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This is a chapter excerpt from Guilford Publications.
Teaching Academic Vocabulary K8: Effective Practices across the Curriculum.
By Camille Blachowicz, Peter Fisher, Donna Ogle, and Susan Watts Taffe.
Copyright 2013. Purchase this book now: www.guilford.com/p/blachowicz2
CHAPTER 1
TheImportanceofAcademicVocabulary
A
great deal is known about early language development, and in particu-
lar about the importance of having older family members immerse young
children in oral language and model the value of language. It is also true that
throughoutlifeitismucheasierforchildrentoexpandtheirvocabularieswhen
theyencounternewtermsinengagingoralcontexts,withmanyrepetitionsand
concretereferents.Yet,inordertobecomecompetentlanguageusers,children
needtoincreasetheirvocabulariesfarbeyondwhattheyuseinoralexchanges
at home or with friends. In fact, the majority of the words they need are ones
theywillencounterthroughreadingandlearningnewcontent.Theseareoften
wordsthattheyfindinwrittenmaterialsorhearusedinschool,butmayseldom
havetheopportunitytouseorallythemselves.Thisiswhereteachershaveareal
responsibility:inhelpingstudentsbuildtheirawarenessofandinterestinunfa-
miliarterms,indevelopingstrategiesforhelpingstudentslearnnewwordsand
phrases,andinprovidingsettingsforusingthese.
ATTENDINGTOACADEMICVOCABULARY
Inschool,science,mathematics,socialstudies,literature,andhumanitiesclasses
regularlyaffordstudentsnewopportunitiesandchallengeswithlanguageasthey
learn.Asignificantchallengeisthatmanyofthetermstheyencounterarenot
onesthattheyhaveeverheardspoken,andtheconceptsareoftennewandcom-
plex.Thesetermsaregenerallywhatarereferredtoasacademic vocabularyor
content-area vocabulary.Academicvocabularyisdevelopedbestwhenteachers
attendtotheimportanttermsdirectly,providingguidancetostudentsinidenti-
fyingandlearningthesewordsandphrases.Mostofuslearnacademicvocabu-
larythroughreading,writing,andexploringnewtopics.Studentsneedregular
opportunitiestolearnstrategiesforidentifyingandlearningwordstheyencoun-
terintheiracademicworkastheyreadandlisten(receptive vocabularies);they
1
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2 T E A C HI NG A C A DE MI C V OC A B U L A RY K 8
alsoneedsupportinbeingabletousethosewordsastheyspeakandwriteabout
thecontent(expressive vocabularies).Anaddedchallengeincontent-arealearn-
ingisthatnotonlyaretherelargenumbersofnewconceptterms,butthewaysin
whichideasareexpressedvaryamongacademicdisciplines.Soboththevocabu-
laryandtheformsofdiscoursearecentralaspectsoflanguagedevelopment.
Recentworkwithteachers(Ogle,2011)illustrateshowunfamiliarwordscre-
atehurdlesforstudentsastheytrytonavigateinformationaltextbooks,magazine
articles,andInternetresources.Inoneunitforthirdandfourthgradesonsimple
machines, each book contains challenging text. For example, in the Axes and
Plowssectionofonebook(Glover,1997),studentsneedtocomprehendthefol-
lowing:
Anaxeisasharpmetalwedgethatisfixedtoahandle.Thehandleletsafarmer
swingtheaxeheadtohitalogwithgreatforce.Thesharpwedge-shapedbladeof
theaxecutsintothewoodandsplitsitapart.(p.12)
You might want to pause for a moment and check off all the terms that might
be new or used in new ways in just these three sentences. Which words are
ones that students might encounter in several contexts? Which are most likely
toberelatedspecificallytoastudyofsimplemachines?Someterms,likesharp,
metal, head, handle, swing,andfixed,aregeneralacademictermsthatstudents
mayencounterinmanycontexts.Others,likewedge, axe head, great force,and
wedge-shaped blade, are more specific terms that are used to explain simple
machinesandactions.Someoftheseeminglyeasywordsarepartofmorecom-
plexconcepts,likefixed to a handleandsharp wedge-shaped blade.Thisshort
paragraphthuscontainsmanychallengingterms,phrases,andconceptsstudents
needtounderstandbeforetheycancomprehendthepassage.Thistypeofdense
vocabulary that carries the meaning is common in informational texts used in
ourschools.Thesetextsclearlyposechallengesbothforstudentsreadingand
tryingtolearnfromthematerials,andforteacherswhowantstudentstomaster
theconceptsandthewordsthatarethelabelsfortheseconcepts.
