Can you tell me about your Vocabulary measures?

The tests are designed to be administered no more frequently than once every three to four weeks.

The easyCBM measures are, by design, intended to be “general outcome measures” that assess students’ ongoing mastery of year-long grade-level content rather than “mastery measures” designed to assess students’ memorization of specific narrowly defined content (such as you might find with an end-of-chapter test or a weekly vocabulary assessment designed to assess their memorization of that week’s assigned word list).Thus, it is actually really important that teachers not specifically teach the vocabulary words on the easyCBM measures, as doing so would artificially inflate your students’ scores, and you might find that students who actually really need help might not be identified as needing that help when assessed with the screeners.

Instead, we encourage you to continue to focus your instruction on providing students with exposure to vocabulary-rich texts, with intentional repetition of new vocabulary (through the readings, but also through in-class activities and things like “word boards”) to help students’ internalize the meanings of the new words they are encountering.

There are a variety of strategies you can use to help your students’ improve their vocabulary knowledge. Here are links to several different sites (none of which we are affiliated with) that offer evidence-based suggestions:

http://blog.flocabulary.com/best-practices-k12-vocabulary-instruction

https://theowlteacher.com/increase-students-vocabulary/

https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/strategies-to-improve-students-vocabulary