Vocabulary for The Modern Day Classroom: K-12 Strategies for ELL/ESL, Content Areas, and Beyond is designed to assist teachers with developing authentic, engaging, and meaningful vocabulary activities and assessments for students in all grade levels and across all content areas. It is especially helpful in identifying activities and strategies to use with English Language Learners and Native Language learners. No matter the grade or makeup of students in a particular setting, it provides strategies for use with all of them. The goal is for teachers to help diverse populations of students, even in the same classroom, to build their own vocabularies and a genuine interest in words.

At the completion of this course, the learner will be able to:

• Understand the rationale for robust vocabulary instruction. INTASC Standard 1
• Design authentic and engaging vocabulary activities across grade levels and content areas. INTASC Standards 3, 5, 6, 7, 8
• Design authentic and engaging vocabulary activities for English Language Learners, Native Language Learners, and students with special needs. INTASC Standards 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
• Confidently and effectively select the most appropriate vocabulary words for instruction. INTASC Standards 4, 7
• Create student-friendly definitions for selected words. INTASC Standards 2, 4, 7
• Select and/or design age-appropriate assessments that match instructional goals and require deep understanding of vocabulary. INTASC Standards 4, 6
• Use strategies to maintain newly learned words in students’ repertoires. INTASC Standards 4, 5, 7, 8
• Create a rich verbal environment. INTASC Standards 3, 4
• Use newly gained knowledge about robust vocabulary instruction to evaluate, critique, and reflect upon pre-made vocabulary assessments and activities. INTASC Standards 1, 9