Consider these 6 words from The Storyteller’s Candle: slender, gallant, chimed, preparations, flickered, concluded.
Imagine teaching these to third graders for a week. Are they central to the story? Will they boost students’ vocabulary for future texts? Probably not. Research shows that selecting 5-7 story-specific words rarely improves comprehension or long-term vocabulary growth.
Artificial intelligence (AI) offers educators a data-driven alternative to intuition-based word lists. By analyzing vast language datasets, AI tools can pinpoint word features crucial for student learning.
Let’s examine The Storyteller’s Candle more closely. This 1,500-word story about a librarian helping children organize a Three Kings’ Day celebration contains 525 unique words, about 10% of which may be new to third graders.
AI can transform our approach to vocabulary selection:
1. Semantic grouping: AI identifies word clusters supporting text comprehension and general knowledge.
| Actions of the candle (part of Belpré’s storytelling | Preparations for Three Kings’ Day celebration | Features of the celebration |
| flickered twinkling sparkled flame | rehearsed costumes decorations announcement invited | applause clapped celebrated neighbors parade |
2. Morphological families: AI highlights words with rich derivational networks, expanding vocabulary learning potential.
celebrated: celebrate (ing, s), celebration, celebratory, celebrity
applause: applaud (ing, ed, s), applaudable
rehearsed: rehearse (ing, s), rehearsal, unrehearsed
decorations: decorate (ing, ed, s), decorative, undecorated
invited: invite (ing, s), invitation, uninvited
preparations: prepare (ed, ing, s), preparedness, unprepared
While preparations and flickered from the original list appear in these groups, AI analysis places them in meaningful contexts, deepening students’ understanding.
AI can offer many more insights into word features affecting meaning recognition. These tools can help move vocabulary instruction beyond simple definitions, empowering students with robust, generative vocabularies.