No matter what lesson I’m teaching in the classroom, I always find myself circling back to academic language and vocabulary. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve spent on your lesson plan or how hard you worked with your students. If they can’t make sense of the academic vocabulary in oral or written questions, then they won’t be able to pass state exams and assessments. If you want your students to be able to succeed and construct meaning, you will have to teach them academic vocabulary.
What is Academic Vocabulary?
In our classroom, we refer to academic vocabulary as tricky test makers! Most students can answer questions in a simple format. However, many of them struggle with questions that involve formal writing.
Academic language is the teacher’s standard or object known as a formal language. This comes right from the standards that are being taught in your classroom. These are also the style of language used in state exams and other types of assessments.
How Can I Teach Academic Vocabulary In my Classroom?
Students need to be able to transition in and out of these language registers to be successful. While the academic language isn’t the kind of language they’ll practice at home, they need to be able to read and understand this vocabulary in their academic assessments.
Research has proven that students who are immersed in academic language are more successful on assessments. If we want our students to be able to construct and compose the meaning of the content on their assessments, you have to teach them academic vocabulary.
I have a free list of tips that all teachers can use and implement in their classrooms immediately here.
For academic language learning to be most effective, we need to use it daily in both oral and written format.
Here is how I use Academic Vocabulary in my classroom:
- Monday – Learn It
- We write the word in our notebook and definition.
- Tuesday – Use It
- We write the word in a sentence and share with our shoulder partner.
- Wednesday – Sketch It
- We sketch a picture of the word and share it with our shoulder partner.
- Thursday – Chant It
- We write a chant using the word and recite to our group.
- Friday – Teach It
- Students study the word and pair up to teach it. They define it, use it in 2 sentences, and then share their chant. They can do more if they are comfortable!
This routine only takes a few minutes a day, but my students learn academic language way faster! Click here to download Weekly Routine Cards for FREE!
Resources for Teaching
I have created two academic vocabulary resources that will transform your classroom experience! I highly suggest that everyone print out these cards on cardstock and laminate them. This will help ensure that they last a long time! You can also print them on colored cardstock to highly the importance of the words. I use red cardstock and then laminate them.
![Common Vocabulary [Found in the TRC Written Comp. Questions]](https://i0.wp.com/www.teachingupperelementary.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/common-vocabulary.png?resize=300%2C300&ssl=1)
As educators, we have to immerse our students into this formal language by using these words daily with our students! You will have to make an effort to integrate these into your classroom, but you will notice a significant difference on their state assessments and exams.
