lesson
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Imagine reading a science article about space and finding this sentence: "Scientists demonstrate how gravity pulls objects together."
You do not need a dictionary to crack words like demonstrate. These are academic words—smart words that pop up in science, history, and math texts to explain ideas clearly.
General Academic Words (Tier 2 vocabulary) are cross-curricular words like indicate, significant, transform, and insufficient that appear across many different subjects.
These differ from domain-specific (Tier 3) terms, which belong only to a specific topic—such as photosynthesis or metamorphosis in science.
General Academic Words (Tier 2 vocabulary) are cross-curricular words that appear across many informational subjects, such as indicate, significant, transform, and insufficient.
These are distinct from domain-specific words (Tier 3), which belong strictly to one specialized subject, like photosynthesis or metamorphosis.
📊Interactive diagram
How do you figure out what an academic word means when you are in the middle of reading?
Strategy 1: Look for Context Clues
You can systematically find clues using the IDEAS Context Clue Strategy:
• I – Inference: Infer meaning from the overall logic and tone of surrounding text.
• D – Definition/Restatement: The author directly defines the term using commas, dashes, or phrases like is defined as.
• E – Example: Concrete illustrations follow signals such as for example, such as, or including.
• A – Antonym/Contrast: Opposites are signaled by contrast words like however, unlike, or in contrast.
• S – Synonym/Comparison: Similar words are linked by connectors like or or similarly.
Context clues are hints the author leaves in the sentences right around a tricky word. Authors often give definitions, show examples, or use opposites to help you understand.
Look at this sentence: "The volcano's power was immense; in fact, the explosion was so huge that people heard it 100 miles away." The words huge and 100 miles away clue you in that immense means extremely large or powerful.