and nonliteral language:
Think aloud using a shared text (or screen or under a document camera) to highlight in one color literal language—and in another color nonliteral language, discussing how they are different and how they lead to overall understanding of the text.
Identify nonliteral language and discuss what it means within the text; then determine the literal meaning of those words; then model, or ask students, to determine, in light of how they are used, the figurative or nonliteral meaning.
Continue to explicitly draw attention to literal and nonliteral language in shared texts.
To determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words in a text:
Show students how to make use of any textual features—sidebars, captions, typography (is the word in bold and thus in the glossary), diagrams, footers, or glossaries in the chapter or in the appendix.
Teach students, when appropriate, the root words or etymology of certain subject-specific words (bio = life, ology = study of) as part of the study of any discipline.
To help your English language learners, try this:
Create pictures for words and visual representations for figurative language. Use these words as often as possible, speaking them aloud so students hear them used in context and pronounced correctly. Write words, model pronunciation, and provide opportunities for students to use it often in context.
Preparing to Teach
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Preparing the Classroom
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Preparing the Mindset
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Preparing the Texts to Use
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Preparing to Differentiate
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Connections to Other Standards:
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Common Core Reading Standard 4: Academic Vocabulary: Key Words and Phrases
Allude to significant characters found in mythology: Allude means to make an indirect reference or to hint at. By alluding to characters found in mythology, the writer wants the reader to infer their key points. For example, Hercules was beyond the mortal man as far as strength. Therefore a Herculean task alludes to an enormous task—something beyond the ordinary—similarly, Achilles’ Heel alludes to a fatal weakness.
Connotative meanings: Words have primary or literal meaning; some also have a secondary or connotative meaning, which implies an additional idea or feeling related to the word or phrase.
Domain specific: Within each discipline or branch of that discipline, certain words (cell, division) have a domain-specific use in, for example, biology; other words, however, are unique to that discipline and are thus essential for students to know in order to read, discuss, and write about complex texts in that subject.
Figurative meanings: Figures of speech (or figurative language) are those often colorful ways we develop of saying something; they include euphemism, hyperbole, irony, understatement, metaphor, simile, personification, and paradox, among others. Some of them are specific to an era, region, or social group and thus can confuse readers.
General academic: In the CCSS, these are considered “tier 2” words—they are found in written texts and are vocabulary shared between teachers and students. These words lead to a “rich” vocabulary and are often words found in the thesaurus that students can substitute for common words. These words are more precise or subtle forms of familiar words and include multiple meaning words.
Interpret: This is best understood as a way a reader explains to himself—or another—his understanding of a piece or whole of a text; it’s the act of putting an author’s text into more accessible familiar language.
Literal from nonliteral language: Literal language is factual and explicit, the reader does not need to infer to glean the meaning. Nonliteral language implies figurative language—often similes,
