4th Grade · Vocabulary · L.4.6
Academic Vocabulary Lesson Plan for 4th Grade
A ready-to-teach academic vocabulary lesson for 4th Grade, built around direction words for school tasks, compare and contrast signal words, science words in a passage, and math words in context. Print the plan, print the practice pages, and you are set.
Approximately 47 minutes
Learning objective
- Use school direction words like summarize and predict
- Sort compare and contrast signal words
- Match science and math words to their meanings
Materials
- Words for Explaining and Describing
- Words for Comparing
- Academic Words in Science Passages
- Math Words in Context
- Pencils, and whiteboard space for the modeled examples
Lesson steps
1. Build the background (5 min)
Put four examples of academic vocabulary on the board and ask students which one is the odd one out. There is rarely a single right answer, and the arguing is the lesson.
2. Read aloud and think aloud (I do) (10 min)
Work through two examples of academic vocabulary out loud, showing the clue you used each time. Students copy the method, not the answer, so narrate what you looked at first.
3. Guided practice (we do) (12 min)
Read a second passage together. This time students find the evidence and you record it. Push every answer back to the text with "what words told you that?"
4. Independent practice (you do) (15 min)
Hand out "Words for Explaining and Describing". Students read and answer on their own. Circulate and ask individuals to point to the line in the text that supports their answer.
5. Share and close (5 min)
Two or three students share an answer and the evidence behind it. Restate academic vocabulary one final time in the students' own words, not yours.
Check for understanding
Collect the practice pages and sort them into three piles: fluent, developing, and not yet. Any student in the third pile needs academic vocabulary retaught in a small group before the class moves on.
Differentiation
Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild academic vocabulary with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.
Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own academic vocabulary problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand academic vocabulary.
Skills covered in this lesson
Academic vocabulary practice
