Vocabulary Development in
Advanced Placement English
Language and Composition
Individualized Vocabulary
Development (IDV)-1
• In pairs, students record three words per day
over the course of a week or two. These words
may come from their reading, from vocabulary
lists, or from a partner’s research. After
collecting nine words, the pair will be tested.
• Students talk with partner about the words,
definitions, and usage. Later, this pair of
students will be tested for spelling, definition,
and use in sentence for each word (3 x 3 x 3 =
27 points).
Individualized Vocabulary
Development-2
• Nine new vocabulary words and definitions are
recorded on index cards and in students’
notebooks.
• The teacher can review the cards for
appropriateness and accuracy to ensure that
students understand definitions.
• Test: A student will read the nine words to two
students from their card. Eventually, all students
will test each other, and the teacher will collect
the cards and grade the tests with the cards.
• The teacher relies on student cards in order to
grade the tests.
Individualized Vocabulary
Development-3
• Benefits
– Students take responsibility for their own
vocabulary growth, a responsibility they
should be assuming.
– Student create lists that are appropriate for
them as individual learners—not too difficult
and, notably, not too easy.
– Responsibility for generating content lies with
students, not the teacher.
– Teacher grades but does not develop the test.
Other Approaches to Developing
Vocabulary-1
• The teacher may generated glosses of words in
an assigned reading and later test students.
– The teacher generates perhaps 10 per essay, 40 per
longer work.
– Teacher gives the word, its definition, and page
number.
– Glosses convey the nuances of definitions:
• This word has this denotation in this context.
• Students may discover other meanings for the word.
Other Approaches to Developing
Vocabulary-2
• Other best practices?
The Vocabulary of Rhetoric:
Synonyms of assert
• Synonyms include affirm, aver, avow, declare,
establish, express, state. Using these verbs
appropriately will enliven and elevate student
writing. (Cf. believe, relay, say, write.)
• Research and discuss the denotations and
connotations of these words.
• Use a thesaurus only for gathering synonyms
and a college-level dictionary for defining them.
See the Synonyms resource in the dictionary.
• Avoid thinking like a thesaurus: A = B and B = C;
ergo, A = C.
The Vocabulary of Rhetoric:
Selected Verbs of Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Evaluation
– critique, defend,
challenge, justify
• Synthesis
– contrast, generate,
interpret, validate
• Analysis
– deduce, differentiate,
infer
• Application
– extend, relate, transfer
• Comprehension
– describe, generalize,
summarize
• Knowledge
– identify, list, sequence
The Vocabulary of Rhetoric:
Rhetorical Terms
• Classical appeals: ethos, pathos, logos
• Argumentative structure: deductive,
inductive
• Logic: syllogism, enthymeme
• Elements of style: diction, imagery,
syntax, “sound and sense,” paragraphing
• Selected Greek terms (to be used very
cautiously): anaphora, chiasmus, syllepsis
(cf. zeugma)
The Vocabulary of Rhetoric:
Tone Terms
• Develop a list of tone words for students to
master.
The Vocabulary of Rhetoric:
Cause and Effect
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Because, Since
Therefore
Consequentially
As a result ….
Definitions
• Have students work through denotations
and connotations as they gain more
experience in understanding definition.
• Define denotation.
• Define connotation.
Denotation and Connotation
• Denotation (L., marking down) and
definition (L., closing or limiting down) both
have etymologies that convey restriction
(down).
• Connotation (L., marking with) suggests
an association with the denoted meaning.
• Encourage students to use denotation and
connotation in their analyses and in their
compositions.
Definition
• Genus and differentia (classification)
• Example: safety pin, n., a pin bent back on itself
and having the point held in a guard
• Like genus and species (Homo sapiens), there
is a hierarchy with genus and differentia.
• Analyze the differentia of these pins:
– cotter pin, straight pin, bobby pin, rolling pin, bowling
pin, fraternity or sorority pin, hat pin, hairpin (then,
hairpin turn)
Conventions of Definition:
How do we learn to define?
• Context is primary
– Reading (and mispronunciation [“grimace”])
– Conversation in home and classroom: Raising the
level of consciousness of language
• Dictionary (College-level)
– Usage notes
• See “hopefully,” “impact,” “infer.”
– Synonyms (preferable to thesaurus)
• See “assert”
• Thesaurus (the dangerous weapon!)
Analyzing Definition
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Convention and tradition
Negation
Comparison
Analogy
Example (Exemplification)
Hierarchy: Genus and differentia