Knowing What You Don't Know
Monitor your own vocabulary gaps — notice words you half-know, distinguish confident from uncertain knowledge, and develop strategies to resolve the uncertainty
Teaching approaches
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1 approach
Strong readers monitor understanding. Knowing what you do not yet understand helps you choose a useful question, source, or strategy.
Read a short paragraph and make a Know / Unsure / Need-to-find-out chart before resolving one uncertainty.
Learning resources
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This concept
Check understanding
- Noticing Unfamiliar Words Assessment research (grade 2+)
- word consciousness and vocabulary metacognition research
- Building Word Knowledge e-Book (PMC 2019)
“When your child comes across a word they half-know — where they can guess the meaning but aren't sure — do they notice that gap and do something about it, like looking it up or asking?”
Curriculum record
- Type
- Meta
- Subject
- English
- Domain
- English Thinking
- Age range
- Ages 8–10