Accessible Vocabulary & Syntax
Overview
Using language that is accessible and appropriately leveled for each student allows all students to feel successful and participate in learning. When teachers incorporate challenging but accessible Vocabulary words in their daily instruction, they create an environment for students to feel comfortable practicing, applying, and growing their Vocabulary knowledge. By modeling Syntax in their daily language, teachers repeatedly expose students to sentence structures that they can adopt in their own speech, which is especially valuable for students whose Primary Language is not English.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch how this teacher provides sentence starters for students to use in a discussion, making participating accessible to all. By providing these language supports that students can use when engaging with others, she alleviates challenges in initiating conversation and helps them practice professional and academic language.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Watch how Newsela provides nonfiction texts at adaptive reading levels, which allows learners to read authentic, engaging texts at their appropriate lexile level. Additionally, through their Power Words feature, key Vocabulary is highlighted within the articles and added to their individual word walls, allowing learners to remember or reference their definitions in context.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Teacher Modeling & Support Strategies
Content that is provided in clear, short chunks can support students' Working Memory and ensure students are directing their Attention to the relevant information.
Building positive and trusting relationships with learners allows them to feel safe; a Sense of Belonging; and that their academic, cognitive, and social and emotional needs are supported.
Actively and authentically encouraging all students to seek support, ask questions, and advocate for what they believe in creates a safe space for risk-taking and skill development and supports a Sense of Belonging.
Teaching students how to systematically evaluate sources prepares them to navigate in an increasingly complex, digital world.
Providing constructive feedback supports students' writing development by letting them know how to improve their writing.
+When students are aware that learning involves effort, mistakes, reflection, and refinement of strategies, they are more resilient when they struggle.
Providing feedback that focuses on the process of developing skills conveys the importance of effort and motivates students to persist when learning.
By talking through their thinking at each step of a process, teachers can model what learning looks like.
Maintaining consistent routines, structures, and supports ensures that students are able to trust and predict what will happen next.
Reading aloud to adolescents models Reading Fluency as texts become more complex and disciplinary in nature and therefore, more difficult to understand.
Using texts to discuss complex emotions and perspectives with students can help them see how they influence behavior and draw their own personal connections.
Giving students voice and choice in their learning is critical for making learning meaningful and relevant to them, an important aspect of promoting Sense of Belonging.
Wait time, or think time, of three or more seconds after posing a question increases how many students volunteer and the length and accuracy of their responses.
