2nd Grade · Reading · L.2.4.A

Context Clues Lesson Plan for 2nd Grade

A ready-to-teach context clues lesson for 2nd Grade, built around using clue words in a sentence or passage to work out the meaning of a new word. Print the plan, print the practice pages, and you are set.

Approximately 47 minutes

Learning objective

Read and comprehend context clues passages independently
Build context clues vocabulary and fluency at the 2nd Grade level
Apply key reading strategies through context clues practice

Materials

Choose the meaning (context clues)
Use the word bank (context clues)
The Garden Surprise (context clues)
Use Context Clues at the Pancake Breakfast
Use Context Clues in the Sea Turtle Passage
Use Context Clues at the Ice Rink
Pencils, and whiteboard space for the modeled examples

Lesson steps

1. Build the background (5 min)
Connect context clues to a book the class already finished. Prior knowledge is doing most of the work in comprehension, so spend the time here.
2. Read aloud and think aloud (I do) (10 min)
Read a short passage aloud and stop twice to narrate your own thinking about context clues. Students are learning the move, not the answer.
3. Guided practice (we do) (12 min)
Read a second passage together. This time students find the evidence and you record it. Push every answer back to the text with "what words told you that?"
4. Independent practice (you do) (15 min)
Hand out "Choose the meaning (context clues)". Students read and answer on their own. Circulate and ask individuals to point to the line in the text that supports their answer.
5. Share and close (5 min)
Two or three students share an answer and the evidence behind it. Restate context clues one final time in the students' own words, not yours.

Check for understanding

Ask each student to point to the evidence in the text for one of their answers. A student who has the right answer but cannot find the line has not yet learned context clues.

Differentiation

Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild context clues with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.

Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own context clues problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand context clues.

Skills covered in this lesson

Context clues · Using context clues · Find the meaning · Multiple meanings from context

Questions teachers ask about teaching context clues

What are context clues?

Context clues are words or sentences near an unknown word that hint at its meaning. In Use Context Clues at the Ice Rink, The rink was enormous. It was so big that it took a long time to skate across it tells the reader that enormous means very big.

What kinds of context clues do 2nd graders use?

Some clues restate the word, like the shore, the sandy edge of the ocean. Others show what happened, like He gobbled three pancakes. He ate them so fast. On the four passage sheets children copy these clue words under each answer.

Which standard do context clues support?

CCSS L.2.4.A, using sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. All 7 sheets support it.