Course Description

The course examines high-leverage practices for building academic vocabulary in K-5 students.  Educators will learn strategies to help students learn content-specific academic vocabulary, such as separating words into tiers, choosing which words to teach, creating fun games that focus on words and their meanings, actively using word walls to reinforce word use, and visualizing words to help elementary students expand their vocabulary in engaging ways.

Educators will also help students learn word parts such as morphology, syntax, and root word analysis. These skills can help students navigate complex, grade-level texts with confidence and accuracy by helping them connect words with their meanings.

A central focus of the course is supporting linguistically diverse students by recognizing and leveraging their linguistic assets while addressing their unique language development needs. Educators will explore research-based strategies such as actively using and studying words, creating engaging questions, and responding to text-dependent questions to deepen reading comprehension, enhance vocabulary acquisition, promote reading fluency, and strengthen oral language development.

Throughout the course, educators will engage in structured reflection on their classroom practice and develop a concrete plan to integrate effective vocabulary and comprehension instruction into daily instruction. By the end of this course, educators will possess a toolkit of practical, evidence-based methods to expand student word knowledge, ensuring that all learners—regardless of their starting point—can achieve higher levels of fluency, vocabulary knowledge, and stronger comprehension in the content areas.

Essential Questions

• What evidence-based instructional strategies best support the acquisition of academic vocabulary and reading comprehension skills?
• What is the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension?
• What are efficient and effective ways to build language skills in multilingual learners?
• How does instruction in content area vocabulary build discipline-specific knowledge?

Comments from Teachers

“I am in love with the game examples provided in this course! I am very excited to implement them in my classroom.”

“I really like the sketch note-taking and using tiers to prioritize vocabulary instruction. I’ll use morphology in my instruction systematically and explicitly. I’ll also use the wide variety of strategies I’ve learned to practice and reinforce vocabulary after it is introduced.”

Danielson Teacher Framework Course Alignment