Abstract of

Teaching Tips
Ten Important Words Plus: A Strategy for Building Word Knowledge

Ruth Helen Yopp

Hallie Kay Yopp

In this strategy, students individually select and record 10 important words on self-adhesive notes as they read a text. Then students build a group bar graph displaying their choices, write a sentence that summarizes the content, and then respond to prompts that ask them to think about words in powerful ways. Several prompts are suggested, each emphasizing the meaning, manipulation, or application of selected words in various contexts. This strategy is based on principles of effective vocabulary instruction as it involves

• repeated exposure to words

• active engagement with words

• study of words with instructional potential

This strategy fosters word knowledge as well as comprehension of text with its focus on word meanings and important ideas in text.

This article is also the source for a Class Acts podcast. Download “Teaching key vocabulary” from

• www.reading.org/resources/podcasts/index.html

Abstract from Yopp, R., & Yopp, H. (2007, October). Ten Important Words Plus: A Strategy for Building Word Knowledge. The Reading Teacher, 61(2), 157–160. doi: 10.1598/RT.61.2.5

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