Thedemandsplacedonelementarystudentsinreadingandunderstanding
informationaltextsandresourcematerialsarecompoundedasstudentsmoveup
thegrades.Severalyearsago,I(Donna)workedwithahighschoolindustrialarts
departmentaspartofanall-schoolliteracyeffort.Iaskedtheteacherstoexam-
inethetextstheywereusingwiththeirstudents,mostofwhomtooktheshopand
woodworkingclassesbecausetheywerenotparticularlyinterestedincollege-
bound courses. However, when we looked at the chapters of these texts, they
werefilledwithdiagramsandtechnicalterminology.Eachshortchapterinthe
textbookonwoodsandwoodworkinghadover30newwordsstudentsneededto
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3 The Importance of Academic Vocabulary

learnandmasterinordertoworkwiththetools.Infact,thereweremoreunfa-
miliartermsperpageoftextinthisbookthaninthemoretraditionalacademic
textbooks.Inaddition,thetermswereusedwithgreatspecificityintheexplana-
tionsanddirectionsforspecifictasks.Forexample,oneshortchapteronsanding
woods included these terms and many more: grit, finish, moldings, delamina-
tion, burnished, prep sanding, endgrain, grain rise, compressed air, and card
scraper. It made me realize the tremendous challenge it is for novice learners
tounderstandnewcontent;eachdisciplinedemandsthatstudentsattendtoand
learnthespecificmeaningsofkeywordsandphrases,andtowaysofusingthat
informationinspeakingandwriting.Itispartofteachersresponsibilitiestohelp
studentsanticipatetheneedtoattendto,identify,anddevelopunderstandingof
importantacademicdiscourse.
Howdogoodteachersdothis?Ourhope,asauthors,isthatyouwillcontinue
toaskthatquestionasyoureadthroughthisbookandidentifythechaptersthat
are most pertinent to your own context and needs to support the students you
areteaching.Wealsoencouragereadingthisbookwithcolleaguesinyourschool
because the development of students who are avid vocabulary learners takes a
schoolwide effort. Students need to develop interest in language, to become
attentive to variations in ways to express ideas, to look for associations among
terms,andtobecomeawareofthefoundationsofEnglishinotherlanguages.
THECOMMONCORESTATESTANDARDS
The recently published Common Core State Standards (CCSS) constitute an
important new component of teachers planning for vocabulary instruction.
Thesestandards,whicharenowcentraltoeducationalconversations,prioritize
thereadingandlearningofcontentinsocialstudies,sciences,andtechnicalsub-
jects,inadditiontotraditionalliterature.TheCCSSanchorstandardsforvocab-
ularyacquisitionandusestatethatstudentsshouldbeabletodothefollowing:
4. Determineorclarifythemeaningofunknownandmultiple-meaningwordsand
phrasesbyusingcontextclues,analyzingmeaningfulwordparts,andconsulting
generalandspecializedreferencematerials,asappropriate.
5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and
nuancesinwordmeanings.
6. Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific
words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking and listening at
thecollegeandcareerreadinesslevel;demonstrateindependenceingathering
vocabularyknowledgewhenencounteringanunknowntermimportanttocom-
prehensionorexpression.(NationalGovernorsAssociation[NGA]&Councilof
ChiefStateSchoolOfficers[CCSSO],2010,p.25)
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4 T E A C HI NG A C A DE MI C V OC A B U L A RY K 8
DEFININGACADEMICVOCABULARY
Someofyoumaybeconfusedabouttheuseoftermsassociatedwiththestudyof
vocabulary.Weoftenhearteachersask:
Whats the difference between content-area vocabulary and academic
vocabulary?
Sojustwhatdistinguishesacademic vocabularyfromgeneralvocabulary?
Why does the new CCSS framework use the terms general academic
vocabulary and domain-specific vocabulary? What differentiates gen-
eral academicfromdomain-specific?
We believe that the distinctions among these various terms, and particularly
betweengeneral academic vocabularyanddomain-specific vocabulary,areuse-
ful to recognize in order to structure effective instruction. These distinctions
have been used for many years by secondary educators, but the more general
termcontent-area vocabularyhasoftenbeenusedbyelementaryteachersand
reading educators. Although identifying the vocabulary demands in content
areasisimportant,itisalsohelpfultomakeafinerdifferentiationwithinthese,
because the tasks in learning and using general academic terms and domain-
specifictermsaredifferent.
GeneralAcademicVocabulary
Generalacademictermsareusedacrossmanycontexts,andstudentsaremuch
morelikelytoencounterthemastheyreadandlisten.Becausetheyarenotused
in everyday language, these terms deserve attention. When teachers focus on
them,thispaysoffforstudentsoverthelongterm.Intheshortselectionabout
axesgivenabove,thereareseveraloftheseterms,suchassharp, metal, blade,
force, handle,andsplit.Thesearewordsthatstudentswillfindinseveralschool
contextsespeciallyinscienceandmathematics,butalsoinliterature.
Domain-SpecicVocabulary
Incontrasttogeneralacademicterms,domain-specifictermsarefoundinmuch
morelimitedcontexts.Theyarealsomorelikelytobehighlightedandrepeated
frequently in content-area texts and resource materials. There are several of
thesewordsintheparagraphonaxes:axe, axe head, wedge,andwedge-shaped
blade.
