Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Context is everything. Everything. Without context, we grab our dictionaries and still wind up off the mark. 

While looking up "pseudonym," we somehow always find ourselves over in the "xylophone" section. Every. Time.

It's certainly important for your students to learn about dictionaries, but we don't always want to slow down that reading. Teach students to look around at the text's situation in order to take a whack at the meaning of an unknown word. They'll be flexible in their learning, thinking critically, and learning to take academic risks. Even small ones can be great leaps, especially in building reading confidence.