This companion guide is intended to be used in conjunction with the Socio-Emotional Learning (SEL) Integration Approach School Leader and Educator Self-Reflection Tools. This companion guide focuses on the following area of reflection: Teach vocabulary, skills, and strategies related to SEL in explicit ways that involve input from and…

Evidence strongly suggests that shared book reading at home and in preschool is important for young children's development of the foundational skills required for the eventual mastery of decoding and comprehension. Yet the nuances of how learning from book reading might vary across these contexts and with children's skills are not well understood.…

The following pointers can help people learn and remember new words. First, try to guess the meaning of the word from the way it's used. At least part of a word's meaning can be determined from the context of the sentence. To find out exactly what the word means and where it comes from, look it up in a dictionary. To get at the meaning behind the…

A language arts unit on the shape "round" is described. Useful materials, references, and activities are suggested. (MT)

Offers examples of innovative approaches to teaching the new microcomputer vocabulary. (Available from: Modern Learning Publishers, Inc., 6517 Liggett, Oakland, CA 94611, $14.) (AEA)

This article presents a checklist that teachers and other education professionals can use when deciding which instructional materials to include in their content area instruction. The checklist addresses several considerations, such as the learners' prior knowledge, vocabulary levels, and motivation. In addition, characteristics of the text…

Discusses techniques for teaching meaning vocabulary and describes the advantages of one commercially produced vocabulary program. (DD)

This resource booklet, intended for teachers, contains practical suggestions for promoting vocabulary enhancement in the classroom. The booklet lists and explains a number of common and less common vocabulary-building strategies and techniques, including Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy, Color Shock, Clusters, ABC Books, Anagrams, Word Banks,…

The magic square technique is a useful and enjoyable method for helping social studies students at all levels to learn new vocabulary. (RM)

Spoken Words, a modified language experience approach to the study of vocabulary, offers college instructors an opportunity to individualize vocabulary instruction and to demonstrate a variety of the most powerful vocabulary learning strategies in a natural language setting. To implement Spoken Words, the teacher must first model the procedure by…

Presents the results of the Best Teaching Idea contest that sparked a response that flooded the editors with entries. Here are the 20 adjudged the best ranging all the way from self-made computers to games made by kids to be played with parents. (Editor/RK)

Extracts guidelines from research for incorporating vocabulary instruction into the everyday routines of the classroom. (EL)

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…

Children who are reading well as they enter first grade usually have extensive vocabularies and good retention. Teachers should assess the students' various levels of reading ability (word recognition and comprehension) to plan a program with differentiated methods. (CL)

Proposes modifying standard readability formulas, such as the Fry and Flesch, by determining which words in a given passage would be taught as vocabulary words. These words are given the value of one syllable. In examples using this method, the readability is reduced from eighth to fourth grade. (KC)