11 Tips on Teaching Common Core Critical Vocabulary

September 18, 2013

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Teaching vocabulary within the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is an essential component of standards-based curriculum alignment. Making
the critical words second nature to our students will enhance achievement on assessments and will be useful in college and career. To process and store the academic vocabulary of the standards, our students’ brains require an efficient automatic memory system. This system, also called nonmotor procedural memory, stores information that is repeated, such as multiplication tables, song lyrics, words and definitions.
Following are 11 strategies, supported by education and memory research, for teaching critical CCSS words while keeping the cognitive verbs in mind: analyze, evaluate, compare, delineate, etc. Cognitive verbs require processing skills that are automatic (unconscious) to free up working memory space, the area in the brain that holds new information and connects it to long-term memory.

Identifying the Best Words to Teach

Find out which words are "your" words. Read the CCSS for your grade level, highlighting the words you think your students won't know. Then go back to each year prior to yours and highlight those words. You can find a list of 55 critical words on my website. Next, create a pre-assessment for your students with these critical words. A simple list of words followed by columns marked "Yes" (I understand), "No" (I don't understand) and "Maybe" (I might understand) is a start. Use this information and your professional judgment to decide which words have not yet been mastered and require instruction.
Teach the words in the order they are presented in the CCSS. Begin with the verbs presented at the earliest grade levels. The CCSS doesn’t use the word analyze until fifth grade, but in subsequent grades it is used 80 more times. If you teach any grade above fifth, analyze is a critical word for your students to know and use with facility.