L.9-10.6: Acquiring and Using Academic and Domain-Specific Vocabulary
In plain English: L.9-10.6 is the Common Core ELA standard that asks students in grades 9 and 10 to acquire and accurately use general academic words and the domain-specific terms of subjects such as economics and earth science, at the level college and careers demand. Students also gather vocabulary knowledge on their own whenever a word or phrase matters for understanding a text or expressing an idea.
Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy · Domain: Language Standards · Cluster: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use · Official standard
Students build the vocabulary that high school reading in every subject depends on. General academic words, such as facilitate, distribute, subsequent and comprehensive, keep much the same meaning in history, science and math. Domain-specific words and phrases, such as medium of exchange, opportunity cost, igneous and independent variable, belong to one field, and some familiar words (rock, work, interest) take a narrower or different meaning inside a field. Students acquire these words and use them accurately in writing and speech: with the meaning the field gives them, in the right form, and in claims that match the evidence.
The standard also asks for independence. Students decide for themselves which words and phrases are important to comprehension or expression, and they run a gathering routine without waiting to be told (Diagram 1). They practice on two textbooks written for students in the 1870s and 1880s, W. Stanley Jevons's Political Economy (1878) on barter and money and James Geikie's Geology (1883) on kinds of rock, and on an invented student lab conclusion that misuses science terms. The older texts also show why a current source belongs in the routine: some of their terms have changed.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Distinguish general academic words and phrases from domain-specific ones, including familiar words that take a special meaning in a field
Acquire key terms of economics and earth science from real texts, with their field meanings, related forms and current definitions
Use general academic and domain-specific words accurately in writing and speaking, with the right meaning, form and strength of claim
Decide independently which words are important to comprehension or expression, and gather knowledge about them with a routine and reliable sources
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
Acquiring and using grade 8 general academic and domain-specific words L.8.6
Using context, Greek and Latin affixes and roots, and reference materials to find meanings L.8.4
Telling nouns, verbs and adjectives apart and recognizing word families
Basic lab vocabulary from middle school science, such as trial, variable and hypothesis
"Read three sentences. (1) Lena lost interest in the movie after twenty minutes. (2) The bank pays 4 percent interest on the savings account. (3) The senator claimed she was acting in the public interest. What does interest mean in each one? Which meaning would you need in an economics class, and what would you do if you were not sure?"
Collect answers. Sentence 1 is everyday English: curiosity or attention. Sentence 2 is economics and finance: money paid for the use of money, here what the bank pays a saver; a borrower pays interest on a loan. Sentence 3 is civics: the public interest is the good of the people as a whole. Name the two kinds of vocabulary in L.9-10.6. A general academic word is used in many subjects with much the same meaning (facilitate, subsequent, retain); some teachers call these Tier 2 words. A domain-specific word or phrase belongs to one field, or domain (opportunity cost, magma, cloture); some teachers call these Tier 3 words. A word like interest can be both. Then list the strategies students named for the last question. Today they turn those strategies into a routine they can run on their own.
Direct Instruction15-20 minutes
Part 1: Acquire the words high school texts use. Reading at grades 9 and 10 packs many field terms into each page, and many of them are phrases: supply and demand, sedimentary rock, independent variable, checks and balances. To acquire a term is to learn four things: its meaning in the field, its related forms (distribute, distribution, distributive), the words it usually works with (levy a tax, ratify a treaty), and one example. A word's history can help fix its meaning: sediment comes from the Latin verb sedere, "to settle, to sit," which fits material that settles to the bottom of water.
Part 2: Use them accurately. Run four tests on any sentence that uses a field term. Field: does the word carry the meaning this subject gives it? Form: is it the right part of speech with the right partner words? Claim: does the verb match the evidence (suggests and supports for a few trials, not proves)? Audience: when speaking, define a term the listeners may not know the first time you use it, then keep using the same term instead of drifting to a vaguer one.
Part 3: Gather vocabulary knowledge independently. A word is important to comprehension when the main idea depends on it: it names the topic, appears in a heading or in bold, comes back again and again, or the text stops to define it. It is important to expression when you need it to write or say exactly what you mean. For such a word, run the routine in Diagram 1 on your own: flag it, infer a first meaning from context and word parts, consult a subject glossary before a general dictionary, verify the meaning by rereading, and use the word in your own writing or speech. Record it in a vocabulary log.
A general academic word and its domain-specific relative
The relief agency distributed food to 3,000 families. (history) Wind distributes the seeds of the dandelion. (biology) By the distributive property, 4(x + 5) = 4x + 20. (math)
Result: In the first two sentences, distribute has its general academic meaning, to spread or hand out among many, and it works the same way in both classes. The math phrase distributive property is domain-specific: it names one exact rule, a(b + c) = ab + ac, not any kind of spreading out. A student who writes "I distributed the 4" is using class shorthand; the accurate version is "I applied the distributive property: 4(x + 5) = 4x + 20."
