Vocabulary Advance Organizer - Novel Study

I have a few of my book units on TeachersPayTeachers and I have had a few people ask how I have the kids do vocabulary every week for the chapters that they have been assigned.  So here is a quick run down on our weekly vocabulary.  This particular week, one of my reading groups read chapters 11 - 14 of the Devil's Arithmetic.  When I do a book unit, I basically just go through and decide what words I think will be good for each set of chapters.  They use their finished organizers to study for the quizzes each week and their final.

I start with a simple graphic organizer (AKA a table).  I have 4 columns that are labeled context clues, part of speech/definition, new sentence, synonym.  I usually pick about 7 words for each set of chapters.  I type the sentence/s from the book with the word and anything else needed for context.  Those get typed into the first column of the organizer.  The students must circle at least two good context clues in each box before they can try and determine the definitions.  And my policy is NO CONTEXT CLUES, NO CREDIT.  Here is a student example of the first column.

circling context clues

I type all the definitions at the bottom of the organizer for them to pick from.  They are scrambled up, so they need to use the context clues to pick the correct part of speech and definition.  These go in the second column.

The students must then use the word in a new sentence of their own.  They must include at least two context clues in their new sentence as well.  By the time the year is over we have thoroughly covered context clues :)

Then, they come up with a synonym for the word in the last column.  This often just comes from definition, but sometimes there is no definite synonym.  If that happens they are allowed to write a word that is related or helpful to remember the meaning.

When they are done, they get glued or taped into their Reading Response composition books.  By the end of the book they have a complete set of vocabulary to study from.  And here is what it looks like finished (or at least almost finished).

vocabulary advance organizer finished