As part of the course readings in fulfillment of the New Literacies Global Learning Masters program at North Carolina State University I read many professional research articles and textbooks. Please find below four textbook chapters that directly relate to the vocabulary and comprehension.
Chapter 8 Developing Vocabulary Concepts in Content Area Reading by Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz (2016) provides teachers with ways to activate students' prior knowledge about concepts, demonstrates how to use graphic organizers to heighten students' understanding of content area concepts, and implement strategies that can support students in refining their knowledge of discipline-specific vocabulary.
Vacca, R. T., Vacca, J. A. L., & Mraz, M. E. (2016). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum. Pearson.
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Chapter 12 Vocabulary and Oral Language Development in Early Intervention for Reading Difficulties helps teachers become attuned to the language challenges that children encounter while reading or listening to text and to focus on the development of knowledge of word meanings (vocabulary) and familiarity with sentence structure (syntax).
Scanlon, D. M., Anderson, K. L., & Sweeney, J. M. (2016). Early intervention for reading difficulties: The interactive strategies approach. Guilford Publications.
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In Chapter 9 of Best Practices in Vocabulary Instruction the authors explain we are all vocabulary teachers when we work with students in classrooms. They recommend following the five evidence-based guidelines for transforming our classrooms into homes for "motivated word learners whose interest and skill in learning new words will grow along with their vocabularies.".
There are four components of effective vocabulary instruction: the teacher provides and engages students in rich and varied language activities; the teacher teaches individual, general academic, and domain-focused vocabulary, the teacher develops students' independent word-learning strategies, and the teacher stimulates and develops word consciousness. Mandel Morrow, L., Gambrell, L. B., & Pressley, M. (2011). Best practices in literacy instruction.
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"Building a Vocabulary Program That Really Could Make a Significant Contribution to Students Becoming College and Career Ready" is the promising title of the chapter all about vocabulary research and instruction.
According to the research done on vocabulary instruction "not a lot of vocabulary instruction is taking place in our classrooms, the instruction that does occur tends to be thin, that it does not reflect the research literature, and that it has not changed much over a 50-year period." The authors provide a four-part framework to guide instruction and make recommendations for a comprehensive vocabulary program that includes nine topics key to the development of vocabulary instruction. Pearson, P. D., & Hiebert, E. H. (Eds.). (2015). Based Practices for Teaching Common Core Literacy. Teachers College Press.
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