An everyday word with a technical meaning
Ana carries her backpack down a long, level hallway at a steady pace. In her physics lab report she writes, I did a lot of work on the backpack.
Result: In physics, a force does work on an object only when the object moves in the direction of the force: work equals force times the distance moved in that direction. Ana's pull on the backpack is upward, but the backpack moves sideways at a steady speed, so in the physics sense she does no work on it during the walk, however tired she feels. The sentence is fine in a personal essay and inaccurate in a lab report. Accurate: I did work on the backpack when I lifted it onto my shoulders, but not while I carried it along the level hallway.
A domain-specific phrase in economics
Marcus can work a four-hour Saturday shift at $15 an hour or go to a free outdoor concert. He chooses the concert and writes, The concert cost me nothing.
Result: In economics, the opportunity cost of a choice is the value of the next best alternative given up. The ticket was free, but Marcus gave up 4 × $15 = $60 in wages, so the opportunity cost of the concert was $60. Accurate revision: The concert had no ticket price, but its opportunity cost was the $60 I could have earned. The phrase is a unit: opportunity and cost looked up separately would not give its meaning.
Accurate use in a history sentence
A student writes: The Constitution was ratified by the delegates in Philadelphia in 1787.
Result: The delegates signed the Constitution in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. To ratify is to give the formal approval that makes an agreement binding, and state conventions did that: Delaware ratified first, on December 7, 1787, and the Constitution took effect for the ratifying states when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify, on June 21, 1788. Accurate: The delegates signed the Constitution in 1787, and state conventions ratified it in 1787 and 1788.
Gathering knowledge without being told to
A student reads this invented news lead: New Tariff on Imported Steel Takes Effect. Buyers of foreign steel will now pay an extra 25 percent, a move meant to protect domestic producers.
Result: Flag:tariff is in the headline and the story depends on it; domestic matters too. Infer: the lead suggests an extra charge on goods from other countries. Consult: an economics glossary gives "a tax on imported goods," and domestic means produced in one's own country. Verify: "a tax on imported steel meant to protect steel makers at home" makes sense in the sentence. Use: the student logs related words (import, export, trade barrier) and says in the next discussion, A tariff raises the price of imported steel, which can help domestic producers compete. No one assigned the word; that is the independence the standard asks for.
Guided Practice15-20 minutes
W. Stanley Jevons (1835-1882) was an English economist who wrote this primer, a short beginners' textbook, for school classes. Political economy is the older name for economics. Read the excerpt aloud, then model gathering for the first two rows of the table: what the text itself says, then what a current source adds. Pairs complete the other rows; the teacher key is in the right column.
1When exchanges are made by giving one ordinary commodity for another, as a sack of corn for a side of bacon, or a book for a telescope, we are said to barter them. The operation is also called truck (French, troc, barter). [...] People still occasionally barter things in England, or the United States, but this is seldom done, owing to the trouble which it gives.
2If, for instance, I want a telescope, in exchange for a book, I shall probably have to make many inquiries, and to wait a long time before I meet with a person who has a telescope to spare, and who is also willing to take my book in exchange. It is very unlikely that he who has a telescope will just happen to want that particular book. A second difficulty is, that the book will probably not be worth just as much as the telescope, and neither more nor less. He who owns a valuable telescope cannot cut it up, and sell a part to one and a part to another; this would destroy its value.
[...]
3With the aid of money all the difficulties of barter disappear; for money consists of some commodity which all people in the country are willing to receive in exchange, and which can be divided into quantities of any amount. Almost any commodity might be used as money in the absence of a better material. In agricultural countries corn was so used in former times. Every farmer had a stock of corn in his own granary, and if he wanted to buy a horse or cart, he took so many sacks of corn to his neighbour's granary in exchange. Now suppose that, with corn as money, a farmer wanted to part with a cart and get a plough instead; he need not inquire until he finds a person willing to receive a cart, and give a plough in exchange. It is sufficient if he find one farmer who will receive a cart and give corn, and any other farmer who will give a plough and receive corn. No difficulty arises, too, if the cart or plough are not of equal value; for if the cart be the more valuable, then the farmer finally gets for it the plough together with enough corn to make up the difference. Money thus acts as a medium of exchange; it is a go-between, or third term, and it facilitates exchange by dividing the act of barter into two acts, in this way--
[...]
4No doubt it turns one act of exchange into two; but the two are far more easy to manage than one, because they need not be made with the same person.
W. Stanley Jevons, Political Economy, chapter XII, Money (sections 76 and 77, on barter and money as a medium of exchange; omissions marked [...]) (1878; this edition 1880). Public domain (published 1880). Source text.