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5 The Importance of Academic Vocabulary

VocabularyTiers
Inmakingthedistinctionbetweengeneralacademictermsanddomain-specific
ones,theworkofIsabelBeckandhercolleagues(Beck&McKeown,2007;Beck,
McKeown, & Kucan, 2013) is helpful. Beck and colleagues have differentiated
vocabularyintothreetiers,orgroups.ThisframeworkisalsousedinAppendixA
oftheCCSStoexplainthedifferencesingeneralacademicanddomain-specific
vocabulary.
Tier One Words
TierOnewordsarecommon,everydaywordsthatmostadultsknowandusereg-
ularlyandthatchildrendevelopininformaldiscourse.Thesewordsareuseful
but not conceptually hard to understand. English learners (ELs) often develop
mastery of Tier One vocabulary, and their oral communication abilities cause
manyteacherstooverlooktheneedtofocusmoreattentiononthedifficultaca-
demicvocabulary.
Tier Two Words
Withrespecttoacademicvocabulary,TierTwowordsincludetermsencountered
inschoollearningthatappearacrossseveraltopicsandcontentareas;theseare
words with real utility for students. Their meanings many vary by context; for
example,thewordoperation hasonemeaninginmathematics,anotherinmedi-
cine, and yet another in work with machines. The root word operate also can
takeonvariedmeaningsforinstance,tomanipulateagameboardsjoystick,to
driveamotorvehicle,ortomovestrategicallyinsocialsituations.Theseterms
arenotusedgenerallyinconversationalEnglish;theyaremoreabstractandare
more likely to pose challenges to students. Therefore, there is real benefit in
teachingTierTwowords,sothatstudentscanbecomefamiliarwiththeterms
anddevelopstrategiesthathelpthemunlockmeaningsinavarietyofcontexts.
Tier Three Words
Tier Three words, in distinction from Tier Two words, are more specialized
termsconfinedtoparticularacademicdomainsorcontenttopics.Theyareoften
thelabelsforkeyconceptsbeingtaughtinacontentarea.Thesetermsareoften
introducedandhighlightedintheprintedmaterialsandtextbooksstudentsread.
Teachers generally also introduce these terms as they are needed for specific
contentdevelopment.Astheexamplefromthewoodworkingtextbookillustrates,
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6 T E A C HI NG A C A DE MI C V OC A B U L A RY K 8
there are often many such terms, and it is the teachers task to focus students
effortsonthosethataremostessentialtothecontentbeinglearnedandthathave
thehighestoverallutilityforthestudents.
Benets of Using the Three-Tier Framework
Teacherscanusethesethreetiersofwordstothinkaboutwhichwordstoteach.
Tier One words are usually (though not always) learned through conversations
withothersathomeandschool,anddonotrequiremuchdirectteaching.Tier
Twowordsarethosethatweconsidergeneral academic termsandthatrequire
attention by teachers. However, because they often are well known by adults,
many teachers think that students understand these terms better than is often
thecase.Thesewordsthusdeserveteacherscarefulattention.
TierThreewordscanbeassociatedwiththetermsdomain-specific vocab-
ulary, content-specific vocabulary (Hiebert & Lubliner, 2008), or technical
vocabulary(Fisher&Frey,2008).Inthisbook,weusethetermdomain-specific
vocabulary; this use fits the distinction in the CCSS documents between aca-
demic and domain-specific vocabulary. The domain-specific words have less
generalapplicability,butareoftencentraltotheconceptsandideasincontent-
areainstruction.
OtherDimensionsofAcademicVocabulary
Attention to academic vocabulary has led some researchers to further dif-
ferentiate some categories of words that are helpful for teacher consideration.
Both Hiebert and Lubliner (2008) and Baumann and Graves (2010) extract a
set of words that are most useful in school tasks and in thinking about state
andnationalstandards.HiebertandLublinercalltheseschool terms,andBau-
mannandGravesusethewordmetalanguagetoidentifythissetofterms,which
includes words like genre, estimate, summarize, draft, compare and contrast,
andpunctuate.Thesetermsareparticularlyimportantforstudentsintheupper
elementarygradestolearn,astheyareusedregularlyonstandardizedtestsand
otherperformancetasks.Manystudentshavefairlyfuzzyideasofwhatthey
maybeaskedtodoonsuchtasksanddolesswellthantheyareableto,simply
becausetheydontfullyunderstandthetasksdemands.
