1. Building Academic Vocabulary
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2. Academic Vocabulary and the Common Core
Level of Examination
Analysis
Common Core Learning Framework
Craft and Structure
Identifying and defining key terms
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3. Framing the Session
Why are history texts often difficult for students to comprehend?
What skills and strategies do students need to become expert readers of history?
What can history teachers do to help struggling readers in their classrooms?
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4. What factors affect the readability of history texts?
Lack of prior knowledge
Unfamiliar text structure or schema
Difficulty identifying important material from less important material
Academic vocabulary and abstract concepts (“isms”)
Level of analysis and synthesis
Role of visuals, such as maps, graphs and charts, as sources of information
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5. Our Focus Building Academic Vocabulary
Carving is appropriate for most green and blue slopes and even some black slopes. However, if you try to carve through moguls, especially in packed powder or corn snow, you’re going to face-plant.
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6. What is this passage describing?
How did you know?
Based on this passage, why is knowledge of subject-specific vocabulary critical to understanding?
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7. How does a knowledge of academic vocabulary support document analysis?
is the vocabulary critical to understanding concepts in history.
is an essential component of building prior or background knowledge.
The more terms a student knows about a given topic, the easier it is to understand and learn new information.
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8. Not all terms, however, are equal in importance.
Some terms are:
Critically important
Useful but not critical
Interesting but not useful
Teachers need to determine which academic vocabulary to explicitly teach.
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9. There are 4 categories of vocabulary in history:
Terms associated with instructional or directional tools (“north”, “below”).
Concrete terms (“Stamp Act”)
Functional terms (“sequencing”)
Conceptual terms (“democracy”, “taxation”)
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10. How does teaching vocabulary differ from teaching concepts?
Janet Allen in Reading History:
“Teaching vocabulary occurs when you provide new labels for words connected to a familiar concept. For example, if your students know the concept of intolerance, you are teaching vocabulary by labeling and connecting bias and prejudice to the concept of intolerance.
If, on the other hand, students had no understanding of the concept, then you would have to offer several experiences with the concept before you could add other vocabulary words to that concept”.
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11. What strategies do teachers use to teach academic vocabulary?
Popular strategies for teaching academic vocabulary are:
Frayer Model
Semantic Mapping
Word Sorts
Words in Context
Matrix
Alike But Different
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12. What is the Alike but Different strategy?
Supports students in understanding the distinctions between words that are similar in meaning, but that fall under a broader concept.
Moves students beyond the dictionary definition of a word to a deeper understanding of how that word relates to a broader concept.
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13. What is the criteria for selecting words for Alike But Different?
In Alike But Different, teachers identify words that are often used interchangeably by students.
These words share common elements, but have important distinctions.
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14. What are the steps in Alike But Different?
Using the graphic organizer, students:
List the words in the boxes on the top
List what the words have in common
List what makes each word unique
List how they will remember the distinctions between the words.
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15. Modeling the Strategy
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16. Modeling the Strategy: Tolerance and Civil Rights
Using the Alike But Different graphic organizer, list the following three vocabulary words in the top boxes:
Racism
Prejudice
Anti-Semitism
Make a list of what these three vocabulary words have in common.
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17. Then list what makes each work unique.
Finally, list how you will remember the distinctions between and among the words.
Share your responses in small groups.
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18. Specific reason for dislike
What we have in common:
Hate
Negative
Dislike
Specific reason for dislike
Decision usually made without getting to know the person (pre-judging)
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19. Anti-Semitism: anti-Semitism is dislike of people of the Jewish faith.
What makes us unique:
Racism: racism is based on not liking someone because of his or her race (Hispanic, African American)
Prejudice: prejudice is not liking someone because we pre-judge them based on certain characteristics (race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation).
Anti-Semitism: anti-Semitism is dislike of people of the Jewish faith.
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20. How I’ll remember:
The guy at the store is prejudiced. He doesn’t like kids no matter what color they are.
That’s different from what happened in Alabama where a group of white people didn’t like African-Americans. That’s racism.
I’ll remember anti-Semitism because we studied the Holocaust and what Hitler did to the Jews in Europe.
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21. Adapting Alike But Different to Your Classroom
How might you use Alike But Different in your social studies classroom?
What adaptations might you make?
What are other pairs or trios of academic vocabulary words can you think of?
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22. Possible Pairs for Alike But Different
Monarchy – Oligarchy – Dictatorship
Democracy – Republic
Communism – Socialism
Right - Privilege
Prejudice – Discrimination
Slavery – Indentured Servitude
Culture – Civilization
Freedom- Equality
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23. Final Thoughts Academic vocabulary:
is critical to understanding concepts in history.
is an essential component of building prior or background knowledge.
Students need explicit instruction in critical academic vocabulary.
When students understand this vocabulary, they will have a better understanding of concepts in history.
© 2012 CICERO Systems™