Master Academic Words for School Success

You will learn special words called academic words that help you talk about school subjects. These words make you a better student and help you understand your lessons. When you learn about Word Meaning Categories, you build skills for using academic words.

Academic words are special words you use in school. You learn these words when you study different subjects like science or reading. These words help you talk about what you learn in class.

When your teacher talks about animals, plants, or school supplies, you learn new academic words. These words are different from the words you use at home or on the playground.

Academic words: Special words you learn in school to talk about your subjects and lessons.

Animal sounds: The noises that different animals make, like a rooster's crow or a cow's moo.

Star patterns: The shapes that stars make in the night sky, also called constellations.

Zoo animals: Animals that live in zoos, like elephants, monkeys, and giraffes.

Leaf shapes: The different forms that leaves can have, like pointed or oval shapes.

Dinosaur names: The special names of prehistoric animals like T-Rex and Stegosaurus.

Library: A place where many books are kept for you to read or borrow.

Teacher: A person who helps you learn new things in the classroom.

Read: To look at letters and words and understand what they mean.

You learn different academic words for each school subject. In science, you might learn words like "falcon" or "peak." In reading, you learn words like "library" and "story."

When you study animals, you learn words like "chrysalis" and "metamorphosis" for butterflies. These special words help you talk about what butterflies do when they change and grow.

You can practice your academic words by using them when you talk. When you see a bird outside, you can say "That's a falcon flying in the sky." When you go to get a book, you can say "I'm going to the library."

Your teacher will help you learn words about weather, like wearing a "coat" when it snows. You will also learn about school supplies, like using a "pencil" to write in your "notebook."

Before learning academic words, you practiced Using Words From Conversations And Texts and Using Learned Words in Daily Speech. You also learned about Word Meaning Categories to understand how words fit together.

Learning academic words connects to many other skills. You will practice Connecting Words To Real Uses to see how academic words work in real life. You will also learn Finding Word Meanings Through Context to understand new words.

As you grow as a reader, you will use Using Conjunctions From Reading and practice Vocabulary Using Common Words In Context. You will also explore Defining Words By Category Attributes and Sorting Words Into Categories.

After you master academic words, you will learn about Content Area Terms and practice Using Descriptive Words From Reading. You will also learn Finding Word Meanings in Glossary to help you understand new words on your own.