What does teaching students guide words in a dictionary help them understand?

Teaching students guide words in a dictionary helps them understand the meaning and context of words. Guide words are typically found at the top of each page in a dictionary and indicate the first and last entries on that page. By utilizing guide words, students learn how to navigate the dictionary and identify the range of words contained on that page. This knowledge assists them in locating definitions more efficiently and gives them a sense of how words are grouped based on their alphabetical order, thereby enhancing their comprehension of how words are defined and used in various contexts. Understanding guide words also fosters vocabulary development, as students become more adept at discovering related words and their meanings within the structure of a dictionary.