Teach students to use a graphic organizer to learn new words: Word Blast
Academic Word of the Day Mini-Posters for the Classroom:
1 - 5 association, caption, clarification, chronology, trait 6 - 10 critique, document, generalize, interpretation, logical 11 - 15 objective, parallel, perspective, persuade, relative/relevant 16 - 20 resource, significant, synthesize, differentiate, analyze 21 - 25 formulate, applicable, verify, justify, denote 26 - 30 symbol, equivalent, evaluate, variable, probable 31 - 35 effect/affect, refute, observation, process, factor 36 - 40 conclusion, correspond, identify, relationship, establish 41 - 45 theory, accept, resolution, contrast, evidence 46 - 50 principle, structure, diverse, function, emphasize 51 - 55 incorporate, demonstrate, influence, extract, reflect 56 - 60 estimate, illustrate, expression, degree, bias 61 - 65 broadcast, era, dialogue, feedback, interjection 66 - 70 mechanics, media, plagiarism, recurring, representation 71 - 75 stress, origin, irrelevant, exaggerate, substitute 76 - 80 invalid, personify, terminate, distribute, median 81 - 85 mode, range, prime, immune, conduct 86 - 90 convert, interact, event, regardless, acquire 91 - 95 argument, assume, coordinate, conscious, dialect 96 - 100 editorial, etiquette, inconsistent, jargon, modify 101 - 105 projection, slant, stereotype, subordinate, transition 106 - 110 collaboration, clarify, ratio, discord, adapt 111 - 115 approximate, transformation, compose, objection, figure of speech
Shorter Versions Grouped by Quarter:
One of the characteristics of effective vocabulary instruction is a focus on terms that are important to the content presented in school. When all the teachers in a school focus on the same academic vocabulary, the school has a powerful comprehensive approach. This approach greatly enhances students’ chances of learning the academic content presented in subject matter classes. -Robert Marzano
Building Academic Vocabulary
ASCD
Sachem Central School District (Sagamore, Samoset, Seneca, Sequoya)
Middle School Assessment Vocabulary:
In order to address the vocabulary concerns experienced by students when taking assessments and comprehending complex questions across all disciplines, the middle school ELA chairs perused the recent New York State Assessments in English, Math, Science and Social Studies in order to discover potential vocabulary that may be contributing to inadequate comprehension by our students. Further, we consulted a national source entitled Building Academic Vocabulary for additional input and words that impede reading comprehension by students across the country. Some words may be identifiable as likely to appear on an English assessment while other words may appear on Social Studies, Science, and Math assessments. The words on this web page represent most of that list.