Gathering knowledge about economics terms in the Jevons excerpt (teacher key in the last column)
Word or phrase (paragraph)
What the text tells you
What a current source adds (teacher key)
barter (1)
Exchanging one commodity for another, such as corn for bacon or a book for a telescope
Trading goods or services directly for other goods or services, without using money.
truck (1)
Another name for barter; Jevons gives the French word troc
Current dictionaries list this sense (to trade or barter; dealings, as in "have no truck with") as old-fashioned or informal. It is a different word from the vehicle: the barter sense comes from Old North French troquer, "to barter."
commodity (1, 3)
A thing that can be exchanged, like corn, bacon or a book
In economics, a good that is bought and sold; more narrowly, a basic good such as wheat, oil or copper that is much the same whoever produces it. From Latin commoditas, "convenience."
corn (3)
The grain a farmer keeps in his granary and uses as money
In the British English of Jevons's time, corn meant grain in general, such as wheat, barley or oats. In American English it usually means maize.
medium of exchange (3)
Money as a "go-between" that splits one barter into two acts
One of the functions of money in current economics textbooks, listed with unit of account and store of value.
Discuss: Paragraph 2 describes two difficulties of barter. Economics textbooks now name the first one the double coincidence of wants: each trader must want exactly what the other has. Jevons himself used the phrase "double coincidence" in an earlier book, Money and the Mechanism of Exchange (1875). The second difficulty is that some goods cannot be divided without destroying their value, which is why textbooks list divisibility among the qualities of good money. Ask: Which three terms from the table would you need to explain Jevons's argument to a classmate who missed class?
Independent Practice15 minutes
Students work alone on the Geikie excerpt, with no table this time. James Geikie (1839-1915) was a Scottish geologist who wrote this manual for self-study and for schools. Each student reads paragraph 1 and flags the four words or phrases he or she judges most important to comprehension, runs the routine in Diagram 1 for each, and writes one sentence of his or her own that uses two of them accurately. Collect the logs to see which words students chose and why. Teacher key for words students often flag in paragraph 1:crystalline, made of crystals, mineral grains that grew and locked together; indurated, hardened; heterogeneous, made of parts of different kinds, a general academic word whose opposite is homogeneous; alluvial, laid down by rivers (river sand and silt are called alluvium).
1Every one knows that the crust of the earth is composed of very various substances, some of which are hard and crystalline in texture, like granite; others less indurated and non-crystalline, such as sandstone, chalk, shale, &c.; while yet others are more or less soft and incoherent masses, as gravel, sand, clay, peat, &c. Now, all these heterogeneous materials, whether they be hard or soft, compact or loose, granular or crystalline, are termed rocks. Blowing sand-dunes, alluvial silt and sand, and even peat, are, geologically speaking, rocks, just as much as basalt or any indurated building-stone. The variety of rocks is very great, but we do not study these long before we become aware that many kinds which present numerous contrasts in detail, yet possess certain characters in common. And this not only groups these diverse species together, but serves also to distinguish them from other species of rock, which in like manner are characterised by the presence of some prevalent generic feature or features.
[...]
29. The METAMORPHIC class, as the name implies, embraces all those rocks which have undergone some decided change since the time of their formation. This change generally consists in a re-arrangement of their constituent elements, and has frequently resulted in giving a crystalline texture to the rocks affected. Hence certain sedimentary deposits like sandstone and shale have been changed from granular into crystalline rocks, and the like has happened to beds of limestone and chalk. Mica-schist, gneiss, and saccharoid marble are typical of this class.
310. The IGNEOUS rocks are those which owe their origin to the action of the internal forces of the earth's crust. Most of them have been in a state of fusion, and betray their origin by their crystalline and sometimes glassy texture, and also, as we shall see in another section, by the mode of their occurrence. Lava, basalt, and obsidian are characteristic types of this group of igneous rocks. Another group embraces a large variety of igneous rocks which are non-crystalline, and vary in texture from fine-grained, almost compact, bedded masses, like certain varieties of tuff, up to coarse, irregular accumulations of angular stones imbedded in a fine-grained or gritty matrix, like volcanic breccia and volcanic agglomerate.
James Geikie, Geology, Introductory (sections 2, 9 and 10, on rocks, metamorphic rocks and igneous rocks; omissions marked [...]) (1883). Public domain (published 1883). Source text.
Closure10 minutes
Exit ticket: (1) Write one domain-specific word or phrase you learned today, name its field, and use it accurately in a sentence. (2) Name the step of the routine in Diagram 1 that changed your first idea of a word's meaning today, and explain what changed.
Teacher note on the texts: Both excerpts are quoted exactly, in their original British spelling (plough, neighbour, characterised). Jevons, like other writers of his time, uses he for any trader. In the sentence left out of his first paragraph, he describes trade among peoples he calls "uncivilised races" and "the natives," words that reflect the attitudes of 1870s Britain; if you share the full chapter, discuss that language as a feature of its time. Some of Geikie's terms and classes are out of date; Diagram 2 compares his five classes with the three a current textbook uses, and the explanation of Quiz Question 3 gives another change. Use these differences to show why a current source belongs in the routine. The lab conclusion draft and its data are invented for this page.
For the quiz: Questions 1-2 use the Jevons excerpt in Guided Practice, Questions 3-7 use the Geikie excerpt in Independent Practice, and Questions 8-12 use the lab conclusion draft below. In the draft, paragraph 1 is the title line.