Itisworthwhiletomentionupfrontthedifferencebetweenhowgeneral
academicvocabularyworksinliteratureandhowitworksinotherdisciplines.In
literature,TierTwoandTierThreewords(generalacademictermsanddomain-
specific terms) dont occur as major concept terms, but are likely to be words
that describe characters, settings, or aspects of conflict and style. Hiebert and
Lubliner (2008) distinguish these terms because these are words authors of
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7 The Importance of Academic Vocabulary

childrensandyoungadultliteratureuseintheirworktodescribecharacters,
their actions and settings in which the actions occur (p. 111). These specific
descriptivewords(oftenadjectivesandverbs)areoftenessentialtounderstand-
ingbasicelementsofapieceofliterature,yetdontoccurfrequentlywithinany
onetext.Forexample,theteachersguide(HarcourtBrace,1995,p.640)fora
third- to fourth-grade Encyclopedia Brown story by Donald Sobol (The Case
oftheMillionPesos)suggeststeachingthesekeywords:international, double,
discouraged, fielded, testify,andframed.Thesewordshelpdescribethesetting
andtheproblem,butarenotrepeatedfrequentlyinthestory.Thechallengesuch
wordsposetoteachersofliteraryworksisreal:Thewordsneedtobetaught,but
theyareoftennotrelatedtoeachotherandoccurinfrequently.InChapter4of
thisbook,weelaborateonhowtoaddressthischallenge.
IdentifyingImportantAcademicTerms
Academictermsareidentifiedanddefinedinvariouswaysintextbooksandsup-
plementalmaterials.Studentsneedtolearnhowtousethesedifferenttypesof
supports:italicizedandboldfacedterms,footnotesorsidenotes,glossaries,lists
ofkeytermswithsomeactivitiestofocusstudentsattentionontheinitialpages
of each chapter, and so on. Some newer science programs include vocabulary
cardswithkeyacademictermsandonlinegamestohelpreinforcewordlearn-
ing. Reading and literature programs often focus on vocabulary to be learned,
andsomeeventeachstudentshowtolookatwordfamiliesandmakeconnections
amongterms.Teachersneedtotakeadvantageoftheseresourceswhentheyare
available.
Ifyouarenotusingatext-basedorcommercialapproachtoteaching,then
somemoregeneralresourcescanbehelpfulindeterminingwhichwordsdeserve
focus.Auseful,ifsomewhatdated,corpusofwordswascompiledbyMarzano
(2004) after the first round of state and content-area standards. Marzano ana-
lyzedthestandardsdocumentsandcompiledalistofacademictermsthatoccur
most frequently, organized by grade bands and content areas. This resource is
stillusefultochecktoseewhetherwidelyusedacademictermsarebeingtaught
inyourclassroomandschool.
AnotherusefullistisonecompiledbyCoxhead(2000).HerAcademicWord
Listwasderivedfromheranalysisof3.5millionwordsusedintextsacrosscon-
tentareas.(Onecaveatisthatthesewerecollege-leveltexts;anotheristhatthe
textswerefromEnglandandNewZealand.)Wordsfoundinthefirst2,000most
commonlyusedtermsinEnglishwereomitted,andthenthetermsthatoccurred
atleast100timesweregroupedinto570wordfamilies(thestem,inflectedforms,
andformswithprefixesandsuffixes).Thesewordsconstituteabout10%ofthe
words in content-area texts, so Coxheads list remains a useful reference. The
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8 T E A C HI NG A C A DE MI C V OC A B U L A RY K 8
list has been used widely as a guide to academic vocabulary development and
todeterminingthedifficultyofmaterials.However,Scott,Flinspach,andVevea
(2011) found that only 12% of the academic terms identified as important in
fourth-andfifth-gradescienceandmathtextbookswereonthislist.Therefore,
it is important to use the Marzano and Coxhead lists as starting points, but to
bemostattentivetotheparticularconceptsandterminologyusedinyourown
context.
Inthisbook,wetooprovideseveralvaluabletoolsyoucanusetodetermine
which words are worth teaching at particular levels and in specific contents.
Becausetherearevariedcriteriaforwhatisimportantacrossthecontentareas,
theseissuesareaddressedinthespecificcontentchapters.
WhyAcademicVocabularyDeservesAttention
Youmaybereadingthisbookbecauseyouhavebecomeawareofjusthowmuch
studentsunderstandingofthecontentyouareteachingdependsontheircom-
mandofthevocabularyinthematerialsyouuseandintheactivitiesyoudevelop.
Researchovermanyyearshasconfirmedyourperceptions:Thereisastrongcor-
relation between students vocabulary knowledge and their success as readers
andlearners.However,thistopicmaybefairlynewtoyou.Ourhopeisthatyou
willbothreadthesechaptersclosely,andalsoreflectonthevocabularyknowl-
edge and learning your students need to be successful in your classroom and
school.
How Do Students Develop Rich Vocabularies?
Oneclearavenueforvocabularydevelopmentiswidereading.Nagy,Anderson,
and Herman (1987) found that students who read the most were those whose
vocabularies grew most over their elementary school years. However, Nagy
(1988)alsoconcludedfromhisresearchthatstudentsonlylearnabout1ofevery
20newwordstheyencounterwhilereading.Cunningham(2005)explainsthis
impactonstudentslearning:
Forexample,theaveragefifth-graderreadsapproximatelyonemillionwordsoftext
a year and approximately 2 percent of these words are unfamiliar to the child.
