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Vocabulary Assessments | Academic Language Tier 2 Words

Vocabulary Assessments | Academic Language Tier 2 Words

Following are free diagnostic academic language assessments in self-correcting Google forms to help teachers determine what students know and what they do not know regarding the grade level Tier 2 words. The Tier 2 vocabulary has been derived from the research-based Academic Word List (AWL).  The author’s grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 Common Core Vocabulary Toolkits provide the corresponding instructional resources to teach the grade level Common Core Vocabulary Standards L. 4, 5, 6. To view the comprehensive instructional scope and sequence of these program, including all CCSS vocabulary standards, click HERE.

The Academic Word List has been ordered into grade level lists by frequency of use. Each grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 Academic Language Assessment includes 56 Tier 2 words. The Tier 2 words are the academic language words that are most-often generalizable across the academic domains. For example, the word analyze is used in English-language arts, social science, history, science, math, and the arts.

Academic Word List Criteria

Grades 4-8 Comprehensive Vocabulary

Comprehensive Vocabulary

Dr. Averil Coxhead, senior lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies developed and evaluated The Academic Word List (AWL) for her MA thesis. The list has 570 word families which were selected according to certain criteria:

  • The word families must occur in over half of the 28 academic subject areas. “Just over 94% of the words in the AWL occur in 20 or more subject areas. This principle ensures that the words in the AWL are useful for all learners, no matter what their area of study or what combination of subjects they take at tertiary level.”
  • “The AWL families had to occur over 100 times in the 3,500,000 word Academic Corpus in order to be considered for inclusion in the list. This principle ensures that the words will be met a reasonable number of times in academic texts.” The academic corpus refers to a computer-generated list of most-frequently occurring academic words.
  • “The AWL families had to occur a minimum of 10 times in each faculty of the Academic Corpus to be considered for inclusion in the list. This principle ensures that the vocabulary is useful for all learners.”

Words Excluded From the Academic Word List

  • “Words occurring in the first 2,000 words of English.”
  • “Narrow range words. Words which occurred in fewer than 4 faculty sections of the Academic Corpus or which occurred in fewer than 15 of the 28 subject areas of the Academic Corpus were excluded because they had narrow range. Technical or specialist words often have narrow range and were excluded on this basis.”
  • “Proper nouns. The names of places, people, countries, for example, New Zealand, Jim Bolger and Wellington were excluded from the list.”
  • “Latin forms. Some of the most common Latin forms in the Academic Corpus were et al, etc, ie, and ibid.” http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist/information

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For full-year vocabulary programs which include multiple meaning words (L.4.a.), Greek and Latin morphology with Morphology Walls (L.4.a.), figures of speech (L.5.a.), words with special relationships (L.5.b.), words with connotative meanings (L.5.c.), and academic language words (L.6.0), check out the assessment-based grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 Comprehensive Vocabulary.

Get the Grades 4,5,6,7,8 Vocabulary Sequence of Instruction FREE Resource:

Get the Greek and Latin Morphology Walls FREE Resource:

Get the Diagnostic Academic Language Assessment FREE Resource:

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Build Vocabulary through Reading

Learning Vocabulary through Reading

Building Vocabulary through Reading

The reading research certainly supports direct vocabulary instruction: According to the National Reading Panel (2000), explicit instruction of vocabulary is highly effective in improving reading comprehension. “Students should be explicitly taught both specific words and word-learning strategies. To deepen students’ knowledge of word meanings, specific word instruction should be robust” (Beck et al., 2002). In fact, the vocabulary standards delineated in the Common Core Anchor Standards for Language mention each of these explicit areas of vocabulary instruction.

  • Multiple Meaning Words and Context Clues (L.4.a.)
  • Greek and Latin Word Parts (L.4.a.)
  • Language Resources (L.4.c.d.)
  • Figures of Speech (L.5.a.)
  • Word Relationships (L.5.b.)
  • Connotations (L.5.c.)
  • Academic Language Words (L.6.0)

Teaching to these vocabulary standards will enrich your students depth of vocabulary knowledge and will teach your students how language and words help us learn. And reading research indicates that students can learn some 400 words per year in school through explicit vocabulary instruction (Beck, McKewon & Kucan, 2002).

