Lisa Larson,
Larson, Dixon, and Townsend Temoca
| How Dixon,Increase
Can Teachers and Dianna
page
16
How Can Teachers Increase
Classroom Use of Academic
Vocabulary?
M
y seventh-grade students are
in their seats, shifting their
gazes between the large poster
paper hanging on the white board, the
colored markers in my hand, and the tim-
er. The prefix re- is written on top of the
page. As soon as I give my class the signal,
hands shoot into the air, calling out words
such as “rewrite, repost, redraw, reform”
during a collective 10-minute brainstorm.
Students suggest words and I add them to the
growing list, if they properly use the prefix. At
the end of 10 minutes, we count our words; it is
a great list.
At this point, I explain, “Once you learned
the prefix re-, you packed your word bank.” (See
Fig 1.) Then I flip through the posters from other
classes and point out, “Yet, you still did not think
of all the words other classes found. Once you
Figure 1. Example of a morphology brainstorming activity
Copyright © 2013 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.
Voices from the Middle, Volume 20 Number 4, May 2013
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Townsend
Classroom Use of Academic Vocabulary?
understand word parts, you have access to an in-
credible number of words.” My students argued,
“Ms. Dixon, why are we learning vocabulary in
social studies?” I watched as my students looked
at each of the lists, the class word wall, and back
at me. I saw them realize what I had been trying
to explain: active vocabulary practice is invalu-
able to their academic success. Why? Because ac-
tive vocabulary practice helps young adolescent
learners develop academic language and access
academic texts.
As social studies teachers, one teaching in a
rural middle school and one teaching in an ur-
ban middle school, we value “rich vocabulary in-
struction” (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002, p.
108). Given that our students are encountering
increasingly academic texts in our classrooms,
this type of instruction is exactly what they need
in order to access those texts. Our students repre-
sent typical rural and urban populations from low
socioeconomic backgrounds, and we see national
achievement trends for these groups playing out
in our classrooms. Since the National Assessment
for Educational Progress (NAEP) began measur-
ing reading achievement in 1992, the nation’s
fourth and eighth graders have shown little to no
growth (U.S. Department of Education, 2007).
Recently, our state adopted the Common Core
State Standards (CCSS), developed by the Na-
tional Governors Association Center for Best
Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers.
CCSS promises to increase the rigors of reading.
With the evidence that students have difficulty
with academic language, the new standards have
the potential to further amplify the literacy gap.
A critical component to academic reading
comprehension is understanding the vocabulary,
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 Larson, Dixon, and Townsend | How Can Teachers Increase Classroom Use of Academic Vocabulary?
and gaps in vocabulary knowledge are a factor
for low reading achievement (Harmon, Hed-
rick, & Wood, 2006; Kelley, Lesaux, Kieffer, &
Faller, 2010; Lesaux, Kieffer, Faller, & Kelley,
2010). In order to make sense of increasingly
dense academic texts, middle-level students must
possess strategies to understand and use words,
which will, with other types of text-based sup-
port, increase comprehension. For these reasons,
academic vocabulary has received a great deal of
attention in both the research and practitioner
literature (see Baumann & Graves, 2010, for an
overview). However, for our purposes, it is the
definition provided by Flynt and Brozo (2008)
that is most applicable to the classroom; aca-
demic vocabulary is “word knowledge that makes
it possible for students to engage with, produce,
and talk about texts that are valued in school” (p.
500).
What Is Effective Academic
Vocabulary Instruction?
As part of an action research project, we exam-
ined and supplemented our practice for helping
our students build academic vocabulary knowl-
edge. Our research question for the project was
based on Blachowicz and Fisher’s (2000) asser-
tion that students should be responsible for tak-
ing an active role in learning new vocabulary
words. Active engagement means “learning the
meaning of specific words (where it is important
to make connections between and among words
and concepts), and learning strategies to become
independent word learners” (p. 505). There-
fore, our purpose for this project was to answer
the question: How can we enhance young ado-
lescents’ active engagement with academic vo-
cabulary while engaging with texts in our social
studies classes?
To start, we built a common understanding
of academic vocabulary words, considering both
general academic words and content-specific
words. For general academic word knowledge,
we relied on Coxhead’s (2000) work. She created
a list of 560 academic vocabulary word families
consisting of thousands of terms students would
Voices from the Middle, Volume 20 Number 4, May 2013
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page
most likely see across content areas. However, 17
this list was never intended as a prescriptive list
of words to teach, and we did not use it that way.
Rather, we used the list as a guide for the type of
word we wanted to attend to as we encountered
them in the texts we
were reading. For ex- In order to make sense of
ample, proceed, a word increasingly dense academic
from the list, can mean
to move forward, and texts, middle-level students
proceeds can indicate must possess strategies to
the money received
from an economic ven- understand and use words,
ture. Different forms which will, with other types
of this word can be
found in many other of text-based support, in-
content areas, often crease comprehension.
with varying meanings.
In science, students must follow lab procedures,
and in math, solving equations requires a specific
process. In social studies, students can read about a
funeral procession. The discussion of words at this
basic but interconnected level is important to the
deeper learning of words and supports the prin-
ciple of active engagement. As we encountered
general academic words in our instructional texts
with our students, we would stop to run short
pair-shares or whole-class discussions on how
these words are used in various contexts.
Active Academic Vocabulary
Practice in Social Studies
Classrooms
The following are strategies from our action re-
search project that we found to be the most effec-
tive in engaging middle-level students in building
academic vocabulary knowledge and increasing
access to academic texts.
Word Walls
Word walls provide visual support for all learn-
ers in their acquisition of academic vocabulary.
Corson (1997) tells us that “words are only fully
learned when they are available for active use” (p.
699). We learned that it is important when creat-
ing a word wall that the words are terms students
3/30/13 10:54 AM
 Larson, Dixon, and Townsend | How Can Teachers Increase Classroom Use of Academic Vocabulary?
page
18 have created and manipulated, not simply words • Write down the words _____, _____, and
up for display (Fisher & Frey, 2008). The orga- _____ from our word wall and, with a part-
nization of word walls varies; some walls arrange ner, write down everything you think you
terms in alphabetical order, some use common know about them.
themes or units of study (Fisher & Frey, 2008; • Here are two questions we’ll be answering
Yates, Cuthrell, & Rose, 2011). today: Which word wall words do you think
In creating our word walls, we engaged stu- will be most important in today’s lesson?
dents in decisions about the placement of the Why?
words according to Beck,
Examples of exit slip prompts are:
Morphology, the study of McKeown, and Kucan’s
(2002) tiers (see Fig. 2). • Write down one new thing you learned
word structure, including today and use at least two of our word wall
Our students were al-
roots, bases, and affixes, ready comfortable with words in your response.
these categories from our • Look around at our word walls. Which
is an extremely powerful
previous work together. words were the most important from today’s
tool for building academic Tier 1 words are basic, lesson? What makes those words important
everyday vocabulary; Tier today?
language proficiency.
2 words are similar to
general academic words; Morphology Practice with Matching
and Tier 3 words equate with content-specific Activities
words. The discussions about where words be- Morphology, the study of word structure, in-
longed provided students with the opportunity cluding roots, bases, and affixes, is an extremely
to deepen their ownership of the words. We also powerful tool for building academic language
found that simple prompts for entry and exit slips proficiency. The majority of the words on Cox-
were time-efficient ways to help students pay at- head’s (2000) list are complex in nature, as are
tention to and use word wall words. Examples of many social studies content area words. Con-
entry slip prompts are: sider, for example, the terms civil disobedience,
jurisdiction, communism,
and revolution. The ac-
tivity illustrated at the
beginning of our article
is one way we engaged
our young adolescent
learners in building
word structure knowl-
edge (see Fig. 1). An-
other activity we found
particularly engaging
for students is a match-
ing activity (Townsend,
2009).
Each student re-
ceived a slip of paper
that had something in
common, morphologi-
Figure 2. Example of a student-designed word wall in a social studies classroom cally, with two other stu-

