What is the Frayer Model?
The Frayer Model is a vocabulary graphic organizer that organizes and categorizes words. It is a graphic organizer that allows students to study words as they relate to content or other words. It forces students to think about the word and analyze its features for essential and non-essential descriptors.
Why does this strategy work?
Because words don't appear in isolation, that is not the way they are learned. Words are embedded in text that is content driven and ideologically geared. Words never stand alone because when they do they're meanings are hard to get to if they are not surrounded by other words to give the reader clues as to what the definitions are. The Frayer Model works because it identifies key features of the word but also identifies what the word is not. I chose a reading from the business math textbook for this strategy (Business Math, 2006, pg. 134) because the reading distinguishes between the two types of interest methods that are most used in finance.
How does the Frayer Model work?
1. Words are assigned.
2. The Frayer Model is explained and modeled.
3. Easy words are used as examples.
4. Students can work in pairs or alone for this strategy.
5. Students then share their work and as a whole class the students and teacher come up with a final Frayer Model of the word so that everyone is clear on the meaning and non-meaning of that word.
What does the Frayer Model look like?