However,

Numerous studies have estimated that students need to learn from 2,000–4,000 new words per year to make grade to grade reading growth. The most widely cited study indicates that students need to learn 3,000 new words per year (Honig 1983).

So, if the vocabulary standards help students master 400 words per year, how can we ensure that students learn the additional 2,600 words needed to make at least one grade level of reading growth in our classrooms? The Common Core authors discuss this solution in Appendix A of the CCSS document.  So, what is this key instructional strategy that will help your students meet and exceed that goal of 3,000 new words per year?

Independent reading.

Grades 4-8 Comprehensive Vocabulary

Comprehensive Vocabulary

Let’s do the math. When reading at independent levels (around 95% word recognition*), that means that students are exposed to 5% unknown words. Reading at an average 200 words per minute, 30 minutes per day, 4 days per week, means that students will read 864,000 words during the school year. If 5% of these words are unknown to the reader and the reader masters 10%** of those unknown words, this results in a gain of not 3,000, but 4,320 new vocabulary words! (30 minutes x 200 words = 6,000 x 4 days per week = 24,000 x 36 weeks = 864,000 words read in a year x 5% unknown words = 43,200 x 10% mastery =4,320.

Now, having been convinced regarding the efficacy of building vocabulary through independent reading, let’s not jump to the same conclusions that some advocates of the “whole language” approach to reading made during the 1980s and 1990s and the “balanced literature” adherents make today: If incidental vocabulary acquisition through wide reading produces a greater number of new words (4,320 in our example) than does explicit vocabulary instruction (400), let’s abandon explicit vocabulary instruction altogether.

This conclusion is flawed. Consider this question: What is it that allows the reader to mastery 10% of the 5% unknown words when reading text at optimal word recognition levels? It’s precisely the vocabulary strategies that readers internalize through explicit instruction and practice. For example, numerous studies suggest that using instructional strategies that teach students how to use context clues effectively can improve that 10% mastery of unknown words (Rhoder and Huerster, 2002, Greenwood and Flanigan, 2007). Additionally, explicit instruction in Greek and Latin word parts which appear in 50% of Tier 2 academic vocabulary can provide the structural clues to significantly improve that 10% number. Clearly, studying non-contextual vocabulary can improve the efficiency of readers to understand and master contextual vocabulary in reading.

Bottom line: Students need both explicit vocabulary instruction (those Common Core grade-level vocabulary standards) and enough independent reading to make at least one grade level of reading progress.

But, how can we be sure that it’s independent reading that teaches the most vocabulary? Don’t students learn vocabulary naturally through listening throughout their school day and at home? Don’t students get plenty of reading throughout the day in literature, science, and social studies texts? Way back in 1988, reading researchers Hayes and Athens published interesting research regarding this question. They counted the number of words above the 1,000 highest frequency words (usually mastered by most primary grade students) for a variety of listening venues such as adult-level conversations, court cases, and the nightly news. As an example, watching and listening to the nightly news exposes the viewer/listener to only 19 of these key words. In contrast, reading for the same amount of time provides a much higher exposure to words beyond the most frequently used 1,000 words. For example, reading a challenging comic book for the same amount of time exposes the reader to 53 of these challenging words. Reading a challenging book for the same amount of time exposes a reader to 75. Unfortunately, research indicates that the amount students read in a school day through teacher-directed reading tasks is miminal. Clearly, independent reading is the most efficient means of learning new words, when supported by explicit vocabulary instruction.

When should students complete their independent reading?

Many teachers buy into the research on the value of independent reading and provide in-class time for sustained silent reading. However, my take is that independent reading in class is largely both inefficient and reductive.

Again, taking a look at the math, few teachers (other than “The Book Whisperer”) at the elementary, middle, and high school levels would be willing or even permitted to allocate the 120 minutes per week of class time necessary to achieve optimal vocabulary growth. In a typical secondary ELA class with 200 minutes of instructional time per week (less with holidays and all-too-frequent instructional interruptions), the 120 minutes would take up more than half of available instructional time. Few principals would permit this encroachment upon teaching grade-level standards. As one of my own principals once told our middle school ELA department, “The district is not paying you to babysit students doing independent reading. Earn your paychecks!” The principal’s statements were a trifle blunt, but essentially correct that all instructional time is reductive. You can’t add something without taking away something.

