Academic Vocabulary

Academic Vocabulary is important in all subjects and all grade levels, and to all students. Last week my ELL Thursday Thoughts during PLCs were on the importance of having common vocabulary across grade levels. It not only benefits the ELL students, but ALL students. 

Can you imagine being an immigrant student, or having been in the United States for a few years and hearing several different terms for essentially the same thing. An example might be:

(5 take away 4 is 1)  then the next year you learn (5 minus 4 equals 1), or maybe it is the same year just in different classes (pullouts, specials etc.). I know to some this seems minor, but when you are just learning a new language, or you are a slow learner, it becomes jumbled in your brain. We need to teach the correct terms so that the struggling student can learn it correctly the first time. It is ok when explaining a new term to use words that the student can relate to in order to build upon their background knowledge, however we need to quickly introduce the proper vocabulary.  

Having a place to keep academic vocabulary words so that a student can refer back to them is important. A few ideas are using the Marzano Method (write, define, illustrate) in a notebook, or have an ongoing Interactive Notebook. Interactive Word Walls are also important in a classroom, you may have two or three going at a time. 

Revisiting Academic Vocabulary in a center or even a whole class game, after explicitly teaching them, is a wonderful way to review. Using SeeSaw to define or illustrate a word would be a way that parents can see the words the students are learning, or using the Tellagami app to build a character then define a word from the Academic Word Wall.  Playing Bingo or Password would be two whole class ways to review. 

Students learn by doing, hands on activities will make academic words concrete. Expanding our student's vocabulary should be one of our top priorities, let's make sure it is the correct vocabulary. 

Teachingly,

Mrs. Hime