New Year, New Words

It is that time when people start to set personal goals for the new year, like losing weight, getting organized, or saving money.  I am encouraging us all to set a few professional goals as well.  I am going to highlight academic vocabulary instruction for January 2013.

When I was in high school, all of my teachers approached vocabulary in a similar way.  They gave long lists of words, made students use the back of the book or dictionaries to look up definitions, and then gave a quiz/test on those words.  That is how I thought vocabulary was supposed to be.  WRONG!

The first goal I would like to start with is tiering vocabulary.  That simply means that we must choose words that will help students comprehend the text.  That really means that vocabulary must be rooted in the text.  Here is how:

There are several teachers who are leading the pack with this.  Here are just a couple of snapshots from teachers at NAMS. Contact me if you would like me to come to you or your PLC to provide more information.

Amy Smith, 6th grade Science 

Meredith Wolfe, 6th grade ELA