I hear a lot of comments from 4-12 teachers that students have difficulty with the vocabulary in their content area. One of the best ways to help students learn vocabulary is to identify the key affixes (prefix, suffix and root word parts) for your content area and directly teach this to students. For example, a science teacher might teach the prefixes “hydro” meaning “water” while a math teacher might teach “poly” meaning “many” to students. Help students connect with as many words as possible that use the affixes being presented. Learning word parts is a key skill that will help students unlock many new words as they encounter them.