Meggin’s Current Articles

Teachers – Build Vocabulary With Students – Use the Zip Close Technique

6th February, 2009 - Posted by Meggin - No Comments

Many teachers have used the ‘close’ technique with the classroom. It’s a tried-and-true method where you omit particular words, usually with some kind of parameter, such as omitting every 10th word, all adjectives, or the like.

When using the ‘zip close’ (so named because of ‘zipping’ off the masking of the word to get students even more excited to see it), I recommend being VERY particular about which words you choose to omit – if your intent is to build students’ vocabulary. You do this by using the ‘zip close’ as a means to find out what students already know – and then using that information when you are linking new vocabulary to their background knowledge. Let’s explore this further in this article.

In a workshop I do for teachers, I use a paragraph from an article entitled "Outlandish Gadgets in Short Supply at Show." I only omit 5 words and then have pairs of teachers work to determine words that would make sense to fill in the blank. Here’s the text I use so you can see how this works:

LAS VEGAS (AP) – The world’s premier consumer electronics show wouldn’t be complete without the ________ and ________ : A smart oven preserved and cooked meals based on remote commands, while a 102-inch plasma TV – taller than the 8-foot walls in many homes – inspired ooohs and aaahs from couch potatoes. But manufacturers at this year’s gadgetfest generally took a more ________ approach: They ________ the flamboyant and futuristic in favor of relatively affordable devices that will debut within weeks or months, not years. Many of the 2,400 exhibitors at the International Consumer Electronics Show this week ________ simple, elegant, sub-$1,000 items meant to enhance consumers’ "digital lifestyles." Universal remote controls, hand-held computers, digital camcorders, MP3 players and TVs that can be programmed from cell phones help users stay plugged into a world of digital music, video, games, television and Internet.

I HIGHLY suggest that you try to figure out what words belong here before you take a peek at the ‘answers’ at the bottom of this article. That will help you see how this works.
Ideas for creating a ‘zip close.

1. Choose a selection from a story, informational text,or other piece of writing that is at or near your students’ reading levels, but that may contain words that are unfamiliar to them.
2. Omit only a *few* words. This is a different use of the close technique and you want to have plenty of context for students to use. Leave the same size blank where each word belongs. You don’t want to give additional clues by having shorter or longer links.
3. Omit words that you think the kids may not know but that you would like them to learn. (Note: Once they have given you words that they think make sense in the passage – whether or not they are the exact words from the selection – you have information that will let you teach the new words.)
4. Have the students work in pairs. This allows them to generate far more ideas than they would alone. Just walking around and listening to the students’ conversations will give you clues to use when providing instruction on the target words after the zip close activity.
5. Remember: Getting the "right" answer is not the goal. If the words that students come up with *make sense* then this is what you’re looking for.

Once you have gone through the activity and made note of the words that students generated for the ‘blanks,’ then you can use those words – because those are the ones that students ALREADY KNOW – to help you link the new vocabulary to their known vocabulary.

This is one of my favorite ideas to use with students.
…so, are you ready to find out the words that the authors used in the blanks above? Be sure you have generated your own list before peeking, though!

• fanciful
• outlandish
• modest
• eschewed
• hawked

If you actually did this for yourself…you can probably see how this would work. It is unlikely you came up with the exact word replacements, but using the words you generated, a skilled teacher would make connections between what you know and the words s/he wanted you to learn. See how cool this is?!

And to access scores of free resources that you can use to build vocabulary in your classroom, including PowerPoints, PDFs, and Word documents, by going to…

**Owning Words for Literacy    http://www.OwningWordsforLiteracy.com

To get numerous articles with teaching tips (for free), just go to…

**Articles for Teachers    http://www.ArticlesforTeachers.com
- and see what’s there for you to use in your classroom.

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., "The Ph.D. of Productivity"(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!