Academic Language Words for High School

Academic Language Words for High SchoolHigh school teachers know the importance of teaching academic vocabulary. Whether reading complex informational text in English, Social Studies, Computer Science and Technology, Science, or cramming for vocabulary dense ACT, SAT, AP or other tests, these words are the gateways to reading comprehension. But which words should we teach? Fortunately, we have a research based study to inform our choice of words: The Academic Word List, developed by Dr.

High school teachers know the importance of teaching academic vocabulary. Whether reading complex informational text in English, Social Studies, Computer Science and Technology, Science, or cramming for vocabulary-dense ACT, SAT, AP or other tests, these words are the gateways to reading comprehension. But which words should we teach?

Fortunately, we have a research-based study to inform our choice of words: The Academic Word List, developed by Dr. Averil Coxhead. This resource lists generalizable Tier 2 academic words by frequency of use in the Academic Corpus. The program author has grouped the upper-level words from Dr. Coxhead’s study in sets of 56 words for levels 9, 10, 11, and 12. A total of 224 must-know high school level Tier 2 words.

This quick, bellringer-style program is formatted with the research-based Frayer Model four-square graphic organizers. These Frayer worksheets feature the following squares:

• The focus vocabulary word, part of speech, and a short student-friendly definition
• “Similar to…”
• “Different than…”
• “Example, Characteristics, or Picture”

Following each four-square graphic, a space is provided for “Related Words.” Teachers may choose to help students brainstorm words with the same morphemes, list changes in parts of speech, inflections, or conjugations, or write context clue sentences (guided by the Frayer Model) clues to show the meaning of each word. Simply print one worksheet per week, per student.

In addition to the worksheets, the program provides 7 biweekly matching quizzes in self-correcting Google forms for each level for a total of 28 quizzes. These assessments can also be used as a diagnostic to indicate which level to begin instruction and as a final summative exam. Most teachers choose to add a few previous weekly words to each biweekly quiz to ensure continuous review and accountability for cumulative vocabulary knowledge. One easy-prep idea is to post the review words (the author suggests 4 per quiz). Students are required to write each word in context clue sentences.