Vocabulary Across the Curriculum: Assignments - Application To Your Instructional Area

1. Determine the number of new terms introduced in your textbook or course.
2. Develop an example showing the importance of learning a new term introduced in your course.
3. Determine what kind of identifying characteristic(s) most of the terms have in your subject area. Give an example of as many different kinds of identifying characteristics as you can find in your textbook.
4. What kind of definition is required to understand the information in your course: general, professional, or technical.
5. Determine what percent of the test question on your tests measure knowledge of the term’s used in your course definition.
6. Construct the different kinds of test questions that measure know of the a term’s definition.
7. Construct the different kinds of test questions that measure the ability to recognize an example of a term introduced in your course.
8. Determine how many definition and example questions are on your tests.
9. For your course, what happen if...

   a. Your class has a prerequisite course and the instructor of the prerequisite course does not cover all of the vocabulary terms

   b. The students do not know how many terms they must learn in your course.

   c. At the beginning of the course, assignments are made at the middle or end of the textbook.

   d. The students are not required to learn all of the new terms introduced in the first few chapters of the textbook.

   e. Your class is a prerequisite course and you do not cover all of the required vocabulary terms.

   f. The textbook does not give definitions and/or examples of the terms introduced.

   g. Your tests do not have any vocabulary or example question.

   h. The definition questions are graded separately on your tests.

   i. The students do not know how to learn the meaning of the new terms in your course.

   j. A student graduates from your program and on the job interview he or she cannot use or understand the vocabulary covered in your program.

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