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 Larson, Dixon, and Townsend | How Can Teachers Increase Classroom Use of Academic Vocabulary?
page

dents’ slips of paper. For example, the words may ing!) a set of slips of paper, each with a term re- 19
have had the same Latin root or the same prefix. lated to the Civil War. Students then sorted their
Students circulated around the room, with a time terms into “people,” “places,” “events” or other
limit, to find their group members. Once groups self-selected categories. This particular sort in-
were assembled, each group used textbooks and cluded the category “mil-
dictionaries to determine the meanings of their itary words.” We were As with all activities, the
common word parts. Each group then gener- then able to assess a stu-
target words and word
ated additional words using their word parts dent’s understanding of
and taught another group about the new terms. an individual word, such parts for the morphologi-
Building students’ word awareness in this man- as Copperheads (see Fig.
cal activities were instruc-
ner broadened their vocabulary knowledge with- 3), by asking him to jus-
out explicit instruction of each individual word. tify his category choices, tionally meaningful for
Such awareness-building plays “an important thus uncovering miscon-
the texts we were engaging
role in vocabulary growth which in turn impacts ceptions to be explored.
reading comprehension” (Nagy, Berninger, & Word sorts can also be with at the time.
Abbott, 2006, p. 134). And, as with all activities, used to further aware-
the target words and word parts for the morpho- ness of morphology (Templeton, et al., 2010).
logical activities were instructionally meaningful For example, in the same unit, emancipation was
for the texts we were engaging with at the time. analyzed for its root “man,” and students made
connections to words like manacle and mandate.
Word Sorts Students then practiced with word sorts com-
Word sorts can engage middle-level students in prised of Civil War terms that shared common
finding similarities and differences in word struc- roots or affixes.
tures and word meanings (Templeton, Bear, In-
vernizzi, & Johnston, 2010). One example of a Vocabulary Journals
word sort involved students receiving (or mak- Vocabulary journals in content areas allow ado-
lescent students to work with vocabulary terms
using an “introduce, de-
fine, discuss, and apply”
sequence (Fisher & Frey,
2008, p. 67). The varia-
tions in the set-up of the
journal reflect the needs of
individual content areas.
Interactive notebooks in
a social studies classroom
may include a vocabu-
lary section for each unit.
Students record word
sorts, vocabulary, student-
friendly definitions, and
visual representations for
each term. In our classes,
students reviewed, refer-
enced, and revised their
Figure 3. Example of a student’s word sort vocabulary records as they

