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…

Responding to readers' stories, questions, and requests for extended examples, this book was developed as a complementary volume to "Bringing Words to Life." The authors present additional tools, tips, and explanations of such questions as which words to teach, when and how to teach them, and how to adapt instruction for English language learners.…

Explains the "Questioning the Author" approach to reading comprehension, which is designed to get students to build understanding of text ideas by becoming actively involved as they read. Suggestions are given for constructing meaning by going back and forth between the text and discussing the ideas. Some examples illustrate the process.…

This book provides a research-based framework and practical strategies for vocabulary development with children from the earliest grades through high school. It emphasizes instruction that offers rich information about words and their uses and enhances students' language comprehension and production. The book guides teachers in selecting words for…

This article reports on 2 studies with kindergarten and first-grade children from a low-achieving elementary school that provided vocabulary instruction by the students' regular classroom teacher of sophisticated words (advanced vocabulary words) from children's trade books that are typically read aloud. Study 1 compared the number of…

Describes how pre-kindergarten through elementary teachers can enhance the vocabulary development of young children, focusing on teaching words from texts that are read aloud to children rather than read by children. Examines sequenced activities for teaching words to young children and activities that encourage children to interact with words,…

Outlines a program of vocabulary development that contains cognitive, affective, and physical elements. Points to test results showing that the program has been effective with fourth grade students. (FL)

Examines instructional procedures found in the preparation and questioning components of directed reading lessons to assist teachers in evaluating these procedures. Background knowledge and vocabulary development were examined in the preparation component; the story map in the questioning component. (Author/NH)

Offers suggestions for improving existing instructional materials found in widely used basal programs and a variety of strategies and engaging activities that teachers can use to help children master the alphabetic code. The authors argue against use of the drill method in reading instruction. (GR)

A vocabulary instruction program for intermediate grades is described. The program improves comprehension through use of such features as multiple exposures to words in various contexts and engaging students in active thinking about word meanings. This method of instruction is compared with instruction that offers only definitional information.…

Designed to improve reading comprehension and other complex verbal functions, fertile instruction in word skill focuses on improving accuracy of word knowledge, increasing fluency of access to meanings in memory, and enriching semantic network connections among related concepts. It is particularly appropriate for teaching the high frequency words…

This paper proposes that phonics and meaning instruction in beginning reading programs can be designed to be mutually supportive. The first section outlines attempts to modify a commercially available reading program in order to provide useful phonics instruction strategies. Students showed strong gains on achievement tests after implementation of…

Two of the most widely used reading programs in the country, the 1976 Houghton Mifflin Reading Series and the 1976 Ginn Reading 720 Series, are analyzed in this volume to determine the methods they suggest for teaching reading comprehension. Eight sections contain the following information: (1) a short description of some of the surface features…