Robert Marzano’s Six-Step Process for Vocabulary Instruction

• Step 1: Provide a description, explanation, or example of the new term

• Step 2: Ask students to restate the description, explanation, or example in their own words.

• Step 3: Ask students to construct a picture, pictograph, or symbolic representation of the term.

• Step 4: Engage students periodically in activities that help them add to their knowledge of the terms.

• Step 5: Periodically ask students to discuss the terms with one another.

• Step 6: Involve students periodically in games that enable them to play with the terms.

Academic Vocabulary Tiers

TIER I TIER II TIER III

Words that are used in an everyday Words that are used with high-
context are defined as Tier I terms. frequency, that occur across context,
These are common words that rarely but are acquired by more mature
require direct instruction. language users are defined as Tier II
terms. Knowledge of these words
Example Tier I Terms: enhance reading comprehension and
-happy allow more accurate verbal
-table expression of a concept. Tier II terms
-classroom are the best terms to target for
-homework effective vocabulary instruction.
-vacation
-animal These words can be broken into two
-understand subcategories:
-disagree 1. Words that take Tier I
- language and increase such
words by degrees, or explore
concepts within broader
context.
2. Academic terms that would
be considered universal
across subject areas.
Example Tier II terms:
-perseverance
-awareness
-evidence
-comparison and contrast
-explanatory
-composition
-organization
-association
-classify
Words that are low-frequency and
are isolated to a specific domain are
categorized as Tier III terms. Many of
the words in Tier III are already
isolated for direct instruction.
However, without the Tier II
language, students often lack the
vocabulary to discuss such terms with
depth and accuracy.
ELA Tier III example terms:
-thesis statement
-alliteration
-rhetorical device
-denotation/connotation
-universal theme
-paradox
-soliloquy
-ad hominem attack
-Neoclassical literature
-reflexive pronoun
-MLA Style
-syntax
Modified Frayer Model #1

Definition Picture

Definition in my own words:

Base Word

Synonyms Connections

Antonyms
Modified Frayer Model #2

My Definition: Sentence Examples:

Base Word
Teacher’s definition

Characteristics: What the word isn’t:

Alphabet Word Bank

A B C D E F

G H I J K L

M N O P Q R

S T U V W X

Y Z
Shades of Vocabulary – Intensity Focus

BASE WORD BASE WORD

Increase in intensity
Model Cloze Passage #1 (Lower-level; verbs only)

Should girls be allowed to play high school football? At least three schools in
Alabama — Morgan Academy in Selma, St. Clair County in Odenville and Lee High
in Huntsville — have girls _________ place-kicks and extra points this season.
Morgan Academy’s Lauren Rutherford _________ her first career field goal in a
game against Wilcox Academy last week, and she’s handled the team’s kicking
duties for the last two seasons.
All three female kickers — Rutherford, Lee’s Kenysha Coulson, and St. Clair County
freshman Kylee Harrell — have made extra points this season.
Coulson, Harrell, and Rutherford _________ the legacy of female kickers in
Alabama. In 1939 and 1940, Luverne “Toad” Wise Albert kicked for Escambia
County High in Atmore. She is _________ to be the first girl to play high school
football in the United States.
But AL.com readers this summer appeared torn on the issue of whether girls
should be allowed to play tackle football. More than 2,000 votes were cast in a poll
asking, “Should girls be allowed to play tackle football?” and 44.31 percent voted
no and 44.05 percent voted yes with no restrictions.
The issue _________ to the surface after a 12-year-old girl in Georgia was kicked
off her middle-school football team because teammates were “lusting” for her.
But does the recent success of Rutherford, Coulson, and Harrell — and their
acceptance by their male teammates — make a difference? In all three Alabama
cases this season, the girls clearly __________ a void because the teams lacked a
consistent kicker. Does that matter?
And is high school football different than other age groups when it comes to
allowing girls to play? Or is there a reason to _________ this gender-bending
activity?

Bean, Josh. “Should High School Girls Be Allowed To Play High School Football?” 2013.
Model Cloze Passage #2 (Higher-level; mixed parts of speech)

“I think Malala is an average girl,” Ziauddin Yousafzai says about the 16-year-old Pakistani girl who captured
the world’s attention after being shot by the Taliban, “but there’s something ________________ about her.”
A teacher himself, Yousafzai ______________ his daughter’s fight to be educated. At a special event with
Malala in Washington, D.C., he tells NPR’s Michel Martin that he is often asked what training he gave to his
daughter. “I usually tell people, ‘You should not ask me what I have done. Rather you ask me, what I did not
do,’” he says. “I did not clip her wings to fly. I did not stop her from _______________ .”
Yousafzai has this advice for parents of girls around the world: “Trust your daughters, they are
______________ . Honor your daughters, they are honorable. And educate your daughters, they are
amazing.”
A year after being shot, Malala is clear about her goal. “I speak for education of every child, in every corner of
the world,” Malala says. “There has been a ________________ in our society,” which she believes must be
defeated. “We women are going to bring change. We are speaking up for girls’ rights, but we must not behave
like men, like they have done in the past.”
Perhaps she has ______________ from her father’s experience. When asked what gave him a passion for girls’
education, Yousafzai points out that he was “born in a society where girls are ignored.” Living with five sisters,
he was sensitive to discrimination from an early age. “In the morning, I was used to milk and cream, and my
sisters were given only tea,” he says.
Yousafzai felt the _____________ even more when Malala was born. He later opened a school that Malala
attended in the Swat Valley. At the time, the Taliban’s influence was gaining _____________ and both
Yousafzais were firmly on their radar. “But we thought that even terrorists might have some ethics,” Yousafzai
says. “Because they destroyed some 1,500 schools but they never injured a child. And she was a child.”
Malala says that the shooting has taken away her fear. “I have already seen death and I know that death is
supporting me in my cause of education. Death does not want to kill me,” she says. “Before this attack, I might
have been a little bit afraid how death would be. Now I’m not, because I have experienced it.”
When asked if she is having any fun now with all her _______________ , Malala laughs, “It’s a very nice
question. I miss those days.” But she also says that there is another side to her than what is shown in the
media. “Outside of my home, I look like a very obedient, very serious, very good kind of girl, but nobody
knows what happens inside the house.” There, she says, she’s not __________________ , but she has to stand
up to her brothers. “It’s good to fight with your brothers and it’s good to tease them to give them
________________ .”
She says her little brother doesn’t really understand why his sister has so much attention. “He said, ‘Malala ... I
can’t understand why people are giving you prizes, and everywhere you go people say, ‘This is Malala’ and
they give you awards, what have you done?’” she says.
Malala knows the Taliban would still like to kill her, but she says she hopes to _______________ to Pakistan
one day. “First, I need to empower myself with knowledge, with _______________ . I need to work hard,” she
says. “And when I [am] powerful, then I will go back to Pakistan, Inshallah [God willing].”

NPR Staff. “Malala Yousafzai: A Normal ‘Yet Powerful’ Girl”. Tell Me More, National Public Radio. 15 October 2013
Word Web Model (Example)

Injustice occurs when something unfair

Discrimination Law
occurs to someone. This can be simple, like
cheating in a game, or serious, like breaking
the law.

Violation Fairness

Injustice

Brutality
Equity

Justice is possible when everyone

agrees on what is right and what is
Frayer Model
wrong. When someone goes against
what is right, they are being unjust.
Robbing a bank doesn’t just violate the
Wrongdoing law. It also hurts the bank’s customers.
Honor