1Lab Conclusion, Draft: Temperature and Dissolving Sugar
2In our experiment, we dropped one sugar cube into 200 mL of water and stirred at a steady rate until the cube disappeared. We tested water at 20 °C, 40 °C and 60 °C, with three trials at each temperature. The temperature was our dependent variable, and the time was what we controlled.
3The sugar melted fastest in the hottest water. At 20 °C, the times were 118, 125 and 120 seconds. At 40 °C, they were 70, 76 and 73 seconds, so the average was 76 seconds. At 60 °C, they were 44, 47 and 41 seconds.
4This data proves our theory that heat makes all substances dissolve faster. The water molecules were basically moving around more, which made the sugar go away quicker.
Written for this page (an invented student draft with invented data), Lab Conclusion, Draft: Temperature and Dissolving Sugar. Original passage written for this page.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give a partly filled vocabulary log with the field meaning of each Guided Practice term written in, so students add the current source and their own sentence
Pre-teach five Geikie words with pictures: a granite countertop, a sandstone block, a lump of peat, a piece of basalt and a piece of obsidian
Provide sentence frames for accurate use: "In economics, ___ means ___." and "These results suggest that ___."
For Advanced Students
Have students compare Jevons's account of the functions of money with a current economics textbook and report what has been added or renamed
Ask students to trace one term, such as igneous or commodity, through a historical dictionary and explain how its field meaning developed
Have students write a one-page glossary of eight terms for a younger class, each with an example, a non-example and the source checked
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
For acquiring words, check that students give the meaning a term has in a named field, not only its everyday meaning, and that they know its related forms. For accurate use, look for the field meaning, the right form and partner words, claims that match the evidence, and terms defined for listeners in speech. For independence, look at the vocabulary logs: students should choose the words themselves, give a reason each one matters, name a reliable current source and end with an accurate sentence of their own.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Term Sort and Swap
15 minPairs
Each pair gets 10 term cards. Partners sort the cards into three piles, general academic, domain-specific, or both (a general word with a special meaning in a field), and then take turns explaining a card aloud without reading its meaning.
Partners sort the 10 cards, checking a glossary or dictionary for any card they are unsure of
Partner A explains one card in 20 seconds, naming the field and giving an example; Partner B restates the meaning in his or her own words; then they switch
Teacher key: general academic: comprehensive (covering everything or nearly everything), retain (to keep or hold on to); domain-specific: monopoly (economics: a market in which one seller controls the supply of a good), scarcity (economics: limited resources compared with what people want), magma (earth science: molten rock below Earth's surface); both: fault (geology: a break in Earth's crust along which rock has moved; everyday: blame or a flaw), deposit (geology: material laid down by water, wind or ice; banking: money put into an account), crust (earth science: the thin, rocky outer layer of Earth; everyday: the hard outer part of bread), significant (general: important; statistics: unlikely to be the result of chance alone), yield (general: to give way; farming: the amount of a crop produced; finance: the income an investment earns).
Discussion Questions
Which card in the "both" pile could cause a misreading on a science or history test, and how?
What did your partner say that made a meaning clearer than the dictionary did?
2
Four Stations, No Answer Key
20 minGroups of 3
Groups rotate through 4 station cards from four subjects. At each station, the group chooses the two words or phrases most important to comprehension, runs the routine in Diagram 1 with the glossary at that station, and records the source it used. The teacher does not tell groups which words to choose.
Station Cards
Station A (economics): The central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point. Higher borrowing costs tend to slow spending, which can ease inflation.
Station B (earth science, a park sign): This boulder is a glacial erratic. An ice sheet carried it here and dropped it when the ice melted, more than 10,000 years ago. Its granite does not match the bedrock beneath it.
Station C (health): Antibiotics kill bacteria or stop them from multiplying, but they do not work against viruses. Taking antibiotics when they are not needed can add to antibiotic resistance.
Station D (civics): The bill passed the House but died in the Senate after a filibuster. Ending the debate would have required a cloture vote of 60 senators.
Procedure
One student reads the card aloud; each student names the two words he or she would gather, and the group agrees on two with a reason for each
The group writes a first meaning from context, checks the station glossary, rereads the card with the meaning in place and writes a sentence of its own
At the end, each group explains one of its words to the class in 30 seconds
Teacher key (for checking, not for handing out): A, benchmark interest rate (the rate a central bank sets, which other interest rates follow) and percentage point (a difference between two percentages: a rise from 5.25 percent to 5.50 percent is a quarter of a point); B, glacial erratic (a rock carried by a glacier and left far from where it formed) and bedrock (the solid rock beneath soil and loose material); C, antibiotic (a drug that kills bacteria or stops their growth) and antibiotic resistance (the ability of bacteria, not of the patient's body, to survive the drug); D, filibuster (the use of long debate to delay or block a vote in the Senate) and cloture (the Senate procedure that ends debate, which for most matters needs 60 votes).