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 Larson, Dixon, and Townsend | How Can Teachers Increase Classroom Use of Academic Vocabulary?
page
20 continued to construct more knowledge (see Fig. Conclusion
4). Word learning is incremental in nature, and
depth of word knowl- Active academic vocabulary practice helps mid-
Focused vocabulary instruc- dle-level students actively engage with and use
edge is built as stu-
the challenging academic language of the content
tion is not about cutting cur- dents encounter words
across various texts and areas. The strategies we have included are only a
riculum or extending teach- few of the ones used successfully in word study.
contexts. Therein lays
Other successful strategies may include student
ers’ instructional day; rather, the power of vocabu-
lary journals; students discussions, role plays, jeopardy-esque games,
we learned from this action flash cards, comic strips, acrostic poems, and a
can revisit words, add-
plethora of other writing assignments.
research project that it is ing information about
those words as they After working with the prefix re-, the social
about embedding a strategic, studies class mentioned above studied Recon-
learn new nuances of
struction. Drawing the students’ attention to the
focused vocabulary curricu- and contexts for those
words. Every page or word reconstruction was built into the introduction
lum, centered on meaningful to this unit. Based on the students’ prior under-
section of a vocabulary
standing of the prefix re-, they were able to infer
words and word parts from journal then authen-
tically grows as stu- what we would learn while studying America’s
our texts, into our lessons. reconstruction of the South. This was not a sepa-
dents’ word knowledge
grows. rate vocabulary lesson, but rather a quick review
and application check for understanding that we
slipped right into our daily instruction. Focused
vocabulary instruction is not about cutting cur-
riculum or extending teachers’ instructional day;
rather, we learned from this action research proj-
ect that it is about embedding a strategic, focused
vocabulary curriculum, centered on meaningful
words and word parts from our texts, into our
lessons.

References
Baumann, J. F., & Graves, M. F. (2010). What is aca-
demic vocabulary? Journal of Adolescent & Adult
Literacy, 54, 4–12.
Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2002).
Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruc-
tion. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Blachowicz, C. L. Z., & Fisher, P. (2000). Vocabulary
instruction. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D.
Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading
research (Vol. 3).Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
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English words. Language Learning,47, 671–718.
Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL
Quarterly, 34, 213–238.
Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Improving adolescent lit-
eracy: Content area strategies at work. Upper Saddle
Figure 4. Example of a student’s vocabulary journal River, NJ: Pearson Education.

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page
21
connections from readwritethink

Word Matrix Student Interactive Tool

The Word Matrix is a tool from ReadWriteThink.org designed to assist teachers in vocabulary instruction,
but it has flexible applications in literary analysis and writing instruction as well. The interactive tool can
be used to teach students the concepts of connotation and register, to help clarify differences between
seemingly similar words, to explore the concept of diction in literary analysis, or to encourage more preci-
sion in word choice in student writing.

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/word-matrix-30071.html
Lisa Fink
www.readwritethink.org

Flynt, E. S., & Brozo, W. G. (2008). Developing aca- 98, 134–147.

demic language: Got words? The Reading Teacher,
61, 500–502.
Harmon, J. M., Hedrick, W. B., & Wood, K. D.
(2006). Research on vocabulary instruction in the
content areas: Implications for struggling readers.
Reading & Writing Quarterly, 21, 261–280.
Kelley, J. G., Lesaux, N. K., Kieffer, M. J., & Faller, S.
E. (2010). Effective academic vocabulary instruc-
tion in the urban middle school. The Reading
Teacher, 64, 5–14.
Lesaux, N., Kieffer, M., Faller, S. E., & Kelley, J. G.
(2010). The effectiveness and ease of implementa-
tion of an academic vocabulary intervention for lin-
guistically diverse students in urban middle schools.
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Nagy, W., Berninger, V., & Abbott, R. (2006). Con-
tributions of morphology beyond phonology to
literacy outcomes of upper elementary and middle
school students. Journal of Educational Psychology,
National Governors Association Center for Best Practic-
es, Council of Chief State School Officers. (2010).
Common Core State Standards. Washington, DC:
Author.
Templeton, S., Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., & John-
ston, F. (2010). Vocabulary their way: Word study
with middle and secondary students. Boston, MA:
Pearson Education.
Townsend, D. (2009). Building academic vocabulary
in after-school settings: Games for growth with
middle school English-language learners. Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53, 242–251.
U.S. Department of Education. (2007). NAEP data
explorer. Washington, DC: Institute of Education
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Lisa Larson and Temoca Dixon are middle school teachers in rural and urban middle schools,
respectively. Dianna Townsend is an assistant professor of Literacy Studies at the University of
Nevada, Reno.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without
permission.