Now some teachers might be tempted to compromise and facilitate independent reading for some time in class and some time at home. My response is “Why not all independent reading at home?” Independent reading is the perfect homework. I can hear the arguments about why this won’t work rolling in… “They won’t do it. Parents won’t support it. There’s no accountability. It takes too much time to grade and manage it.” I’m not convince. Clever teachers can solve those problems.

As a reading specialist, I’ve taught at the elementary, middle, high school, and community college levels. I recently retired as a middle school ELA teacher. Reading research indicates that middle schoolers read less on their own than any other age group. At a lower performing, 75% free and reduced lunch, multi-ethnic, multi-language school, I have success rates of 80–90% compliance with students reading 120 minutes per week at home. How? I train parents and students in how to do and supervise independent reading and daily 3–5 minute reading discussions. I get students and parents to buy in by requiring student-parent trainings. I meet with each and every parent, 130 or so. This investment of time pays off because I don’t have to grade student response journals, book reports, etc. Instead, I train and trust parents to grade the quality of their child’s discussion and I count it as 15% of the student’s total grade. I mix things up with other activities which ensure accountability, such as online book clubs in which students must post and discuss and parents and I (I can’t resist) pop-in to the mix. My point is that you, the teacher, know what will work for your students, and with some experimentation, you can figure how how to hold students accountable for independent reading homework.

Which books should students read? How should students select these books?

How do you get students to read books at the optimal word recognition levels? You don’t have to spend thousands on Accelerated Reader® or Reading Counts! You don’t have to look for Fountas Pinnell A–Z+ leveled books. You don’t have to look for grade-level equivalents. You don’t have to match student Lexile levels to published book lists. You don’t have to do running records and a miscue analysis for each student.

The key to matching students to the right books is to train students (and parents at lower grade levels) to do so. Students don’t have access to the above data, nor will they as lifelong readers. I do believe in Reggie Routman’s mantra: If the book is too difficult, it will lead to frustration; too little of a challenge will lead to boredom. Students can be trained to pick the “Goldilocks Level”: not too easy, not too hard, just right (Routman, 2003). You don’t even have to require all independent reading to be at optimal levels. Some will be less optimal; some, especially if you agree with the Common Core author’s notions about text complexity, should be more rigorous.

Boredom is a powerful disincentive. Teachers worry far too much that students will pick easier books over more challenging ones. My experience is that students learn from their own mistakes. Students want to read texts which match their maturity levels. Believe me, successful authors know how to match content and vocabulary levels to their target audiences. Additionally, motivation plays an important role in book selection. When Harry Potter books were hot off the press, my fourth grader read far beyond his tested reading levels in the last few JK Rowling novels, to be able to access what his older brothers were reading and talking about. Self-selected reading will almost always be perfectly acceptable if students are trained in how to avoid boredom and frustration.

Teach one of these two methods to help students (and parents) pick the right books for independent reading. And let me reiterate once again, not all independent reading needs to conform to these challenge levels to get students to meet or exceed our 3,000 words annual goal:

  1. The five and ten finger method (five for grades 3–5 chapter books and ten for grades 6–adult novels). Big print chapter books have about 100 words per page. Smaller print novels have about twice that number (200 words per page). Students read a random page from a book they want to read and count the number of unknown words as they read, using their fingers. If the number of unknown words is close to the 5 , say 3–7 for bigger print books or 10, say 7–13 for small print novels, that’s a good match.
  2. Select any complete page at random and count the number of words on that page. Read that same page, counting the number of unknown words as you read. Anything within the 3-7% range is a good match. For example, a reader counts the number of words on a page and arrives at 225. While reading, the student counts 11 unknown words. 11.00 ÷ 225 = .05, or 5%.

*Word recognition is simply the ability of the reader to accurately read and automatically understand a word (Reutzel & Cooter 2009). Vocabulary experts agree that adequate reading comprehension depends on a person already knowing between 90 and 95 percent of the words in a text (Hirsch, 2003). For second language learners, Results suggest that the 98% estimate is a more reasonable coverage target for readers of academic texts (Schmitt, Jiang, Grabe 2012). Most reading specialists support 95% as an optimal level of word recognition for vocabulary growth in which the reader’s comprehension is not adversely affected by too many unknown words, but enough unknown words are provided to enable incidental learning by knowledge of context clues.