Discussion Questions
At which station did a general dictionary give a meaning that did not fit, and what did the subject glossary add?
Which two words would you need if you had to write a paragraph about the card, not just read it?
Modification for Distance Learning
Post the four cards on a shared slide deck with links to an online glossary for each subject; each group fills in a shared log and records its 30-second explanation as a short audio clip.
3
Explain It Accurately
15-20 minGroups of 4
Each student draws 1 of 4 topic cards and gives a 60-second spoken explanation of the process on the card, using its four required terms accurately. The other three students listen with a checklist and ask one clarifying question.
Topic Cards
How a river carves a canyon: weathering, erosion, sediment, deposition
How a bank uses deposits to make loans: deposit, loan, interest, reserves
How a bill becomes a federal law: committee, veto, override, two-thirds
How a vaccine prepares the body for an infection: antigen, antibody, immune response, immunity
Procedure
Each speaker has two minutes to plan and may check a glossary for any term
Listeners mark the checklist: each term has its field meaning; each term is defined for listeners the first time it is used; no claim goes beyond the facts; the speaker keeps the same term instead of switching to a vaguer word
Each listener asks one clarifying question, and the speaker answers using a required term
Teacher key, a model opening for the bank card: When customers put money into a bank account, that money is a deposit. The bank keeps part of its deposits as reserves, money on hand for withdrawals, and lends out much of the rest. Borrowers pay interest, a charge for using the money, and that interest is one way a bank earns income.
Discussion Questions
Which listener question showed that a term had not been defined clearly enough?
Why is it harder to use a term accurately when speaking than when writing?
Challenge Variation
Speakers explain the same process twice, once to classmates and once as if to a fourth grader, keeping every term accurate while changing how much each one is explained.
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
2 diagrams
Diagram 1: A Routine for Gathering Vocabulary Knowledge
Independence means running these steps without being told to. First decide whether a word matters to comprehension (the main idea depends on it) or to expression (you need it to say exactly what you mean). If it does, flag it, infer a first meaning, consult a subject glossary before a general dictionary, verify by rereading with the meaning in place, and then use the word in writing or speech. Worked Example 5 shows the routine on the word tariff.
Diagram 2: Classes of Rock in Geikie (1883) and Today
Domain-specific vocabulary changes as a field changes. Geikie sorted rocks into five classes. A current earth science textbook uses three: it counts rocks made of particles laid down by water or wind, rocks deposited by chemical processes such as rock salt, and rocks built from the remains of living things such as chalk and coal all as kinds of sedimentary rock. Checking an older text against a current source catches changes like this one.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
L.9-10.6 Homework: Acquire, Use Accurately and Gather Independently
Directions: Complete all six problems. You may use your textbooks' glossaries and a print or online dictionary; name every source you use. Use Diagram 1 as a model for Problems 2, 5 and 6.
Part 1: Acquire (Problems 1-2)
Each word has a general or everyday meaning and at least one domain-specific meaning. For each, write both meanings and name the field of the domain-specific one: capital, solution, bond, resistance, compound, primary.
Keep a vocabulary log for five school days. Record five words or phrases important to comprehension from at least two different classes. For each, give the sentence where you found it, why it matters, the steps of the routine you used, its meaning in that field, the source you checked and a sentence of your own. Star one that you later used in class discussion.
Part 2: Use Accurately (Problems 3-4)
Each sentence uses a term inaccurately. Rewrite it accurately and explain the difference in meaning: (a) The country entered a recession when its economy grew for two quarters in a row. (b) Water evaporates only when it reaches 100 °C. (c) The Senate vetoed the bill after a long debate. (d) Our survey of 20 friends proves that all teenagers prefer text messages to phone calls.
Write an explanation of 150-200 words, for a seventh-grade audience, of a process from one of your other classes. Use at least five domain-specific words or phrases and three general academic words, underline them, and define each domain-specific term the first time you use it. Then read your explanation aloud to someone and note any term he or she asked about.
Part 3: Gather Vocabulary Knowledge Independently (Problems 5-6)
Read the paragraph: The Ogallala Aquifer lies beneath parts of eight states, from South Dakota to Texas. Farmers pump its groundwater to irrigate crops. In much of the southern part of the aquifer, water is withdrawn far faster than rain and streams recharge it, so the water table has dropped. Choose the two words or phrases most important to comprehension and explain why. Then run the full routine for one of them, naming the source you consulted and writing your verify step and your own sentence.