If1outofevery20ofthoseunfamiliarwordsisincorporatedintothechildslexi-
conthentheaveragefifth-graderlearnsapproximately1,000wordsayearthrough
reading.(p.48)
Althoughthisisimpressive,itdoesnotprovidethedepthofvocabularylearn-
ingstudentsneedtobesuccessfullearnersinsocialstudies,science,math,and
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9 The Importance of Academic Vocabulary

allthespecificareastheypursueinelementarygrades.ThisiswhyNagy(1988)
concludedthatthebestvocabularylearningcomeswhenstudentsconnectwords
withsimilarrootsandbasewords,thinkofrelatedterms,andusewordknowl-
edge(structure,affixes,andhistories)tounlockunfamiliarterms.Weagreethat
building students awareness of how words function gives them keys to a vast
arrayofwordstheywouldnototherwisebeabletounderstand.
How Do Teachers Develop Students Academic Vocabulary?
Althoughresearchstudiesconfirmtheimportanceofbuildingstudentsacademic
vocabulariesasafoundationfortheirlearningcontent,mostteachersdontseem
togivemuchsupporttothiscriticalareaintheirinstruction.Anobservational
studyoffourth-andeighth-gradeclassroomsfoundthatteachersspentalmostno
timeteachingtheacademicvocabulary(1.4%oftheirtime),although12%ofthe
timeinvolvedliteracyactivitiesfocusedonvocabulary(Lesaux,Kieffer,Faller,&
Kelley,2010;Scott,Jamieson-Noel,&Asselin,2003;Scott&Nagy,1997).Wright
(2012) also found no direct attention to vocabulary in her recent study of hun-
dredsofkindergartenclassrooms.Thesestudiesmaynotreflectyourownexpe-
riences,anditisverypossiblethatthelandscapeforvocabularyinstructionhas
improved.Thatiscertainlyourhope.
Given the small amount of time most teachers seem to devote to helping
studentsdeveloptheirvocabularies,itisimportanttomakethattimemostpro-
ductive for students. Throughout this book, you will learn ways to maximize
vocabularyteachingsothatstudentscanlearncontentmoredeeply.Bothgen-
eralacademicanddomain-specifictermsrequireattentionbecausetheymustbe
learnedfortheobjectivesofthecontent-areateachingtoberealized.
TheAcademicLanguageinWhichAcademicVocabularyIsEmbedded
Students may sometimes have difficulties with academic vocabulary, but they
mayalsostruggletomakesenseofsomeofthelanguageinwhichthatvocabulary
isembedded.Thelanguagesofhomeandschoolaredifferent,anditispartofour
jobasteacherstointroducestudentstotheacademicdiscoursesofthevarious
disciplines.Theyneedtolearnhowscientists,mathematicians,historians,andso
onwriteandspeakabouttheirsubjects.Take,forexample,thispassagefroma
sixth-gradesciencetext:
Althoughwaterecosystems,likebiomes,havedominantplants,theyaremostoften
identified as freshwater ecosystems or saltwater ecosystems. (Watkins & Leto,
1994,p.63)
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10 T E A C HI NG A C A DE MI C V OC A B U L A RY K 8
Itisunlikelythatyouwouldcomeacrossasentencestructurelikethisanywhere
butinanacademicdiscipline.Ifyouwereaskedtoidentifythemainidea,you
might give it as follows: Water ecosystems can be divided into freshwater and
saltwater. But notice how far apart the subject and object of this sentence are,
andtheinformationaboutdominant plantsseemsalmostincidental.InChapter
2,welookmorecloselyatacademiclanguagestructuresandhowbesttoaddress
them.Atthispoint,wesimplywanttodrawyourattentiontotheideathatstu-
dentsneedtolearnacademiclanguageinadditiontoacademicvocabulary.
ELEMENTSOFASTRONGVOCABULARYPROGRAM
BasicComponents
Some basic components of a strong vocabulary program are applicable across
mostcontentareas.Afewofthesearesharedbelow,sothatyoucanbeginyour
engagementwiththisbookknowingsomeofthefocithatweelaboratemorefully
inlaterchapters.
First,itisimportanttoanalyzeeachvocabularytaskbothforthestudents
andforthecontentyouplantoteach.Fromthepotentialwords,selectthosethat
havethehighestutilitywithinthelessonorunit,andthosethathavegeneraliz-
abilityacrossotherunitsandothercontexts.
Second,youwillneedtohelpstudentsassesstheirlevelsoffamiliaritywith
the terms and help them attend to those that are most important, so that they
candevotetheirenergytolearningthosethathavebeenidentifiedascentralto
thecontent.Youcandothisinvariouswaysincludinghavingstudentsratetheir
knowledgeoftheterms;thegoalistodrawstudentsattentiontothemostessen-
tialtermsatthebeginningofalessonorunitofstudy,tohelpthestudentsfocus
theircognitiveresourceswherethesewillbemostneeded.
