Vocabulary plays a critical role in learning to read and in reading comprehension. In this month’s newsletter, you’ll find featured articles on effective vocabulary instruction, classroom strategies, content area vocabulary, the role of read alouds in building word knowledge, and more. Browse our complete library of vocabulary resources for more articles, research briefs, parent tips, and video clips.
A veteran teacher describes how she used visualization, Google images, video, and Skype to build background knowledge and enrich her students' classroom read aloud of a fiction book about ospreys.
Semantic gradients are a great way to deepen children’s nuanced understanding of related words. Go inside Cathy Doyle's second grade classroom to observe how a recent class read-aloud, The Seed Is Sleepy, becomes the springboard for a lively discussion about words that describe the (massive vs. gigantic and tiny vs. microscopic). See more vocabulary strategies, such as list-group-label and words maps.
Teaching vocabulary is complex. What words are important for a child to know and in what context? In this excerpt from Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction, the authors consider what principles might be used for selecting which words to explicitly teach.
Vocabulary lies at the heart of content learning. Educators Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey talk about effective strategies to support word learning in the content areas: give students time to read widely, intentionally select words worthy of instruction, model their own word solving strategies, and provide students with opportunities to engage in collaborative conversations.
"Dialogic reading" means having a conversation around the text you are reading aloud together. Learn how to use this strategy to help kids build vocabulary and verbal fluency skills — and to understand the structure of a story and its meaning. Downloadable handouts to help guide parents in using dialogic reading are available in English and 14 other languages.
Try our self-paced course module on teaching vocabulary. Dive deep into word learning strategies, indirect vocabulary instruction, choosing words to teach, academic vocabulary, and more. Test your knowledge with a pre- and post-test.
Achieve the Core has curated a rich collection of lessons, text sources, classroom video, and more to support reading instruction. Some examples are linked below; see the full set on their Reading Accelerators page.
Virtual Teaching Resource Hub: including lesson templates, instructional activities, tips on managing behavior and attention, and tech tools (University of Florida Literacy Institute)
Educators Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie discuss what they’ve learned about effective distance teaching and learning in developing their new book, The Distance Learning Playbook, Grades K-12, including how to accelerate learning, managing reading volume, and the infusion of social and emotional learning strategies.
Browse our guide to supporting all learners, families, and educators. You’ll find a rich library of resources, including lessons plan collections, distance teaching strategies, resources on social-emotional learning, ideas for strengthening school-home partnerships, news stories, and more, updated weekly. (Produced in partnership with NEA)
Do you know any kids who are fascinated by numbers and love to count, puzzle out fractions, and measure stuff? On our companion site, Start with a Book, we've gathered up a great collection of books, activities, apps, and kid-friendly websites for learning all about math and measuring.
Discover simple at-home activities you can use to help your child understand the connection between the letters of the alphabet and the sound associated with each letter. (In English and Spanish)
Children learn when they make connections between what they hear or read and what they already know. One method parents can use to help make these connections is called a "think aloud," where you talk through your thoughts as you read. (In English and Spanish)
This year is the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment — guaranteeing women the right to vote! Children’s author Barb Rosenstock newest picture book, Fight of the Century: Alice Paul Battles Woodrow Wilson for the Vote, introduces kids to the ways that women fought for justice and changed our country. Continuing the work for justice requires hope, effort, leadership, and persistence, traits to be encouraged in all children, this year, and always. In this new blog post for Book Life, Rosenstock offers a few simple activities for budding activists!
Thanks to Frances Perkins, Fighter for Workers’ Rights, the new picture book by Deborah Hopkinson, celebrates the life and work of Perkins, the first female Labor Secretary, who had a pivotal role in crafting the New Deal, including the Social Security Act. More than a picture book biography, Hopkinson wanted to “connect [Perkins’] life and accomplishments to children’s real-life experiences." And so the book asks children to think of their own lives, and what they will do to tackle hard problems and help make their communities and their world more fair, just, and inclusive. Learn more about what inspired Hopkinson to write this book about a most remarkable woman!
October is Learning Disabilities and Dyslexia Awareness Month. During this month, Reading Rockets asks each of you to teach one person one new thing about learning disabilities. If you find an interesting article or resource here, consider passing it along to a friend, family member, or colleague.
Understanding Dyslexia Toolkit: Thisguide helps parents and educators learn about dyslexia and how to support the literacy development of students with dyslexia. (National Center on Improving Literacy)
Learning Ally: Browse the extensive library of audiobooks for kids, including literature, popular fiction and curriculum-aligned titles.You'll also find educator tools and resource to help struggling readers become engaged, independent learners.
In this special Reading Rockets video series, experts answer real questions from families about reading and how to support your children at home. In one video, reading expert Linda Farrell answers a parent’s question, “Why can't my child re-read a word in a sentence that he just sounded out?”
If you'd like to ask a question about how to help your striving reader, please write to us at: info@readingrockets.org
In this recent blog post from Tim Shanahan, he says that the best seatwork activities will guide students to engage the meaning of the text more deeply. That’s why many worksheets and centers simply don’t work very well. To complete them it usually isn’t necessary to think much about the text. What kinds of activities fit the bill? Here are a few that can be done with any texts that the students are trying to read. The key is to focus them on key parts of the text or language that you suspect will trip kids up.
Decodable text is a type of text used in beginning reading instruction. Decodable texts are carefully sequenced to progressively incorporate words that are consistent with the letter–sound relationships that have been taught to the new reader. This list of links includes decodable text sources for students in grades K-2, 3-8, and older students.
News and Events
IDA Annual Conference [Virtual] Reading, Literacy and Learning: Advancing Every Classroom Through the Science of Reading November 13-14, 2020
Reading Rockets is a national educational service of WETA, the flagship public television and radio station in the nation's capital. The goal of the project is to provide information on how young kids learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring adults can help. Reading Rockets is supported in part by the Poses Family Foundation and Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes.
Send your questions, comments, or suggestions to readingrockets@weta.org. Our mailing address is WETA/Reading Rockets, 2775 S. Quincy St., Arlington, VA 22206. We look forward to hearing from you!