Find one word in a text written before 1930 (the Jevons and Geikie excerpts count, but do not use corn) whose meaning or use has changed. Record the sentence, the meaning you infer from context, the current meaning from a named current dictionary or textbook, and one sentence that uses the word accurately in its current meaning.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Acquiring Words
All six words have both meanings with fields; five complete log entries from two classes
Some meanings or fields missing, or log entries incomplete
Meanings or log missing
Accurate Use
All four sentences fixed with clear explanations; explanation uses eight underlined terms accurately, each domain term defined
Two or three sentences fixed, or some terms misused or undefined
Terms misused throughout
Independent Gathering
Two well-chosen terms with reasons; every routine step shown with a named source
Reasons thin, or a step or source missing
No routine shown
Current Sources
Old and current meanings compared accurately with a named current source
Comparison made but unsourced or partly inaccurate
No comparison
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Questions 1-2 use the Jevons excerpt in Guided Practice, Questions 3-7 use the Geikie excerpt in Independent Practice, and Questions 8-12 use the lab conclusion draft in Closure; paragraph numbers are shown beside each text. The other questions use new sentences. Your score updates as you answer, and Reset quiz clears everything so you or your students can try again.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 3 of the Jevons excerpt, money "facilitates exchange by dividing the act of barter into two acts." What does facilitates mean here?
Answer: C
Facilitate is a general academic word meaning to make an action easier. Jevons confirms it in paragraph 4: the two acts "are far more easy to manage than one." A is the opposite. B is wrong because the exchange still happens; paragraph 4 says money "turns one act of exchange into two," it does not replace exchange. D confuses the word with keeping accounts, which the passage never mentions.
Question 2 of 20 · Short Answer
Using the terms barter, commodity and medium of exchange accurately, explain how the farmer in paragraph 3 who has a cart and wants a plough gets one when corn is money, and why this is easier than barter.
Model answer: Under barter, the farmer would have to find one person who both wants a cart and has a plough to spare, and the two goods would have to be worth the same (paragraphs 2 and 3). With corn as the medium of exchange, a commodity that everyone will accept and that can be divided into any amount, he splits the trade in two: he sells his cart to one farmer for corn and then gives corn to any other farmer for a plough. Jevons says this is "sufficient," and if the cart is worth more, the farmer gets "the plough together with enough corn to make up the difference." Rubric: 2 points for an accurate two-step explanation using all three terms correctly; 1 point for an accurate explanation with one term missing or misused.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 1 of the Geikie excerpt, he writes that sand-dunes, alluvial silt and sand, "and even peat, are, geologically speaking, rocks." What does geologically speaking tell the reader?
Answer: A
The phrase marks a domain-specific meaning. Geikie has just said that all these materials, "whether they be hard or soft, compact or loose," are "termed rocks," so in his field the word covers far more than hard stone. B contradicts the sentence. C invents a change the text never describes. D reverses the point: the everyday sense is the narrow one. A current source adds a change worth knowing: introductory geology textbooks today usually define a rock as a solid mass of minerals or of organic material such as coal, and call loose sand, silt and peat sediment.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Paragraph 2 says the metamorphic class, "as the name implies," includes rocks that "have undergone some decided change since the time of their formation." Which meaning of metamorphic fits?
Answer: D
The phrase "as the name implies" points to the word's parts: Greek meta, here meaning change, and morphē, form. The geological use of metamorphic dates from 1833, and Geikie's examples, sandstone and shale "changed from granular into crystalline rocks," match it. A describes how many igneous rocks form, the class in paragraph 3. B describes sedimentary rocks such as sandstone. C describes Geikie's "organically derived" class, such as chalk and coal.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 3, Geikie writes that most igneous rocks "have been in a state of fusion." What does fusion mean in this sentence?
Answer: B
In older science writing, and still in terms such as fusible and heat of fusion, fusion means melting. The context supports it: igneous rocks come from the earth's "internal forces," and Geikie's examples include lava. The word igneous itself comes from Latin ignis, "fire." A applies another meaning of fusion, joining together, which fits nuclear physics or everyday use but not this sentence. C describes how obsidian, one of Geikie's examples, forms, not what fusion means. D describes the breccia and agglomerate at the end of the paragraph.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which word from paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Geikie excerpt is a general academic word rather than a geology term?
Answer: C
Constituent (paragraph 2, "their constituent elements") means one of the parts that make up a whole, and it works across subjects: the constituents of a mixture in chemistry, a senator's constituents in civics. A and B name particular rocks, and D names a class of rocks, so all three belong to geology.
Question 7 of 20 · Short Answer
Choose the two words or phrases in paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Geikie excerpt that are most important to comprehension, and explain why. Then describe, step by step, how you would gather knowledge about one of them on your own, and name a source.
Model answer:Metamorphic and igneous matter most: each paragraph defines one of them, every other sentence explains or illustrates it, and they name the two classes a reader has to tell apart. For metamorphic, I would infer a first meaning from "as the name implies" and "undergone some decided change," consult the glossary of my earth science textbook, which says metamorphic rock forms when existing rock is changed by heat and pressure, verify by rereading paragraph 2 with that meaning (Geikie's sandstone and shale turned into crystalline rock), and use the word in a sentence of my own, such as Marble is a metamorphic rock that forms from limestone.Rubric: 2 points for two justified terms and a complete routine with a named source; 1 point for justified terms or a routine with a step or source missing.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 3 of the lab conclusion draft, the student writes, "The sugar melted fastest in the hottest water." Which revision is accurate?