**A commonly used figure by reading researchers with variables such as repetitions, word families, inflections, prior knowledge of content, primary language ability, and knowledge of and ability to apply context clues.

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For full-year vocabulary programs which include multiple meaning words (L.4.a.), Greek and Latin morphology with Morphology Walls (L.4.a.), figures of speech (L.5.a.), words with special relationships (L.5.b.), words with connotative meanings (L.5.c.), and academic language words (L.6.0), check out the assessment-based grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 Comprehensive Vocabulary.

Get the Grades 4,5,6,7,8 Vocabulary Sequence of Instruction FREE Resource:

Get the Greek and Latin Morphology Walls FREE Resource:

Get the Diagnostic Academic Language Assessment FREE Resource:

 

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Why Study Greek and Latin

“Aargh! I can’t make sense of what this author is saying. Her vocabulary is out of control! To understand this, I’d have to look up every other word in the dictionary. Do you follow what she’s saying?”

Αυτά μου φαίνονται Ελληνικά”

“So what does that mean?”

“It means, ‘It’s all Greek to me’ in Greek.”

We’ve used that expression in English for centuries to describe something we hear or read that we don’t understand. Even Shakespeare referenced the saying in Act 1 Scene 2 of his Tragedy of Julius Caesar.

Of course, the Greeks would never say “It’s all Greek to me.” After all, it is their language. But they do use a similar figure of speech. A Greek would say, “Αυτά μου φαίνονται κινέζικα,” or “This seems Chinese to me.”

When you sit down to read an article, a technical document, or a book, does the language the author uses seem “All Greek (or Latin) to you”? If so, you’re not alone, and you’re not illiterate. Often, reading English text does seem like reading a foreign language. And this makes perfect sense, because so much of English does derive from other languages.

Greek and Latin Word Parts

Why Study Greek and Latin

Why Should We Study Greek and Latin?

Before I answer this question, let me answer a few challenges to my argument.

Challenge: Aren’t both Latin and Classical Greek dead languages? Latin is not spoken or written language today. Additionally, the Greek that you suggest we learn is also somewhat of a dead language in that the classic Greek which English borrows from is not the same as the modern Greek written and spoken today.

Answer: Both Latin and Classical Greek remain alive today in the sense of their relevance and connection to vocabulary, grammar, and literature.

Challenge: Why waste time studying Greek and Latin when we could be memorizing more English words?

Answer: Those wishing to improve their vocabularies don’t have to enroll in a Rosetta Stone course on conversational Greek or taking a two-year online course on Latin. Learning high frequency and high utility Greek and Latin word parts is the most efficient way to quickly increase one’s advanced English vocabulary. Plus, you already know quite a lot of the meanings of these word parts through a lifetime of listening and reading experience. Building on a foundation is so much easier than starting from scratch.

Challenge: I’ve heard that the Greek and Latin word parts aren’t reliable clues to meaning. What meant one thing 2,000 years ago does not always mean the same to us in the Twenty-First Century.

Answer: You are correct that some Greek and Latin word parts can lead you astray. Not every Greek and Latin word part meaning is a reliable clue to meaning. Some word parts have multiple-meanings. For example, in can serve as a positive prefix, meaning in or into, as in inviting or invaluable. However, in can also serve as a negative prefix, meaning not as in invisible or incoherent. In other cases, a Greek word part which sounds and is spelled exactly like a Latin word part will mean something quite different. Additionally, besides their denotative (or dictionary) meanings, Greek and Latin word parts have their nuances and connotations.

But these drawbacks are the same for every language, including English. Understanding what authors mean in their word choices is sometimes as much art as it is science. Good reading comprehension always involves problem-solving. The bottom line is that learning the high frequency and high efficiency Greek and Latin word parts will make a significant improvement in your vocabulary.

Now that I’ve addressed some of the common complaints and reservations about studying Greek and Latin to improve one’s English vocabulary, let’s provide the justification for Why Should We Study Greek and Latin?

