Advanced Vocabulary for Critical Thinkers: Accelerating Literary and Academic Vocabulary Acquisition Grades 6-12

Dates: 10/6/2026, 11/17/2026, 1/5/2027 Grades: 6-12 Venue: Online via Zoom Time:  9:00am - 2:30pm ET (with a 45 minute break for lunch) Presenter(s): TBA Early Bird Discount Price: $480 (Until September 1, 2026) Regular Price: $600

Course Overview: 

This course gives secondary educators high-leverage, research-based frameworks to accelerate the vocabulary acquisition essential for college and career readiness. Moving beyond basic word lists, participants explore tier-two and tier-three academic terms through disciplinary inquiry and explicit instructional routines. The course dives into advanced morphology and etymology — empowering teachers to help students decode the Greek and Latin roots of academic language — and culminates in designing knowledge-rich text sets that build critical thinking and prepare students for high-level academic discourse.

Learning Objectives

• Build Student Discourse: Integrate complex academic and literary vocabulary into high-level classroom discussions and writing through research-based strategies.

• Leverage Linguistic Knowledge: Use morphology and etymology to teach students how to deconstruct unfamiliar, multi-syllabic academic terms across content areas.

• Design Synergistic Text Sets: Build knowledge-rich text clusters that introduce vocabulary in context, moving students from surface recognition to conceptual mastery.

• Strengthen Independent Word Learning: Balance explicit word study with incidental learning to close the "word gap" in diverse secondary classrooms.