Elementary School Vocabulary IEP Goals

These Common Core aligned vocabulary goals focus on helping students find the meaning of unknown words from context.

Main Idea Goals

Inference Goals

Phonics Goals

Sight Words Goals

Theme & Summary Goals

Reading Level Goals

Vocabulary Goals

Fluency Goals

Letters Goals

Retell Goals

Vocabulary IEP Goals for Elementary School

Using context to figure out the meaning of an unknown word is a big part of the Common Core! That means that there are really similar standards you can draw on for goals all the way from kinder to twelfth grade. So if you are looking for elementary school, middle school, or high school vocabulary goals, we have them all!

There are a few ways to assess the student’s baseline for this goal. The challenge is that the goal is for unknown words–before assessing how well the student can use context clues to figure out what the word means, you first need to establish whether the student already knows the word! 

  • The easiest way is to ask them questions as they read. What does this word mean? How do you know? Are there clues in the text that can help you figure it out? Are there any words in the story that confuse you?
  • You can also look for context clues worksheets– just beware that there are not a ton at the kinder level! Here is one.

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

When listening to a story, Sumona needs support to identify words that she does not know and figure out their meanings. When asked what words are confusing, she will answer that none of them are. When she is asked what some of the more challenging words mean, however, she has difficulty explaining or drawing them. With teacher support, she can use context clues to answer true or false (is it this or that) questions about the word.

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • When listening to a story with new vocabulary, X will ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text, identifying at least one word that is confusing and using context clues to come up with a definition of the word on three of four trials as measured quarterly by a special education teacher using a curriculum-based measure CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.4

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • Add supports for the student
    • After listening to a familiar story,
    • After listening to an unfamiliar story,
    • After listening to a grade-level story or passage,
    • After reading a pre-taught story,
  • Give even more supports
    • and given a graphic organizer,
    • and given multiple choices,
    • and given a copy of the text to look at,
    • and given prompting questions,
  • Change the accuracy or number of trials
    • with 80% accuracy 
    • with 75% accuracy 
    • on two of three opportunities
    • on three of four opportunities
  • Change what the student is asked to do
    • correctly identify two unknown words
    • answer questions about clues in the text that could help him/her figure out what a new word means

One of the nicest things about this standard is that, if you want to, you can use it to work on a student’s emotion vocabulary. You can go a lot of different directions with this standard, so here are some varied assessment ideas!

  • Show the student pictures of people and ask them how the person is feeling. Get a baseline of what emotion words they know and ask how they know what the person is feeling, what clues they see in the picture. 
  • Read a short paragraph to the student with a lot of emotion and ask the student how the person is feeling and how they know. See if you can get them to point to any particular words in the story.
  • Use worksheets like these to assess the student’s word knowledge.

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

When read a story, Damion needs teacher support to identify words he does not know and to figure out their meaning. On his own, he will either skip the word or guess a meaning, such as saying that distress means silly.

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • Easiest, but biggest change from the standard: When looking at pictures of a character from a story, X will identify what the character is feeling from a list of 10 different emotions with 80% accuracy as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.4 
  • Medium, less dramatic change of the standard:  When listening to a story, X will identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings, answering at least three questions about how a character is feeling and supporting his/her response with at least two clues from the story on three of four occasions as measured quarterly by a special educator using a curriculum based measure. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.4 
  • Most challenging:  When listening to a story, X will identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses, identifying at least two feeling and three sensory words in the story on three of four occasions as measured quarterly by a special educator using a curriculum based measure. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.4 

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • Add supports for the student
    • After listening to a familiar story,
    • After listening to an unfamiliar story,
    • After listening to a grade-level story or passage,
    • After reading a pre-taught story,
  • Give even more supports
    • and given a graphic organizer,
    • and given multiple choices,
    • and given a copy of the text to look at,
    • and given prompting questions,
  • Change the accuracy or number of trials
    • with 80% accuracy 
    • with 75% accuracy 
    • on two of three opportunities
    • on three of four opportunities
  • Change what the student is asked to do
    • See above

There are a few ways to assess the student’s baseline for this goal. The challenge is that the goal is for unknown words–before assessing how well the student can use context clues to figure out what the word means, you first need to establish whether the student already knows the word! 

  • The easiest way is to ask them questions as they read. What does this word mean? How do you know? Are there clues in the text that can help you figure it out? Are there any words in the story that confuse you?
  • You can also look for context clues worksheets– here is one

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

When listening to a story, Sadiq needs support to figure out the meaning of new words. When he gets to an unfamiliar word in a story, he will often skip it. When made to sound out the word and asked what it means, Sadiq will often answer that he doesn’t know. He needs prompts and simple choices to choose the definition of the word based on context.

