Describes vocabulary anchors, a graphic teaching strategy that helps young learners build the conceptual connections they need to understand informational (nonfiction) text. Discusses three essential understandings about early learners and concept development. Offers several examples of using vocabulary anchors in the classroom. (SR)

Notes that in the trend toward literature-based reading programs, teaching other important aspects of reading and language is often neglected. Discusses how teaching about words themselves, and the rhythms, sounds, spellings, combinations and shapes that make them, can enhance reading programs because they increase children's word knowledge,…

Intended for elementary school teachers, researchers, and materials developers, this book presents a cluster approach to vocabulary instruction, in which words are taught in semantically related groups. Over 7,000 words from elementary school textbooks have been organized into 61 instructional clusters, each containing two levels of subclusters…

A study examined whether students already know the meanings of reading vocabulary presented as "new" vocabulary in their basal readers. Subjects, 142 second and fifth grade students from two midwestern school districts, were asked to complete a yes/no test and a multiple choice test of vocabulary in their basal readers at their grade level and at…

Concluded that the incorporation of new words into the educable mentally retarded child's reading vocabulary can be enhanced by the phonological pairing of content and function words. (RB)

Shows how the language experience approach is a useful tool in teaching expository prose structure to elementary school students. (EL)

This book presents a practical approach for assessing children's spelling and word knowledge abilities and offering effective, appropriate instruction. Included in the book is the Developmental Spelling Analysis (DSA), a dictated word inventory that enables teachers to evaluate students' stages of spelling development and their knowledge of…

Examines the effects on the reading comprehension and vocabulary skills of lower socioeconomic status sixth-grade students of a school health curriculum project. (Author/ST)

Examined the use of eye-gaze as a response mode so as to determine whether changes in response modes altered test scores. Testing of 80 children, ages 8-12, revealed no significant difference in response modes, meaning that eye-gaze can be an acceptable response mode for students with severe motor and language disabilities. (RJM)

Investigated relationship of Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) to academic achievement. PPVT-R was correlated with Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised. Findings from 181 elementary school children referred for special education evaluation suggest that the PPVT-R could be used to…

A study tested the effectiveness of precision teaching through a summer pilot project involving four male students between the ages of 6 and 7, all of whom had demonstrated some difficulty with basic reading skills. The 6-week program concentrated on those skills most important to emergent readers, namely, phonic analysis, sight vocabulary and…

Intended for administrators and policymakers as well as teachers, this digest explores the nature of vocabulary and its implications for classroom instruction. After defining vocabulary and discussing some of the sources of English vocabulary, the digest examines how children's vocabularies develop. It then discusses the role of vocabulary…

This paper synthesizes research on vocabulary learning and vocabulary instruction to provide teachers with a basis for using different techniques of vocabulary instruction to improve reading comprehension. The limitations of traditional definition and context-based instruction are discussed in the paper, and principles are outlined which explain…

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…

This study investigated whether reading achievement differed between bilingual and monolingual students in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades in several Texas schools where the Czech-American culture is significant. Selected bilinguals and monolinguals were compared in the factors of sex, age, grade level, reading vocabulary scores, reading…