1. Vocabulary
12/7/11

2. Overview of Common Core Standards
These standards define the knowledge and skills students should have within their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs. The standards:
Are aligned with college and work expectations;
Are clear, understandable and consistent (throughout the country);
Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills;
Build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards;
Are informed by other top performing countries, so that all students are prepared to succeed in our global economy and society; and
Are evidence-based (proven through research to be effective).
(taken from

3. Why the change?

4. College Instructors and Employers Say Graduates Are Not Prepared for College and Work
Average estimated proportions of recent high school graduates who are not prepared
But now we face a new context of global economic competition that requires a paradigm shift and an acknowledgement that we have set the bar too low. It turns out that far too many graduates are ill-prepared for the rigors of college and careers. Far too many need remediation in college – and the data show that the more remedial classes you take, the more likely you are to drop out of college.
Why does it matter that some students don’t graduate high school? Why is it so dangerous that so many who do graduate need remediation once they get to college (over 40% in our two-year SUNY institutions across the state)? Why is it so worrisome that fewer are graduating with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math? Why are the Regents focusing on improving college and career readiness with such great intensity?
Source: Peter D. Hart Research Associates/Public Opinion Strategies, Rising to the Challenge: Are High
School Graduates Prepared for College and Work? prepared for Achieve, Inc., 2005.

5. Focus on Vocabulary
Standards include six shifts in Math and Literacy curriculum
Literacy Shift #6-Academic Vocabulary:
Students constantly build the vocabulary they need to access grade level complex texts. By focusing strategically on comprehension of pivotal and commonly found words and less on esoteric literary terms teachers constantly build students’ ability to access more complex texts across the content areas.

6. Focus on Vocabulary (continued)
The vocabulary standards focus on understanding words and phrases, their relationships, and their nuances and on acquiring new vocabulary, particularly general academic and domain-specific words and phrases
Good news- The nature of a Career and Technical Education program means teaching only domain specific vocabulary already.

7. Tiers
Tier 1 Basic words that commonly appear in spoken language.  Because they are heard frequently in numerous contexts and with nonverbal communication, Tier 1 words rarely require explicit instruction. Examples of Tier 1 words are clock, baby, happy and walk.
Tier 2 High frequency words used by mature language users across several content areas.  Because of their lack of redundancy in oral language, Tier 2 words present challenges to students who primarily meet them in print.  Examples of Tier 2 words are obvious, complex, establish and verify.
Tier 3 Words that are not frequently used except in specific content areas or domains.  Tier 3 words are central to building knowledge and conceptual understanding within the various academic domains and should be integral to instruction of content.  Medical, legal, biology and mathematics terms are all examples of these words.

8. What has shifted?
More focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 words

9. ELA/Literacy Shift 6: Academic Vocabulary
What the Student Does…
What the Teacher Does…
What the Principal Does…
Spend more time learning words across “webs” and associating words with others instead of learning individual, isolated vocabulary words.
Develop students’ ability to use and access words that show up in everyday text and that may be slightly out of reach
Be strategic about the kind of vocabulary you’re developing and figure out which words fall into which categories- tier 2 vs. tier 3
Determine the words that students are going to read most frequently and spend time mostly on those words
Teach fewer words but teach the webs of words around it
Shift attention on how to plan vocabulary meaningfully using tiers and transferability strategies
Provide training to teachers on the shift for teaching vocabulary in a more meaningful, effective manner.
What the Common Core is asking of us is to consistently develop students ability to use and access words that are showing up in everyday vocabulary but that are slightly out of reach for our students.
It is really about giving students the right tools. There are certain words that are great tools as the students will see them in lots of context; when they read, across different disciplines etc. There are other words that are interesting and may come up in certain areas; content specific words like “amoeba;” or there are other words that are sort of esoteric and interesting but they are not words that students will confront frequently as they read.
It is important to be strategic about the kind of vocabulary we are teaching. We need to consider what category these words fall in to.
Isabel Beck talks about Tier I words as very common words, Tier 2 as words that are powerfully useful and frequently occurring and Tier 3 as domain-specific words. The challenge is in figuring out which words are Tier 2 words and which words to teach. This takes careful planning.
it is important to understand the nuances between words, people tend to over rely on synonyms – i.e.. happy and pleased. The author makes a choice between these words. To identify these Tier 2 words it is important to understand what the author is conveying and also to know what words are really going to occur most frequently.
Regarding synonyms, fewer words may be taught but also teach the web of words around them. The goal is for the students to not only know the words as a reader, but invest in the words as a writer. 9 9

10. Sample WordWeb

11. What does Lemov say about Vocabulary?
Lemov’s Chapter 11 “The Fundamentals: Teaching Decoding, Vocabulary Development, and Fluency” divided into 11 sections
Please take one minute to read your section and summarize using your own words when called on
Your section may not make sense in isolation but when you hear your co-workers’ summaries it will click

12. Implications for Students with Disabilities
To learn a new word, students without a learning disability require 10 – 11 exposures to the word. Students with a learning disability require as many as 40 exposures to the word.