Concept+Circles

“Concept Circles” is a vocabulary strategy that focuses on drawing meanings and relationships between words. On the left hand of the page, the teacher provides students with four words that are presented in a divided circle, and the students are to write an explanation for the relationship between those words on the right side of the page. This strategy is especially nice because it is highly flexible. The teacher might ask for a sentence-long explanation, or whole paragraph. Students can work with different numbers of words in the circle, and the teacher can even decide to leave one section of the circle blank, asking students to fill in their own word, and explain why they chose it to assist their explanations. I would use this vocabulary strategy as often as possible because it forces students to use higher-level thinking skills, like synthesizing different bits of information together for one meaningful point.
 * Concept Circles **  (A Vocabulary Strategy)

Although, this strategy can be useful for nonfiction, I find it applicable to literature as well, particularly when discussing themes and plot intricacies. It can be used for frontloading background knowledge, or while reading to make new information more relatable. In this example, a student reading Jane Austen’s __Pride and Prejudice__ would be asked to relate the words “affluence,” “estate,” “dowry,” and “disdain.” Since there is no one right answer in this open-ended activity, it is perfectly fine that the student uses more than one sentence, relating the final word back to the previous three.

Beers, K., Probst, R. K., Reif, L. (2007). //Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into// // Practice //. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.