Academic and Domain Words

1. Show eight cards: multiply, island, volcano, fraction, describe, compare, explain, evaporate. Ask pairs which lesson each belongs to.
2. Most pairs place multiply and fraction in math, island and volcano in geography, evaporate in science — then get stuck on describe, compare and explain.
3. Ask: "Which lesson does compare belong to?" Take "all of them." Write on the board: "Subject words belong to one subject. Academic words turn up in every subject."

1. Read the text: "The water cycle is the process that moves water around the Earth. When the sun warms a lake, some of the water evaporates and rises into the air as water vapor. High in the sky, the air is colder, so the vapor condenses into tiny drops that form clouds. When the drops grow heavy, they fall as precipitation — rain, snow or hail. Scientists compare the rain each month to describe how the weather is changing."
2. Take a subject word: "precipitation." Show the two places its meaning lives: the dash after it ("— rain, snow or hail") and the glossary. Subject words are usually explained, because the writer knows they are new.
3. Take an academic word: "process." Look in the glossary — it is not there. Ask: "Where else have you heard process?" Take math ("the process for column subtraction") and art ("the process of making clay pots").
4. Combine the sentence and the other subjects: a process is a set of steps that happen in order. Swap it in: "The water cycle is the set of steps that moves water around the Earth." It fits.
5. Take "form" in "tiny drops that form clouds." Some students will offer "a sheet you fill in." Swap it in: "drops that a sheet you fill in clouds" — nonsense. In this sentence form means "make." Academic words shift a little with the sentence, so always swap and reread.
6. Sort the four bold words and the four academic words into the two columns on the board.

“Nobody puts "process" in a science glossary, because it is not a science word — it is an everywhere word. For a subject word, look for the clue or the glossary. For an everywhere word, use the sentence and what you know from other lessons.”

1. Pairs take six words from the text: evaporates, water vapor, condenses, compare, describe, cycle.
2. They sort each, then write a meaning using the right strategy and a note saying which strategy they used ("glossary," "clue in the text," "sentence + other subjects").
3. Expected academic meanings: compare — look at two things to see what is the same and different; describe — tell what something is like.
4. Discuss "cycle." Some pairs will put it in subject words (water cycle) and some in academic (bicycle, life cycle). Accept either with a reason: it means something that goes round and repeats.
5. Every pair swaps their meaning into the sentence and reads it aloud to check it fits.

“Swap your meaning in and read the sentence aloud. If it sounds wrong, the meaning came from somewhere else, not from this sentence.”

1. Students complete the printable practice sheet: a short passage, a glossary and a set of words to sort and define.
2. Prompt anyone stuck on an academic word with: "Where else have you heard it?"

1. Say "describe." Take a meaning and two other subjects where students have met it (e.g. "describe a shape" in math, "describe a character" in English).