How We Learn Vocabulary from Reading Part II
In Part I, I debunked the word list method of vocabulary instruction. The give-them-twenty-words-on-Monday-and-test-on-Friday approach is as American as apple pie, but is also highly inefficient. The...
View ArticleHow to Double Vocabulary Acquisition from Reading Part III
In “The Problem with Most Vocabulary Instruction Part I,” I debunked the inefficient word list method of vocabulary instruction. In “How We Learn Vocabulary from Reading Part II,” I showed how reading...
View ArticleHow Not to Teach Context Clues
To most intermediate, middle, high school, and college teachers, teaching context clues means helping students consciously identify and apply strategies to figure out the meaning of unknown words...
View ArticleHow to Teach Reading Intervention
Teaching reading intervention is qualitatively different from teaching beginning reading. By definition, the initial reading instruction did not “take” to a sufficient degree, so things must be done...
View ArticleContext Clues Vocabulary Review Game
Frequent readers of my blog know that I value context clues instruction and practice to enable students to problem-solve the meanings of unknown words and to increase their vocabularies. Readers also...
View ArticleIndependent Reading Homework
I have always assigned independent reading, usually with the accountability of journals, logs, quizzes, book reports, AR, etc. Success rate has varied depending upon the school. At my current 70% AFDC...
View ArticleFree Instructional Vocabulary Resources
Vocabulary instruction is vitally important to advanced reading comprehension and writing. Words are the foundations of our language. Students learn the words they need to converse, read, and write in...
View ArticleWhy Vocabulary Word Lists Don’t Work
Most of us would agree with reading researchers that vocabulary development is critically important to improving reading comprehension (e.g., Anderson & Freebody, 1981; Baumann, Kame‘enui, &...
View ArticleResearch-Based Vocabulary Worksheets
The two most often-used methods of vocabulary instruction include passing out a vocabulary list to be memorized for the Friday quiz and pre-teaching a few vocabulary words prior to reading. Each method...
View ArticleThe Ideal Vocabulary Worksheets
If you were to create the ideal vocabulary worksheets for your 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th grade students, what would you include? No doubt, the worksheets would be perfectly aligned to the Common Core...
View ArticleContext Clues in Reading and Writing
We teachers love a bargain. Especially a “two-for one” bargain. the two for one skill which can be used in more than one context. We are all about efficiency! Context clues strategies provide that...
View ArticleDon’t Teach Reading Comprehension
Don’t Teach Reading Comprehension Okay, I’ll admit it; the article title is a bit of an attention grabber. However, as an MA reading specialist and author of plenty of reading programs over the years,...
View ArticleHow to Practice Reading Comprehension
Don’t Teach Reading Comprehension Well, I stirred up somewhat of a ruckus with my companion article titled “Don’t Teach Reading Comprehension” and I think I understand why. Admittedly, the hook is...
View ArticleHow to Teach Greek and Latin Word Parts Vocabulary
How to Teach Greek and Latin Word Parts Earlier in my teaching career I taught SAT/ACT preparation courses on the side. No, not the math. In checking out all of the SAT prep books I found page after...
View ArticleHow to Teach Academic Language Vocabulary
How to Teach Academic Language It’s been a while (2009) since I’ve read the carefully-crafted Appendix A of the Common Core State Standards. Not light bedtime reading, but reading is the subject of...
View ArticleHow to Teach Word Relationships Vocabulary
How to Teach Word Relationships In Appendix A of the Common Core State Standards, the authors discuss the importance of learning new vocabulary in the context of word relationships. To deeply...
View ArticleHow to Teach Connotations: Shades of Meaning Vocabulary
How to Teach Connotations Shades of Meaning Some of our English words are quite imprecise. Whereas the Greeks have at least four words for love, we only have one. How crazy is it that we can say, “I...
View ArticleHow to Teach Figures of Speech Vocabulary
How to Teach Figures of Speech “Walk through the door and into my room. Chill in your seat until I can take care of this business. I swear I feel like I’m casting all my pearls before swine,” said the...
View ArticleHow to Teach Multiple Meaning Words Vocabulary
How to Teach Multiple Meaning Words From an old vaudeville act: “You drove me to drink!” her husband shouted. “No, you walked there yourself every night,” his wife responded. This mildly humorous...
View ArticleBooks for Struggling Readers
Books for Struggling Readers As a reading specialist, I’ve had the opportunity to work with students at the full spectrum of age groups from preK to adult ed. My passion has always been to help...
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