1. Sheer Numbers

Greek and Latin have added more affixes (prefixes and suffixes) and roots than all other languages combined. In fact, over 50% of the words in college level English dictionaries have a least one Greek or Latin prefix, root, or suffix. If half of our 800,000-word lexicon, in other words, our total English vocabulary is Greek or Latin-based, it certainly makes sense to pay some attention to these languages.

2. Accuracy and Reliability

Because both ancient Greek and Latin are so well-preserved in literature, the meanings of most words and word parts remain remarkably consistent as they are used as part of the English language. Even the spellings of these prefixes, roots, and suffixes are consistent and predictable (Rasinski & Padak, 2001; Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton & Johnston, 2000).

3. Applicability

According to one study, “Knowing Greek and Latin word parts helps students recognize and gain clues to understanding of other words that use known affixes and roots” (Nagy & Scott, 2000).

In this same study, the authors found that learning Greek and Latin roots gives students the ability to learn many new words independently by helping them make connections among words and word families that are semantically related (Nagy & Scott, 2000).

4. Efficiency

“One Latin or Greek root or affix (word pattern) aids understanding (as well as decoding and encoding) of 20 or more English words” (Nagy & Scott, 2000).

High frequency Greek and Latin prefixes, suffixes, and roots provide useful short-cuts to enhancing one’s speaking and reading vocabulary in English. For example, knowing the word parts in just 15 words will unlock clues to meaning for thousands of words. The list is in your FREE download at the end of this article.

Knowing even one Greek or Latin word part in an unknown word can help a reader problem-solve not only the word in which it appears, but also other words in the same sentence.

For example, if you know that contra means against, you can probably guess what contradictory means and what yontuke means in this sentence:

The defendant provided contradictory testimony in which he first claimed that his stolen painting was worth a fortune, but later referred to that same painting as a yontuke copy.

Yes, yontuke means cheap; I know, because I made up the word. But you know its meaning, too, because knowing the meaning of the one word part, contra, not only helped you understand the meaning of contradictory, but also clued you into the meaning of another unknown word in the sentence, yontuke. Knowing some Greek and Latin word parts can make all the difference in improving your reading comprehension.

5. Cultural Impact

Another reason why we should study Greek and Latin is because of their cultural influence. The impact of Greek and Roman philosophy, literature, and science on Western Civilization has been profound. Language is part of culture. We can’t divorce our words from our culture.

For example, to understand these words: bees knees, speakeasy, and flappers we would have to know a bit about the Roaring 20’s Jazz Age. To understand dope, homies, and skrrt, we would have to know a bit about hip hop culture. To understand this dialogue, you’d have to know a bit about the cultural language patterns of Jeff Foxworthy’s Rednecks:

If’n y’all don’t stop fat’n I’m comin’ down there to school you young’uns.

Dun’t need no hep. Pap dun got hisself a gubmint job.

Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle! He getn’ too big for his own britches.

Ah, I ain’t unnerstand nuthin’ you sed…must be some farn talk. I best skedaddle.

(Adapted from YourDictionary definitions and usage example. Copyright © 2018 by LoveToKnow Corp)

6. Studying Greek and Latin Makes You Smarter

Take any college-admission test preparation class for the SAT, ACT, LSAT, MedCaT, etc. and the instructor will stress the memorization of Greek and Latin word parts. IQ tests are rarely administered these days, but they are largely divided into language and reasoning. You guessed it… the language consists of academic words. And Greek and Latin are the primary source of academic language.

The research-based Academic Word List is chiefly based upon Greek and Latin word parts. This list of generalizable Tier 2 words is not domain or content-specific. These words appear most frequently in challenging text, including textbooks, articles, bucket list novels, and technical documents. The authors of the Common Core State Standards recommend studying these Tier 2 words. Studying a bit of Greek and Latin will give you access to the world of ideas and enhance both your reading comprehension. Additionally, the words you speak will gain the precision of meaning necessary for academic discussion.

Wouldn’t it be great to have the Greek and Latin instructional resources to learn and teach these vocabulary short-cuts?