Third,youwillneedtousetheopportunityattheinitialstagesofaunitto
givestudentssomeinstructionwiththewords.Thenatureoftheactivitieswill
dependonwhatwillbenefitstudentsmostastheyencounterthetermsanddis-
criminatetheirindividualmeanings.Iftherearemanyrelatedterms,youmight
wanttoleadalessoncreatingasemanticmatrixhighlightingspecificattributes
of each term. Or you might pair students and ask them to do a word search
locatingthekeytermsinthetextbook,andthensharingtheusesofeachorally.
Fromthispreviewofthetext,studentscouldthenconstructworkingdefinitions
of these words. This might also be a good time to do a lesson on morphology:
Have students find words with the same root (e.g., demo: democracy, demo-
cratic, undemocratic, demography,etc.)andthendecideonwhattheroot(here,
demo)means.Finally,studentsoftenbenefitfromalessononhowtousecontext
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11 The Importance of Academic Vocabulary

to build partial meanings of terms, and how to use the actual definitions texts
provide.
Fourth,youwillneedtohelpstudentsdevelopstrategiesforkeepingthese
termsbeforethem,forrehearsingthem,andfordeepeningtheirunderstanding
oftheirvariedusesandmeanings.Someacademictermsalsohavemorecom-
monmeanings,andthesedifferentdefinitionsneedtobebroughttoconscious
attention (e.g., see our operation example earlier in this chapter). These terms
needtobeusedorallyinusefulcontexts,sothatstudentswilldevelopaccessto
boththewrittenandoralformsoftheterms.Theinterplaybetweenusingaca-
demictermsorallyandencounteringtheminprintisanotherimportantaspect
ofacademicvocabularydevelopment.Studentsneedseveralopportunitiestouse
newtermsorally,tobuildafamiliaritywiththeterms,andtoexperimentwith
thecontextsinwhichtheyarebestexpressed.
AdditionalDimensions
Activitiesthathelpstudentsconstructfullerunderstandingsoftermsthansimply
learningtheirbasicdictionarydefinitionsareneededforthestudentstoreally
know these terms. Definitions or descriptions, attributes, examples, ways to
distinguishatermfromsimilarones,andnuancesofwhenandhowtheterms
areusedareallimportant.Whenstudentshaveopportunitiestoexplorevaried
usesofterms,tobothseeandhearthesewordsusedinseveralcontexts,andto
exploreonlineresourcesfortheterms,studentsbecomemoreawareofhowslip-
perydefinitionsareandhowimportantcontextistoworduse.
ManyacademictermshavetheiroriginsinGreekandLatin,sohelpingstu-
dents attend to morphology and word histories will build their understanding.
Itisusefultohelpstudentsconnectseveraltermswithacommonroot.AsNagy
(1988)explains,vocabularydevelopmentdependsonstudentsknowledgeabout
thesemorphologicalfamiliesandontheirabilitytousethisknowledge.
Insomecontent-areamaterials,visualdiagramsofconceptsprovideimpor-
tant information about the academic terms and need to be studied. Students
shouldlearntomatchnewconcepttermswiththeirvisualrepresentations,and
tocreatediagramsordrawingsiftextsdontprovidethem.
SupportingEnglishLearners
ELsoftenarestilldevelopingtheirgeneral,orTierOne,vocabularieswhilethey
are learning Tier Two and Tier Three vocabularies along with their English-
dominantclassmates.Becauseofthisaddedlearningchallenge,itishelpfulfor
teachers to provide sheltered English supports for them (Echeveria, Vogt, &
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12 T E A C HI NG A C A DE MI C V OC A B U L A RY K 8
Short,2012).ELswhohaveGreekoraLatinatelanguageastheirfirstlanguage
have a special resource that can help them learn academic vocabulary. Many
English academic terms (Tier Two and Tier Three words) have Tier One ana-
loguesintheselanguages.Forexample,wordslikeabsurdo(absurdinEnglish),
mesa, arroyo,andpacifico(pacificinEnglish)arecommontermsinSpanish,but
notinEnglish.Suchanaloguesmakelearningdomain-specificwordseasierfor
ELstudentswhenteachersinvitethemtoconnectbothlanguagesandusetheir
first-languageresources.
Theimportanceofencouragingstudentstothinkinbothlanguagesissup-
ported in a recent research study by Scott, Miller, and Flinspach (2012), who
foundthatintheiridentifiedacademictermsforfourth-andfifth-gradescience
andmath,about70%wereSpanishEnglishcognates.Withteacherencourage-
ment,studentscanlearntodrawontheirfirst-languageresourcesandfindcon-
nectionsamongvocabulary.OftenwhataremoreesoterictermsinEnglishare
more common forms in Spanish or French, as in the Spanish examples above.