Answer: B
To dissolve is to spread evenly through a liquid: the sugar, the solute, dissolves in the water, the solvent. To melt is to change from solid to liquid by being heated; sugar begins to melt and break down only at about 186 °C, far hotter than 60 °C water. A and C describe a liquid turning into a gas, which did not happen to the sugar. D names the change from liquid to solid, the opposite of what happened.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 2, the draft says, "The temperature was our dependent variable, and the time was what we controlled." Which revision uses the terms accurately?
Answer: A
The independent variable is the one the experimenters change on purpose (the water temperature: 20, 40 and 60 °C), and the dependent variable is the one they measure (the dissolving time). Controlled variables stay the same: 200 mL of water, one sugar cube, the same stirring. B calls temperature controlled, though it was changed on purpose. C calls temperature dependent, though it was set in advance. D keeps the draft's reversal.
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Paragraph 4 of the draft says, "This data proves our theory that heat makes all substances dissolve faster." Which revision is most accurate?
Answer: D
D fixes all three problems. A hypothesis is a testable prediction; a scientific theory is a broad explanation supported by a large body of evidence, such as the kinetic theory of matter. Three trials at three temperatures can support a claim but not prove it. And one substance, sugar, cannot support a claim about "all substances." A keeps prove and theory. B keeps theory and "all substances." C keeps prove and "all substances."
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 3, the draft reports the 40 °C times as 70, 76 and 73 seconds and says "the average was 76 seconds." What is the accurate mean?
Answer: C
The mean, which science writing usually means by average, is the sum divided by the number of trials: (70 + 76 + 73) ÷ 3 = 219 ÷ 3 = 73 seconds. A is the sum, before dividing by 3. B is the largest trial, the value the draft reported. D is the smallest trial.
Question 12 of 20 · Short Answer
Rewrite paragraph 4 of the draft so that its claim fits the evidence and it uses at least three of these terms accurately: molecules, kinetic energy, collide, solute, solvent, dissolve, hypothesis.
Model answer:These results support our hypothesis that sugar dissolves faster in warmer water: the mean time fell from 121 seconds at 20 °C to 44 seconds at 60 °C. At higher temperatures, water molecules have more kinetic energy, so they move faster and collide with the sugar more often, carrying sugar molecules away from the cube and into the solvent more quickly. Because we tested only one solute, three times at each temperature, we cannot say that heat speeds up dissolving for all substances.Rubric: 2 points for a claim limited to the evidence and three or more terms used accurately; 1 point for an improved claim with fewer than three terms, or one term misused.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which sentence uses inflation accurately in its economics sense?
Answer: B
In economics, inflation is a general rise in prices across the economy over time, so money buys less: at 3 percent, $100 of goods costs $100 × 1.03 = $103 a year later. A describes the price of one product, not prices in general. C describes falling prices, which economists call deflation. D confuses inflation with a company's growth in sales.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which sentence uses erosion accurately?
Answer: C
In earth science, erosion is the wearing away and carrying off of rock and soil by water, wind or ice, which is what deepens a canyon. A describes weathering, the breaking down of rock in place. B describes deposition, the laying down of sediment when the water slows. D describes how an igneous rock forms.
Question 15 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which sentence uses the general academic word allocate accurately?
Answer: A
To allocate is to set aside or assign resources, such as money, time or space, for a particular purpose, as the council does with its budget. B confuses it with located. C confuses it with claimed or concluded, and one trial could not justify either. D confuses it with assembled or gathered; allocate needs something that is assigned.
Question 16 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A student meets the phrase selective breeding in bold in a biology chapter. The sentence does not define it. Which plan shows independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge?
Answer: D
D runs the whole routine on the student's own initiative: infer, consult a subject source, verify and use. Bold type signals that the term is important to comprehension, so C skips a key word. A depends on someone else instead of showing independence. B treats a domain-specific phrase as two separate words; the combination misses its field meaning, that people choose which plants or animals reproduce in order to pass on wanted traits.
Question 17 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Read: Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the opinion of the Court in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Which meaning of opinion fits this sentence?
Answer: A
In law, the opinion of the Court is the written statement that explains a court's decision and its legal reasoning; Warren wrote the unanimous opinion in Brown. B is the everyday meaning, which would wrongly suggest the decision was only a personal view. C is an opinion poll. D is closer to an appraisal. The subject of the sentence tells the reader to choose the legal sense in the dictionary entry.
Question 18 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A student will open a class presentation by introducing the term plate tectonics to listeners who may not know it. Which opening sentence is most accurate?
Answer: B
B defines the term for listeners in precise words: the theory that Earth's outer shell, the lithosphere, is broken into large plates that move slowly. A replaces the definition with vague words (basically, moving around). C is circular, defining the term with itself, and overstates with all. D overstates too: most earthquakes happen near plate boundaries, but some happen inside plates, and a theory explains evidence rather than proving every case.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
The words economic and economical are related but not interchangeable. Explain the difference, and write one accurate sentence for each word.
