Building Academic Vocabulary: Book Club

Impact of Direct Vocabulary Instruction

Some Food for Thought: “People’s knowledge of any topic is encapsulated in the terms they know that are relevant to the topic. “ “The more students understand these terms, the easier it is for them to understand information they may read or hear about the topic.” Think for example about this: how many times have you talked to someone you know about being a teacher or an experience with teaching? Think of all of the knowledge and associations you have with the term RTI, what about Common Core, what about PST? Can we define those terms in one sentence one time and expect other people who are not educators to have a strong grasp and understanding of those terms? NO! They would have to see examples related to those words, experience those words, use those words in various contexts and in various ways to really understand it. How about the term guided reading? How could that be explained? Could we really understand guided reading in a sentence or two? NO! This is like what is is for students learning new terms. Photosynthesis for example, is related and relied upon many other terms and concepts and holds an assumption that we already have a strong understanding of those for us to build our knowledge and put the pieces together to form an understanding.

Academically Disadvantaged Environments “These two types of students-those from academically advantaged environments and those from academically disadvantaged environments enter school with significant discrepancies in terms of their chances for academic success. Unfortunately, as time progresses, the gap in academic background knowledge grows even larger, as does the gap in academic achievement between the two groups.”

Systematic Instruction in Academic Terms “Given the importance of academic background knowledge and the fact that vocabulary is such an essential aspect of it, one of the most crucial services that teachers can provide, particularly for students who do not come from academically advantaged backgrounds, is systematic instruction in important academic terms. “

We Need to Create a List of Academic Vocabulary Terms Not all terms are of equal importance CRITICAL USEFUL BUT NOT CRITICAL INTERESTING BUT NOT VERY USEFUL

Creating a List of Terms…cont. As a grade level OR classroom teacher, using the Appendix as a resource, can you make a list of a few terms from specific content areas that you think should be taught to all students? 1. Determine a reasonable number of terms to teach throughout the school year-for example, one new term in each subject area each week, for 30 of the 36 weeks of school. This would mean teaching 4 new terms per week for 30 weeks, for a total of 120 terms taught across four subject areas during the school year.

Diving In!!! Of course, the lists for each subject area contain many more terms than you will teach. SO ASK…. “ Is this term critically important to the ____________ content I will be teaching this year? “ When terms fall in this category, put a check mark next to them. PG 9: “FROM THE BEGINNING, COMMITTEE MEMBERS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT THE LISTS THEY MAKE ARE NOT “CASE IN STONE,” BUT RATHER THAT ADDITIONS AND DELETIONS MAY BECOME NECESSARY OVER TIME”

BOOK CLUB MISSION So let’s think….what is the purpose of an academic book club?

Book Club Mission Phases: Phase 1: Make decisions for you classroom on a “target” number of words to be taught Phase 2: For each academic content area in the program, create a rank-ordered list of words considered to be important to the grade level (let’s check this with the Common Core too) Phase 3: Let’s figure out how many terms should be taught in each academic area Phase 4 Let’s grow, adapt, change, improve, plant the seeds of knowledge and spread the word!

Rank It! Definitely Be (4) Probably Be (3) Probably Not Be (2) Definitely Not Be (1)