How to Lock In New Vocabulary in 10 Minutes a Day  

Repetition is an essential part of learning new vocabulary, but it doesn’t have to mean worksheets and drills. At Ojibwa Elementary School in Macomb, Michigan, fifth-grade teacher JoAnna Milke uses a weeklong vocabulary routine called “10 Words in 10 Minutes” to help students build a deeper understanding of a list of 10 new words. Each day, students spend about 10 minutes revisiting the vocabulary through movement, quick decisions, writing, discussion, and games. By the end of the week, they’ve had multiple opportunities to work with each word and put it to use.

Milke typically selects words from upcoming lessons, often choosing more challenging terms, particularly in social studies, where concepts may be unfamiliar. On Make Meaning Monday, she introduces each word and its definition, then has students repeat it aloud and add a hand motion to represent its meaning. They also clap, stomp, or use other movements to break the word into syllables. As the week progresses, students move beyond repeating definitions. They evaluate examples and non-examples on Thumbs-Up Tuesday, choose between phrases to determine whether a word fits the context for Which One Wednesday, and come up with their own examples through a think, pair, share on Three Things Thursday. By the time they get to Figure It Out Friday, they’re exploring synonyms and antonyms for the list of words.

This approach reflects a key principle of direct vocabulary instruction: Students need more than a definition to develop a thorough understanding of a word. A foundational textbook on explicit instruction for literacy emphasizes modeling a word, explaining its meaning, and connecting it to synonyms, antonyms, and examples (Carnine et al., 2016). Milke’s routine gives students multiple opportunities to make those connections in different ways.

For Milke, the repeated exposure helps students use vocabulary appropriately and builds confidence along the way. “Because we do a weeklong vocabulary routine, my students feel more confident working with the words,” she says. “They feel empowered to use them, not only in conversation, but in their writing as they respond.”

For more ideas to make learning new vocabulary more engaging, read Sarah Gonser’s article for Edutopia, “6 Quick Strategies to Build Vocabulary.”