SimplyaskingstudentstomakechartsofthenewwordswiththeEnglishand
thehome-languageversionssidebysidecanhelpbothteachersandstudentsfind
connections.
LAYINGTHEFOUNDATIONFOREFFECTIVETEACHING
Teacherswhoareseriousabouthelpingstudentsexpandtheiracademicvocabu-
laries also create classroom and school contexts where attention to words is a
regularpartofschoollife.Beingseriousaboutlanguagedevelopmentalsomeans
enrichingstudentsbackgroundknowledgeaboutvocabulary,makingitpersonal,
andconnectingittotheirlivesbeyondschool.Threeaspectsofengaging,over-
archinglanguageculturearedescribedinthissection.
TeachersModelingofContinuedLanguageDevelopment
Students need your help and encouragement in attending to and learning aca-
demicvocabulary.Teachersarerolemodelsandguidesinhelpingstudentslearn
howtobevocabulary-smart.Itisuptoyoutoregularlynotenewandinterest-
ingwords,aswellasnewusesofsomewhatfamiliarterms,andtothinkaloud
aboutthesewithstudents.Forinstance,bringinginamagazinearticleorabro-
chureandhighlightingforstudentssomeunfamiliartermsasyoureaditorally
to them can help students become more willing to do the same. As students
move from primary to intermediate grades, some become hesitant to express
theirlackoffamiliaritywithnewwordsandconcepts.Teacherscanhelpstudents
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13 The Importance of Academic Vocabulary
overcomethishesitationbybringinginwordsthatarenewtotheteachersthem-
selves,modelinghowtheynotedtheterms,andthenshowingstudentshowthey
soughtoutthetermsmeaningsorengagingtheclassintryingtodeterminethe
meaningsintendedbytheauthors.
Teacherscanalsoexplaintostudentstheirownstrategiesforlearningnew
words that are important. Some teachers may explain that they connect each
newtermtoanalreadyfamiliarwordorexperience,makearhymeforthenew
wordwithsomethingfamiliar,orconnectthetermtoapersonforwhomitcan
beassociated.Forotherteachers,holdingontoanewwordsoitcanbelearned
mayinvolvecreatingawordcardforthenewterm,puttingthecontextinwhich
it was encountered on the card, and then putting a description, definition, or
illustrationonthebacksideofthecard.Someteachersliketokeepacollection
ofwordstheyarelearningontheircomputersorsmartphones.Showingstudents
howtermsarenotjustidentifiedanddefined,butthenkepthandysotheycan
bepracticed,isapartofmodelinghowteachersasadultsattendtonewterms,
develop understanding of their meaning, and then utilize strategies to retain
them.Modelinghowtopracticeandtryoutnewwordsisimportant;manyless
confidentstudentsthinkthatsmartpeoplelearnnewwordsimmediatelywhen
theyseethemorhearthem.Ifstudentsaregoingtogetintothefunofbuilding
vocabulary,theyneedtoknowthatittakesmanyexposuresandattemptstouse
new terms. Some students may be surprised that teachers also need and use
strategiestolearnwords;itmakeswordlearningagenuinelysharedadventure.
Teacherscanalsoencouragestudentstotakerisksintheclassroombybring-
inginandsharingwordsthestudentsencounterintheirownreading.Thismay
involve taking time at the beginning of a class period to ask students to share
any new terms they have recently found, and to explore the context in which
thetermswereusedandwhattheymaymean.Studentscanthenusetheirown
resourcetools(hard-copyoronlinedictionariesandglossaries)todevelopdefini-
tionsfortheterms.Aclassbulletinboardorwebsiteofnewandinterestingwords
keepstheimportanceofvocabularygrowthfreshandpersonalforstudents.
Still another way teachers can model for students their own attention
to vocabulary is to read books about words and language orally (Braun, 2010;
McKeown & Beck, 2004; Neugebauer & Currie-Rubin, 2009). At every grade
level,therearebothfunandinformativebooksthatcannurturestudentsinter-
estsinlanguage.Someintroduceinterestingnamesandwords,suchasStereo-
book: Dinosaurs(Schatz,2009);somedealwiththehistoryofwordsandchang-
ingusages,suchasAmericanisms(Luke&Quinn,2003);someexpandstudents
knowledgeofspecificityofusage,suchasA Cache of JewelsandKites Sail High
(Heller,1987,1988);andsomefosterstudentsurgetocreatenewwords,suchas
Baloney (Henry P.)(Scieszka,2001)andMiss Alaineus(Frazier,2000).
