Despite strong theoretical and empirical evidence suggesting that word meaning knowledge plays a critical role in word reading, interventions for students with word reading difficulties and disabilities frequently target word reading instruction in isolation. This article connects reading theory to practice by describing one approach to integrate…

All students can benefit from a deeper understanding of how our language works. "Playing With Language" shows elementary school educators (K-6) how to think about, talk about, and manipulate language out of context. This cognitive skill set, known as metalinguistic awareness, is an important component of reading ability. This practical…

Social studies instruction in upper elementary school (Grades 3-5) is important for building foundational content knowledge to equip students for the secondary school curriculum. Due to numerous school initiatives and demands on the time of teachers, social studies instruction can play second fiddle to reading and mathematics instruction, which…

Hundreds of thousands of teachers have used this highly practical guide to help K-12 students enlarge their vocabulary and get involved in noticing, understanding, and using new words. Grounded in research, the book explains how to select words for instruction, introduce their meanings, and create engaging learning activities that promote both…

Adults use linguistic context to assist in understanding words that may have multiple meanings. However, elementary school children are not able consistently to use this method of clarifying ambiguity. Research has shown that a three-component training method can help upper elementary school students develop the use of linguistic context. To…

Fifteen exercises are presented that are intended to increase reading comprehension in seventh and eighth graders via emphasis on word recognition, language comprehension (syntax and semantics), and reasoning skills (including inference, analogies, relationships, and direction following). (CL)

Suggests student writing exercises before, during, and after reading Shakespeare's Henry IV. Cites specific passages, followed by discussion and writing questions centered on the conflict between Henry IV and his son, a "generation gap" theme to which students can easily relate. (HTH)

Explains how semantic webbing (a process for constructing visual displays of categories and their relationships) works with a basal reader story and presents some teaching strategies for effective semantic webbing. (HOD)

The article, the sixth in a series discussing specific tests of the Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude (DTLA), deals with verbal opposites (word meanings in isolation) and verbal absurdities (word meanings in context). (DLS)

An extensive literature review led to the formation of a framework for vocabulary instruction that can be used to analyze the relationship between knowledge of word meanings and comprehension and to suggest more effective means of vocabulary instruction. The framework posits two types of information students hold about words--definitional and…

Classroom activities involving the semantics of novels' titles can also be used for studying historical or cultural information, playing word games, or learning more about the authors. Older or contemporary works can be used, and several print sources are available for ideas and relevant facts. (MSE)

Although knowledge of multimeaning words is important for reading comprehension, deaf readers may know only the most common meanings or nuances of high-frequency multimeaning words. Results of a study are reported in which 33 profoundly hearing impaired students stratified into three equal age groups (ages 10, 11, and 12) were administered a…

Presents a three-stage process for teaching the logical relationships that exist in paragraphs to aid high school students in differentiating main ideas from subordinate statements. (MKM)

Investigates the effects of structural cueing (color or no color) and decision level (rote or semantic) on students' verbatim retention of technical prose and concludes that the results support the distinctiveness of encoding hypothesis for learning via the microcomputer. (DF)

Offers a set of lesson plans that use simple semantic word maps to help students improve their vocabulary knowledge and comprehension in all subject areas. (FL)