Model answer:Economic means having to do with the economy or with economics, the production, sale and use of goods and services: The factory closing had serious economic effects on the town.Economical means using money, time or materials carefully, without waste: A bike is an economical way to get to school. Writing "economical effects" for effects on the economy is an error of form, because it uses the word for thrifty in place of the word for the economy. Rubric: 2 points for an accurate distinction and two accurate sentences; 1 point for one accurate sentence or a partly accurate distinction.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
You are preparing for a class debate on whether your city should raise its minimum wage. Name three domain-specific words or phrases that are important to expressing your argument, explain why each matters, and describe how you would gather knowledge about them, naming at least two kinds of sources.
Model answer: (1) Minimum wage, the lowest hourly pay an employer may legally offer, because the debate is about changing it. (2) Cost of living, the amount of money needed for housing, food and other basic needs in a place, because supporters argue that wages should keep up with it. (3) Unemployment rate, the percentage of people in the labor force who are looking for work but do not have jobs, because opponents argue that higher wages could lead some employers to hire fewer workers. I would read the definitions in an economics textbook glossary, check the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics glossary for exact meanings, and then reread a news article on the debate to verify that I understand how each term is used. Rubric: 2 points for three accurate, relevant terms with reasons and a gathering plan with two kinds of sources; 1 point for two terms or a plan with one source.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does L.9-10.6 mean?
L.9-10.6 means that ninth and tenth graders learn and accurately use the general academic words and subject terms that college and career reading, writing, speaking and listening require.
It also asks students to gather knowledge about a word on their own whenever that word matters for understanding a text or for saying exactly what they mean.
What is the difference between general academic and domain-specific words?
General academic words work across many subjects; domain-specific words belong to one field.
Facilitate, subsequent and comprehensive mean much the same in history, science and math. Opportunity cost, igneous and cloture each belong to one field. Some words, such as interest, deposit and work, are both: they have a general meaning and a special one inside a field.
How is L.9-10.6 different from L.8.6?
L.9-10.6 adds two things: a target, words sufficient for the college and career readiness level, and the demand that students gather vocabulary knowledge independently.
In grade 8, students gather knowledge about important words, often with the teacher choosing the words and the steps. In grades 9 and 10, students are expected to decide for themselves which words matter and to run the gathering routine without being prompted.
What does "demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge" look like?
It looks like a student who flags a key word, works out a first meaning, checks a reliable source and uses the word, all without being told to.
Vocabulary logs are the easiest evidence: the student chose the words, gave a reason each one mattered, named a source and wrote an accurate sentence. Worked Example 5 and Activity 2 on this page are built around that kind of evidence.
How is L.9-10.6 different from L.9-10.4?
L.9-10.4 is about working out what an unknown word means; L.9-10.6 is about building and using a working vocabulary.
The strategies of L.9-10.4 (context, word patterns, reference materials, verifying) are the tools inside the gathering routine. L.9-10.6 adds deciding which words are worth that effort, keeping them, and using them accurately in writing and speech.
Which words should students learn for L.9-10.6?
The standard gives no word list; students learn the words that their texts and tasks in every subject require.
Good choices are terms that name the key ideas of a unit, general academic words that appear across classes, and familiar words with a special meaning in a field. A word that appears once and does not affect the main idea is usually not worth a full log entry.
Why does this L.9-10.6 lesson use textbooks from the 1870s and 1880s?
Old textbooks are dense with domain-specific terms, and they show why a current source matters.
Jevons's primer explains barter and money in terms still used today, such as medium of exchange, while Geikie's manual uses classes of rock that current textbooks have regrouped. Checking an old text against a current one is part of gathering vocabulary knowledge.
How is academic vocabulary tested?
Tests usually ask students to choose the meaning of a word or phrase as it is used in a passage.
State tests and the SAT Reading and Writing section both use words-in-context questions of this kind; on the SAT they belong to the Craft and Structure domain. Science, history and math tests also assume students know the field terms in their questions, so accurate use matters beyond English class.
Should students memorize vocabulary lists?
Lists alone rarely produce accurate use; words stick when students meet them in texts and use them in their own writing and speech.
A short list of key terms for a unit can help, as long as each word is learned with its field meaning, an example and a sentence of the student's own, and then used in class.
How can parents help with academic vocabulary at home?
Ask your teenager to explain a term from a class this week, in his or her own words, with an example.
Explaining a word aloud shows whether it has really been acquired. News articles, museum signs and product labels also carry domain-specific terms that are worth talking about together.
07
Related Standards
6 standards
These standards connect to L.9-10.6: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
L.8.6Prerequisite
Acquire and use grade 8 academic and domain words; gather vocabulary knowledge
Lesson coming soon
Alongside
L.9-10.4Parallel
Clarify unknown and multiple-meaning words in grades 9-10 reading, flexibly