For children to become strong readers, they need to learn a huge number of words--at least 100,000 by the time they get to eighth grade. It is impossible to teach that much vocabulary directly; children gain most of their vocabulary indirectly, as their knowledge of the world expands. This article discusses how much of this learning happens…

This study provided workshops for parents on either early literacy or socio-emotional learning to examine the impact on their children's reading and social skills development (n = 576 parents; n = 584 children). Parents of kindergartners were offered interactive workshops designed to help them identify everyday opportunities to support reading…

Academic language includes three skills: (1) use of inferential language (communicating about ideas across contexts); (2) use of narrative language (clearly describing a series of events); and (3) understanding a range of academic vocabulary and grammatical structures. These skills help students better comprehend academic texts both across…

Recent efforts to motivate parents' involvement in their child's literacy development involve informing parents about how to incorporate literacy development into daily routines. Teacher leadership and communication are critical--the more teachers encourage and assist parents and caregivers in supporting their child's literacy development, the…

This paper discusses two reading comprehension strategies for teachers to incorporate into their teaching methods. The paper reviews research and suggests techniques to support these strategies, vocabulary packs and cued spelling. Vocabulary packs, an effective strategy to increase reading comprehension, allow students to work independently on…

Contributors offer suggestions concerning parents as reading stimulators, book discussions, a test bank for the secondary school/college reading lab, standardized reading tests, television reading, plagiarism, vocabulary development, and book reports. (FL)