Enhanced Vocabulary Instruction: Using Vocabulary to Teach More than Meaning

Abstract

While many students arrive to middle school lacking fundamental reading skills, traditional English language arts curriculum and methods fail to address the needs of struggling readers. In fact, secondary English teachers often focus on helping students understand texts without the students actually reading the texts rather than building students' reading skills. In this article, the author shares a procedure for vocabulary instruction that also promotes phonemic and phonological awareness, phonics, spelling, and orthographic mapping.