Improving primary grade students’ content area vocabulary through research-based literacy instruction

Abstract

ABSTRACT Primary grade teachers experience heavy pressures from governing bodies to focus on the Science of Reading in literacy instruction, while at the same time reducing content area instruction time by integrating them into the reading block. Instead, the primary grades traditionally focus instructional time on decoding, fluency, and comprehension of fiction texts rather than informational text and disciplinary language. The most current standards expect students in the primary grades to gain higher proficiency with nonfiction texts from various disciplines. Meanwhile, limited instructional time is devoted to disciplinary vocabulary instruction and concept knowledge development in the primary grades, two key factors to comprehension. In this study, primary grade teachers (K-1st) at a Title 1 school and professor of literacy education collaborated in a professional learning community (PLC) offering instructional support, and collaborative peer reflection related to discipline area literacies vocabulary and concept knowledge instruction. After conducting a thorough review of literature related to disciplinary vocabulary instruction we adapted instructional methods for the primary grades. Findings highlight the successes and pitfalls of implementing best-practice instructional research related to vocabulary and concept knowledge literacy instruction in the content areas in the primary grades.