should not include antonyms as distractors.

3rd: Distractors may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• incorrect meanings of words or phrases,

• correct meanings of words or phrases that do not fit the context,

• words with construct similar to correct response (e.g. same prefix),

• incorrect interpretations of contractions.

What Does It Look Like on FCAT?

4th Grade

Item Type – Multiple Choice

 Passage Attributes:

• Passages may be literary text or informational text.

• Other stimuli could include, but should not be limited to, illustrations graphics, and charts with captions.

• Passages must contain a word or phrase unfamiliar to most fourth-grade students, and sufficient context must be present to enable students to infer the meaning of the word or phrase. Passages must contain appropriate words to assess knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, root words, multiple meanings, antonyms, synonyms, homophones.

What Does It Look Like on FCAT?

4th Grade

Item Type – Multiple Choice

Response Attributes: Items assessing antonyms should not include synonyms as distractors; similarly, items assessing synonyms should not include antonyms as distractors.

4th: Distractors may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• incorrect meanings of words or phrases,

• correct meanings of words or phrases that do not fit the context,

• words with construct similar to correct response (e.g. same prefix).

 

What Does It Look Like on FCAT?5th Grade

Item Type – Multiple ChoicePassage Attributes:

• Passages may be literary text or informational text.

• Other stimuli could include, but should not be limited to, illustrations graphics, and charts with captions.

• Passages must contain a word or phrase unfamiliar to most fifth-grade students, and sufficient context must be present to enable students to infer the meaning of the word or phrase. Passages must contain appropriate words to assess knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, root words, multiple meanings, antonyms, synonyms, homonyms, homophones, and word orgins.

What Does It Look Like on FCAT?

5th GradeItem Type – Multiple Choice

Response Attributes: Items assessing antonyms should not include synonyms as distractors; similarly, items assessing synonyms should not include antonyms as distractors.

5th: Distractors may include, but are not limited to, the following:• incorrect meanings of words or phrases,

• correct meanings of words or phrases that do not fit the context,

• words with construct similar to correct response (e.g. same prefix),

• plausible but incorrect responses based on the text.

Key Question Phrases

• The word ____ probably means…

• ___ is a kind of _____

• ___is a synonym for…

• ___means the opposite of…

Sample Question

Which words from the story have almost the same meaning?

A. complained, wonderedB. passed, waitedC. puffed, poppedD. watched, looked

Strategies for Teaching Synonyms and Antonyms

• Venn Diagram

hot

cold

freezing

chilly

icy

frigid

frosty

sultry

burning

scourging

stifling

boiling sizzlin

g

Strategies for Teaching Synonyms and Antonyms

• Semantic Map

cold

frigid

frosty

icy

freezingchilly

glacial

reserved

aloof

Strategies for Teaching Synonyms and Antonyms

• Semantic Map

cold

frigid

frosty

Synonyms

freezing Antonyms

sizzling

hot

sultryPeople who do this or who are this

Sandy

Dana

Strategies for Teaching Synonyms and Antonyms

• Word Sorts

coldchilly

sultry

sizzling

burningfrosty

Hot Cold

cold

sultry

Substitute a Synonym

Substitute a synonym is a strategy that will help you figure out words you don’t know.

A snowy owl named Hedwig delivers Harry Potter’s mail.

A snowy owl named Hedwig delivers Harry Potter’s mail.

1. Mine your memory and try to think of the word.

Have you seen it in a book or heard the word before?

2. Try to picture the word in the sentence.

Imagine Hedwig flying into the room and dropping an envelope in Harry’s hands.

3. Think of other words that mean the same thing.

(delivers: gives, brings)

4. Substitute a synonym in the sentence.

A snowy owl named Hedwig brings Harry Potter’s mail.

5. Check! Does the synonym make sense in the sentence? If it makes sense, you can continue reading. If not, try again.

Yes, the synonym makes sense.

Sophisticated Synonyms

Complete the sentences by choosing the correct word from the following :

clothes costume dress uniforms

outfit garment garb

The soldiers were wearing old khaki ___ covered with dust.

At the New Year’s Eve party, Chris won the first prize for best ___.

Clarissa looked nice in her pretty summer ___.

Alphabet-Antonyms Table

Antonyms Target Words

succeed

allow

remember

whole

back

1. The teacher selects words beginning with the same letter.

2. She prepares a two-column table ,with the antonyms of the target words listed in the first column.

3. Students complete the table, in groups or individually, knowing only that the word in the second column begin with the same letter.

4. After a 5-minute period, students may use a thesaurus, a synonym dictionary, or other resource.

5. Students share their tables and display a completed table for reference.

Alphabet-Antonyms Table

Antonyms Target Words

succeed

allow

remember

whole

back

fail

forbid

forget

fraction

front

• Time for reading.

• Use of varied, rich text.

• Opportunities for students to hear or use words in natural

sentence contexts.

• Use of concrete contexts when possible (pictures, artifacts).

• Opportunities for students to use words in meaningful ways.

Increase

Developing Effective Practices in Vocabulary Instruction

• Opportunities for students to connect new words/concepts

to those already known.

• Study of concepts rather than single, unrelated words.

• Explicit concept instruction and incidental encounters with

words.

• Teaching strategies leading to independent word learning.

• Finding the word or concept that will have the biggest

impact on comprehension rather than “covering” many words

superficially. (Tier 2 Words)

• Opportunities for inference.

Developing Effective Practices in Vocabulary Instruction

Increase

• Looking up definitions as a single source of word

knowledge.

• Asking students to write sentences for new words before

they’ve studied the word in depth.

• Notion that all words in a text need to be defined for

comprehension.

• Using context as a highly reliable tool for increasing

comprehension.

• Assessments that ask students for single definitions.

Developing Effective Practices in Vocabulary Instruction

Decrease