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • When reading a story, X will use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. When asked the meaning of an unfamiliar word in the story and prompted to look at the sentence for clues, X will use the clues to choose the correct definition of the word from three options with 80% accuracy as measured quarterly by a special educator using a curriculum based measure CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.2.4.A

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • Add supports for the student
    • After listening to a familiar story,
    • After listening to an unfamiliar story,
    • After listening to a grade-level story or passage,
    • After reading a pre-taught story,
  • Give even more supports
    • and given a graphic organizer,
    • and given multiple choices,
    • and given a copy of the text to look at,
    • and given prompting questions,
  • Change the accuracy or number of trials
    • with 80% accuracy 
    • with 75% accuracy 
    • on two of three opportunities
    • on three of four opportunities
  • Change what the student is asked to do
    • choose the correct definition of the word from two choices
    • define the word

There are a few ways to assess the student’s baseline for this goal. The challenge is that the goal is for unknown words–before assessing how well the student can use context clues to figure out what the word means, you first need to establish whether the student already knows the word! 

  • The easiest way is to ask them questions as they read. What does this word mean? How do you know? Are there clues in the text that can help you figure it out? Are there any words in the story that confuse you?
  • You can also look for context clues worksheets– here is one

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

When listening to a story, Sadiq needs support to figure out the meaning of new words. When he gets to an unfamiliar word in a story, he will often skip it. When made to sound out the word and asked what it means, Sadiq will often answer that he doesn’t know. He needs prompts and simple choices to choose the definition of the word based on context.

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • When reading a story, X will use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. When asked the meaning of an unfamiliar word in the story and prompted to look at the sentence for clues, X will use the clues to choose the correct definition of the word from three options with 80% accuracy as measured quarterly by a special educator using a curriculum based measure CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.4.A

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • Add supports for the student
    • After listening to a familiar story,
    • After listening to an unfamiliar story,
    • After listening to a grade-level story or passage,
    • After reading a pre-taught story,
  • Give even more supports
    • and given a graphic organizer,
    • and given multiple choices,
    • and given a copy of the text to look at,
    • and given prompting questions,
  • Change the accuracy or number of trials
    • with 80% accuracy 
    • with 75% accuracy 
    • on two of three opportunities
    • on three of four opportunities
  • Change what the student is asked to do
    • choose the correct definition of the word from two choices
    • define the word
  • Use context (e.g., definitions, examples, or restatements in text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.4.A

There are a few ways to assess the student’s baseline for this goal. The challenge is that the goal is for unknown words–before assessing how well the student can use context clues to figure out what the word means, you first need to establish whether the student already knows the word! 

  • The easiest way is to ask them questions as they read. What does this word mean? How do you know? Are there clues in the text that can help you figure it out? 
  • You can also look for context clues worksheets– they vary a lot in how hard they are. This one is medium challenging and this one is pretty hard.

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

Susie is a very good at sounding out challenging words. She struggles, however, when asked what the words mean. When she is prompted to go back to the text and look for clues, she can choose the definition of the word from two choices with 60% accuracy. .

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • When given an unfamiliar passage with at least two unknown words, X will use context (e.g., definitions, examples, or restatements in text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase, choose the correct definition of the word from four options with 80% accuracy as measured by teacher observations and records CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.4.A

 

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • Add supports for the student
    • After listening to a familiar story,
    • After listening to an unfamiliar story,
    • After listening to a grade-level story or passage,
    • After reading a pre-taught story,
  • Give even more supports
    • and given a graphic organizer,
    • and given multiple choices,
    • and given a copy of the text to look at,
    • and given prompting questions,
  • Change the accuracy or number of trials
    • with 80% accuracy 
    • with 75% accuracy 
    • on two of three opportunities
    • on three of four opportunities
  • Change what the student is asked to do
    • choose the correct definition of the word from two choices
    • define the word
  • Use context (e.g., cause/effect relationships and comparisons in text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.5.4.A

There are a few ways to assess the student’s baseline for this goal. The challenge is that the goal is for unknown words–before assessing how well the student can use context clues to figure out what the word means, you first need to establish whether the student already knows the word! 

  • The easiest way is to ask them questions as they read. What does this word mean? How do you know? Are there clues in the text that can help you figure it out? 
  • You can also look for context clues worksheets– they vary a lot in how hard they are. This one is medium challenging and this one is pretty hard.

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

Susie is a very good at sounding out challenging words. She struggles, however, when asked what the words mean. When she is prompted to go back to the text and look for clues, she can choose the definition of the word from two choices with 60% accuracy. .

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • When given an unfamiliar passage with at least two unknown words, X will use context (e.g., cause/effect relationships and comparisons in text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase, choosing the correct definition of the word from four options with 80% accuracy as measured by teacher observations and records CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.5.4.A

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

  • Add supports for the student
    • After listening to a familiar story,
    • After listening to an unfamiliar story,
    • After listening to a grade-level story or passage,
    • After reading a pre-taught story,
  • Give even more supports
    • and given a graphic organizer,
    • and given multiple choices,
    • and given a copy of the text to look at,
    • and given prompting questions,
  • Change the accuracy or number of trials
    • with 80% accuracy 
    • with 75% accuracy 
    • on two of three opportunities
    • on three of four opportunities
  • Change what the student is asked to do
    • choose the correct definition of the word from two choices
    • define the word

Need teaching resources or downloadable Present Levels templates and assessments? Check out the store!