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14 T E A C HI NG A C A DE MI C V OC A B U L A RY K 8
NurturingStudentsInterestinWordsandExpandingTheirAwareness
ofHowLanguageFunctions
Helpingstudentsbecomeinterestedinwordsandlanguage,andattentivetonew
words,phrases,andusesoflanguage,isanessentialfoundationforvocabulary
development.Studentsneedtobeinterestedinandknowledgeableaboutwords
and how they function as they encounter increasingly content-specific vocabu-
lary.Thisinvolvesteachersthroughoutthegrades,frompreschoolonward.All
teachersneedtoconsciouslychecktobesurethattheyenticestudentswiththeir
owncuriosityaboutwordsandhelpthemexploreunusual,new,andinteresting
usesoflanguage.Althoughinlaterchapterswesuggestmanywaystodothis,a
goodstartingplaceistocheckthecollectionofbooksinyourclassroomandtag
those that deal with language and words. For instance, abecedarian or alpha-
bet books abound in almost any content area. Examples include The Butterfly
Alphabet Book(Cassie&Pallotta,1995);Q Is for Quark(Schwartz,2001);S is for
Scientists (Verstraete,2011);Jazz A-B-Z (Marsalis,2005);andD is for Dancing
Dragon: A China Alphabet(Crane,2006).BrianClearysWordsAreCATegorical
series(e.g.,A Lime, a Mime, a Pool of Slime;Cleary,2006)isalsoveryhelpful.
Some teachers use magazines and contemporary culture to awaken older
students to the creativity involved in creating new terms and revising uses of
others.Theyinvolvestudentsinthinkingaboutvocabularyexpansionbyletting
them find the most current words used for clothing, colors, hair styles, sports,
andmusic.Teachersoftenhavemiddle-gradestudentswriteaglossaryofterms
fortheirfavoritefantasyseries.Intheseways,teachersalertstudentstothereal-
itythatvocabularyisnotstatic,butconstantlygrowingandchanging.
The joy of exploring books, magazines, and newspapers with interesting
wordsandwithinformationaboutlanguageshouldbepossibleinallclassrooms,
atalllevels.Withalltheonlineandgraphicresourcesnowavailable,itisquite
easytobuildacollectionthatwillenticeyourstudentsandopennewworldsto
them.
MakingVocabularyLearningaSharedClassroomandSchoolActivity
Several schools we know have weekly words that the whole school population
learnstogether.Theseareusuallywordsthathavegeneralutilityacrosssubject
areas, but they help reinforce and develop students curiosity about words and
thewealthofwordsinourlanguage.Someschoolsputthesewordsontheschool
marqueewhereallcanseethem;otherssendthewordshomesoparentscanpost
themontheirrefrigerators.Manyschoolshavestudentsdescribethesewordsand
usetheminthemorningpublicaddresssystemannouncements.Teacherswho
postthewordsontheirclassroomwallshelpstudentsmaintaintheirattentionto
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15 The Importance of Academic Vocabulary

expandingtheirvocabularies.Thesearejustafewwaysinwhichvocabularycan
becomevisibleinaschool.
Inthefollowingchapters,wesharemanyideasformakingvocabularyexplo-
rationalivelypartofclassroomandschoollife.Thisisanessentialstartingplace
forallthatwediscussaswefocusonthecentralroleofvocabularylearning.You
maywanttomakealistofideasthatyouhavealreadyimplementedinyourclass-
roomandseehowyoucanbuildonthose,makingthemaseffectiveaspossible
forallyourstudents.
CONCLUDINGTHOUGHTS
Inthisfirstchapter,wehavesetthecontextandfurnishedsomecommonvocabu-
laryforwhatfollowsintherestofthebook.Asyoureadon,thinkabouthowyou
cansupportyourstudentsinexpandingtheirgeneralacademicvocabularies
helping them attend to, explore, and use an increasing range of academic lan-
guageintheiroralandwrittendiscourse.Byidentifyinggeneralacademicterms
aswellasdomain-specificwordsneededforlearningparticularcontent,youcan
thendecidewhichwordstoselectformorefocusedinstructionbecauseoftheir
importance and general utility for your students. We hope that this introduc-
tionhasalsohelpedstimulateyourownthoughtsaboutthevocabulary-learning
opportunitiesyoucanprovideinyourclassroomandthroughouttheschool.
DI SCUSSI ON QUE STI ONS
1. TheCCSSincludespecificattentiontovocabularydevelopment.Examinetheanchor
standardsshownonpage3,andthinkofwaysyoucanbothobservestudentsattention
tovocabularyandassesstheirabilitiestomeettheseexpectations.
2. With a colleague or small group, examine a short section from an informational text
(textbookorresourcearticle).Thenmakealistwithtwocolumns:oneforgeneralaca-
demicterms,andtheotherforvocabularytermsthatarespecifictothecontentbeing
described.Explainyourchoicestoeachother.Doesthegradelevelorexpertiseofthe
learnersinfluencethesechoices?
3. Reflectontheelementsofvocabularyinstructiondiscussedonpages1012.Howdo
theseparallelyourowncommitmentsandpractices?Whatareasaredifferent?What
wouldyouaddorreplaceinthissetofsuggestions?

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