Common Core Vocabulary Toolkit Grades 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8

Common Core Vocabulary Toolkits

Pennington Publishing’s Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 Common Core Vocabulary Toolkits include 56 worksheets, along with vocabulary study guides, and biweekly unit tests to help your students collaboratively practice and master these Common Core Standards:

    • Multiple Meaning Words and Context Clues (L.4.a.)
    • Greek and Latin Word Parts (L.4.a.)
    • Language Resources (L.4.c.d.)
    • Figures of Speech (L.5.a.)
    • Word Relationships (L.5.b.)
    • Connotations (L.5.c.)
    • Academic Language Words (L.6.0)

Years ago I created a list of 15 Power Words with these types of associations for the most common Greek and Latin affixes and roots. The word parts associated in this list comprise word parts found in over 15,000 words. Well worth teaching your students, I would say.

Get the 15 Power Words FREE Resource:

My Grades 4−8 Common Core Vocabulary Toolkits pair prefixes, roots, and suffixes to maximize learning. Each grade-level curriculum includes some great interactive games. Enter discount code 3716 and get 10% off your purchase price.

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Common Core Vocabulary: 12 Program Assessment Questions

Although much of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects affirm what elementary and secondary ELA/reading teachers have always been doing, the breadth, complexity, and depth of instruction in vocabulary may be a noteworthy exception.

The writers of the Common Core State Standards include vocabulary development among a variety of instructional Strands across the curriculum and grade levels. Additionally, the appendices add significant discussion on vocabulary acquisition. Perhaps a brief self-assessment of 12 basic questions may be in order.

Common Core Vocabulary: 12 Program Assessment Questions

  1. Outside of independent reading, would you say that the bulk of your vocabulary instruction is planned and purposeful or incidental and “as the need arises?”
  2. Do you teach vocabulary across the curriculum? Using the same strategies?
  3. How do you teach Tier II and Tier III academic language words? Which words do you teach and how were they determined?
  4. Do you and your colleagues teach a purposeful scope and sequence of vocabulary instruction across the grade levels?
  5. Do you teach the connection between vocabulary and spelling/syllabication?
  6. Do you teach grade level multiple meaning words? How were these words chosen? Which words do your colleagues teach?
  7. Do you teach specific context clues strategies?
  8. Do you teach Greek and Latin word parts? Which do you teach? Which do your colleagues teach?
  9. Do you teach dictionary and thesaurus research skills?
  10. Do you teach word figures of speech? How were these words chosen? Which words do your colleagues teach?
  11. Do you teach word relationships? How were these words chosen? Which words do your colleagues teach?
  12. Do you teach word connotations?

In a nutshell the Common Core Vocabulary Standards do establish the instructional expectations included in the above questions:

The Reading Strand in both Literature and Informational Text includes the same Standard (8.4): Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

and

The Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects Standards include Vocabulary Standard RST 8.4: Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 6–8 texts and topics.

and

The Language Strand devotes three separate Standards: L.4, 5, 6 to vocabulary acquisition.

Pennington Publishing's Grammar, Mechanics, Spelling, and Vocabulary  Grades 4-8 Programs

Grammar, Mechanics, Spelling, and Vocabulary Grades 4-8 Programs

  • Multiple Meaning Words and Context Clues (L.4.a.)
  • Greek and Latin Word Parts (L.4.a.)
  • Language Resources (L.4.c.d.)
  • Figures of Speech (L.5.a.)
  • Word Relationships (L.5.b.)
  • Connotations (L.5.c.)
  • Academic Language Words (L.6.0)

The author of this article, Mark Pennington, has written the assessment-based Grammar, Mechanics, Spelling, and Vocabulary Grades 4-8 programs to teach the Common Core Language Standards. Each full-year program provides 56 interactive grammar, usage, and mechanics lessons. The complete lessons also include sentence diagrams, error analysis, mentor texts, writing applications, and sentence dictation formative assessments with accompanying worksheets (L.1, 2). Plus, each grade-level program has weekly spelling pattern tests and accompanying spelling sort worksheets (L.2), 56 language application opener worksheets (L.3), and 56 vocabulary worksheets with multiple-meaning words, Greek and Latin word parts, figures of speech, word relationships with context clue practice, connotations, and four square academic language practice (L.4, 5, and 6).

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