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Amplify ELA: Vocabulary resources
Amplify ELA: Vocabulary resources

Middle school ELA vocabulary resources

Updated over a week ago

To help students learn vocabulary, they work with grade-level, complex literary and informational texts that feature academic language. Lessons leverage analytic reading practices to encourage learning vocabulary, building knowledge, and incorporating evidence in integrated reading, writing, and discussion activities.

There are additional Vocabulary PDFs in the Materials section of the Year Overview, such as a printable list of common morphemes.

The Vocab App (opens in a new tab) is an adaptive app that helps students build key text and academic vocabulary. It also tracks their level of mastery.

Words to Use/Words to Know lists

The lists of Words to Use/Words to Know come from the unit texts. You can find them in the Words to Use section of the Teacher Lesson Brief. Additionally, there is a Words to Use/Words to Know Routine PDF available in the Materials section of the Year Overview. The PDF provides various routines that you might implement in your classroom to provide students with additional skills-based vocabulary practice.

Your students can find Words to Know in the Student Lesson Brief.

The words in any Words to Use/Words to Know list remain consistent for the set of lessons between each Flex Day* and are selected in the following way:

  • Across Words: These words appear in plain text for teachers and students. These are words from the unit texts students will encounter in the Vocab App regardless of their word stream level.

  • Emerging words: These words appear in italics for teachers, but plain text for students. These are words from the unit texts, and students within the Emerging/ELL (Dev) word stream will encounter them in the Vocab App.

Note: If a word on the list has an asterisk, students will encounter it in the text but not in the Vocab App.

* Unit As do not have Flex Days.

Vocabulary Modules

The Amplify Vocabulary Modules are optional PDFs that provide instruction and ongoing practice of the skills within the Vocab App. Each Vocabulary Module is aligned to and integrated into a core instructional unit within each grade of Amplify ELA. These Modules should be used within the first five lessons of each unit. These modules are located in the Materials section of each Unit Overview.

Each Vocabulary Module has 5 parts:

  1. Word list: Present a list of key words from the unit text(s) that support practice of the module’s skill.

  2. Introducing and using the skill.

    • Present a definition, example, and rationale of the module skill.

    • Present the routine or strategy that students will use to practice this skill.

  3. Let’s practice: Support the students as they move through guided practice of the module’s routine/strategy, often using contextual sentences from the unit texts.

  4. Try it on your own: The students work through 1 or 2 independent activities as they continue to practice the skill using key words from the unit texts. These activities can be used as formative assessment.

  5. Keep going in the Vocab App: Present an image of a specific activity in the Vocab App that provides ongoing instruction and practice with the module skill.

Grade 6 Vocabulary Modules:

  • 6A: Dahl & Narrative — Context Clues

  • 6A: Dahl & Narrative — Dictionary Skills*

  • 6B: Mysteries and Investigations — Connotations and Denotations

  • 6C: The Chocolate Collection — Greek and Latin Roots

  • 6D: The Greeks — Synonyms and Antonyms

  • 6E: Summer of the Mariposas — Figurative Language

  • 6F: The Titanic Collection — Prefixes and Suffixes

Grade 7 Vocabulary Modules:

  • 7A: Red Scarf Girl & Narrative — Dictionary Skills*

  • 7A: Red Scarf Girl & Narrative — Context Clues

  • 7B: Character & Conflict — Connotations and Denotations

  • 7C: Brain Science — Greek and Latin Roots

  • 7D: Poetry & Poe — Figurative Language

  • 7E: The Frida & Diego Collection — Prefixes and Suffixes

  • 7F: The Gold Rush Collection — Synonyms and Antonyms

Grade 8 Vocabulary Modules:

  • 8A: Perspectives & Narrative — Dictionary Skills*

  • 8A: Perspectives & Narrative — Synonyms and Antonyms

  • 8B: Liberty & Equality — Context Clues

  • 8C: Science & Science Fiction — Greek and Latin Roots

  • 8D: Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet — Figurative Language

  • 8E: Holocaust: Memory & Meaning — Connotations and Denotations

  • 8F: The Space Race Collection — Prefixes and Suffixes

*Dictionary Skills module can work with any unit

Work That Word: Vocabulary Strategies is a printable worksheet that accompanies the Vocabulary Modules, giving students opportunities to apply the strategies to unit vocabulary while working in either the digital curriculum or print Student Editions. This worksheet is in the Materials section of the Unit Overview.

Reveal Words

In the Amplify eReader, a Reveal tool highlights words that are key to understanding the text and helps to build important vocabulary. A subset of the Reveal Words can be found in the Words to Use/Words to Know lists and in the Vocab App to reinforce vocabulary practice. When students click on a word, a contextual definition is provided, allowing students to understand how the word is used in that specific passage to quickly continue reading.

The number of dots in the top right corner of the definition for each Reveal word indicates the word’s difficulty, which is determined by considering the following questions:

  • Are there contextual clues to help a student understand the word?

  • Has the student seen the word elsewhere in the passage or another text?

  • Is this a word that students may encounter in texts across content areas?

  • Has research shown that the majority of students at this grade level are unfamiliar with this word?

Students know which words they have revealed because the eReader marks each with a check mark.

Students can access their individual list of revealed words for each book they’ve read in their personal glossary within the Amplify Library.

Supports for English Language Learners (ELLs)

Amplify ELA offers support for multilingual learners throughout its instructional materials, presenting a variety of opportunities for all learners to engage in the English Language Arts curriculum. These supports and resources allow teachers to adjust instruction so that ELLs can access grade-level content along with their English-proficient classmates.

There are a number of vocabulary activities that focus on ELL appropriate words from the unit's texts. The Vocab App includes activities geared toward multilingual learners that ask them to match an English definition, Spanish translation, context sentence, audio pronunciation, and visual definition. The Vocab App also offers differentiated word streams and activities focused on ELL vocabulary content. Furthermore, each lesson features a list of emerging words in the Words to Use section of the Lesson Brief. Students within the Emerging/ELL (Dev) word stream will encounter these words in the Vocab App. You might also wish to include these words as you implement the vocabulary routine outlined in the Vocabulary: Words to Use/Words to Know Routine PDF. This resource can be found in the Materials section of your Teacher Lesson Brief.

Learn more about Amplify’s English Language Learners supports and resources here.

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