Marzano's Vocabulary List

Who: Teachers and Administrators

What: Academic words need to be explicitly taught to students in your classroom(s). Robert Marzano identified four subject matters and they include Science, Social Studies, Language Arts and Math. He composed a list for grades kinder through 12. It is very important that students KNOW these words. 

Why: Nearly a century of research  shows that vocabulary is a very important part of comprehension. Researchers in 1925 stated that growth in reading means continuous growth in word knowledge (Whipple). Today scholarly academic articles are titled Vocabulary and Syntactic Knowledge Factors in 5th Grade Students' Reading Comprehension (NAEP, 2013). Main content area

Having to determine the meaning of too many words slows readers up and the problem gets much worse with complex text. Not knowing words on the page is debilitating! There is a “30 Million Word Gap” which found that students from low-income backgrounds had much lower vocabularies and exposure to words than their affluent peers. 
 

When: You should be teaching vocabulary ALL THE TIME! Teachers make sure these words are used regularly in your classroom and that students have continuous exposure and practice with them throughout the year. Principals check to see teachers have included these words in their pacing guides and lesson plans. We need to be explicit with our vocabulary instruction. 

Below is a quick list of Marzano's list for third grade. For other grade levels click here.