Before reading a newspaper article, how can teachers support students with vocabulary?

• A. Write key vocabulary on the board and explain it
• B. Provide a long glossary for home use
• C. Ask students to guess meanings only
• D. Let students translate every word

Answer: (A)

Focusing on essential vocabulary before reading helps students access the article more quickly and accurately. Writing key words on the board and explaining them gives a concise, in-class briefing that covers meaning, pronunciation, and how the terms are used in context. This builds students’ prior knowledge and supports decoding during reading, so they can focus on the ideas rather than stopping to figure out every term.

Providing a long glossary for home use is less effective in the moment because students benefit from immediate, in-class support and guided practice with the terms they will encounter. Relying on guessing meanings only can lead to misunderstandings and shaky comprehension, especially with newspaper language that may be precise or nuanced. Translating every word is impractical and can hinder reading fluency and the ability to infer meaning from context.