Teaching Methods

Teaching Methods

Literacy & Elementary Reading

What does vocabulary mean in the school system today? Why it is eminent that out student’s learn and practice their vocabulary so that they may excel in their vocabulary usage? The answers to these questions are vital knowledge.

Vocabulary is one of the five pillars of reading comprehension as set forth in the No Child Left Behind legislation. A strong vocabulary is vital to communicating with others and understanding what one is reading. Vocabulary is important to a child’s basic learning skills. Reading comprehension depends upon the meaning readers give words. The more vocabulary words students know, the better they are able to comprehend. A large vocabulary opens students up to a wider range of reading materials. A rich vocabulary also improves students' ability to communicate through speaking, listening, and writing.

Assessment of vocabulary is critical for identifying children at risk for reading problems and for designing appropriate for instruction. Vocabulary can be assessed orally. The two ways to measure vocabulary are expressive and receptive. Expressive vocabulary involves using or naming a word, as when the examiner shows a picture to a student and asks them to name it. Receptive vocabulary involves understanding of spoken words, for instance, asking a child to point to a picture that represents a word spoken by the examiner. Both expressive vocabulary assessments and receptive vocabulary assessments should be included in a comprehensive assessment for optimum results.

Five different ways vocabulary can be taught effectively are:

1. Interactive Read Aloud: This is where a teacher or parent reads aloud from a book so that they may deliver a higher rate of rare words that children would not normally be exposed to in general conversation. By exposing them to different texts, teachers or parents are directly affecting the number of words their child will hear in a year, which...