Building Strong Vocabularies to Empower Students to Express Themselves
by: Ms. Sarah
The Importance of Vocabulary
Strong and robust vocabularies prepare students to be fluent readers, and, allow them to be effective academic and career communicators. When engaged and interested, students are often ready to tackle and acquire new words. While the word coincidence is labeled as an 8th-grade level word, there is no reason that a sixth, seventh, or even third grader should not learn this word, if he or she is able (Beck et. al., 2013). Selecting the Right Vocabulary Words
When reading to your child, you may find that your child may not understand all the words on a page. In this situation, it might seem impossible to know which words you should teach your child. Should you explain every single word that is unfamiliar? Or perhaps you should only explain the most common words? Should you try a book with easier vocabulary?
While selecting appropriate vocabulary words from a favorite book or story may seem confusing, it is easy to accomplish. Parents can aim to help the student become a more fluent reader and more effective communicator by answering the two questions below.
- 1. How useful is the word? Can the word help the student describe his or her own experience?
- 2. How well does the word connect to other ideas, concepts, or issues that the student is learning? (Beck et. al., 2013).
These steps can guide parents to identify essential words from any book, story, or article in order to not only teach vocabulary but moreover, to empower students to be engaged learners, and help their children be better able to express their world to others.
See how I build vocabulary using by bringing words to life!
References
Beck, I. L., Kucan, L., & McKeown, M. G. (2013). Bringing Words to Life, Second Edition :
Robust Vocabulary Instruction: Vol. 2nd ed. The Guilford Press.
Comments
Post a Comment