Vocabulary
Vocabulary in Disciplinary Literacy
Vocabulary Types
- Generalized vocabulary: Widely agreed upon meaning.
- Specialized vocabulary: Multiple meanings in different content areas.
- Technical vocabulary: Used in one field of study.
- Tier 1: Common, known words, conversational.
- Tier 2: High frequency words, cross-curricular words, general academic words.
- Tier 3: Low frequency, domain specific words.
Using this information in the classroom:
- Being aware of vocabulary type is important!
- Choosing vocabulary types that are not too easy, or too difficult is important.
- Tier 2 words are most often focused on and most necessary to teach.
Vocabulary for English Language Learners
Tips:
- Start vocabulary instruction early!
- Understand individuals background before instruction, students with literate backgrounds will learn very different than students with illiterate backgrounds.
- Place students in groups.
- Review idioms, slang, etc.
- Lots of visuals to accompany words.
- My content area is reading, so all these points would apply well in my classroom.
Vocabulary Learning and the Common Core
- Vocabulary learning is developed within other concept development.
- Vocabulary development is deep, and relates words to each other.
- Involves the structure of words, not just the definition.
Uses in my content area, reading:
- Teach vocabulary within other strategies, I could have a vocabulary section at the beginning of any lesson.
- Teach word families.
- Teach bases and roots.