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Effective Academic Vocabulary Instruction in the Urban Middle School
Author(s) -
Kelley Joan G.,
Lesaux ie K.,
Kieffer Michael J.,
Faller S. Elisabeth
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the reading teacher
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.642
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1936-2714
pISSN - 0034-0561
DOI - 10.1598/rt.64.1.1
Subject(s) - vocabulary , mathematics education , reading comprehension , curriculum , mainstream , psychology , reading (process) , literacy , vocabulary development , comprehension , pedagogy , teaching method , computer science , linguistics , philosophy , theology , programming language
In urban middle schools, educators find it challenging to meet the literacy needs of the many struggling readers in their classrooms, including language‐minority (LM) learners and students from low‐income backgrounds. One strategy for improving these students' reading comprehension is to teach essential academic vocabulary in a meaningful, engaging, and systematic way. This article describes the development and evaluation of an academic vocabulary curriculum for sixth‐grade mainstream classrooms with large numbers of LM learners who struggle with comprehension. In a study conducted in 21 sixth‐grade classrooms, the curriculum was found to be effective both in improving students' vocabulary and reading comprehension and in supporting teachers' learning about how to teach academic vocabulary. Seven universal learnings for all classrooms are described and illustrated with specific examples of activities, perspectives from teachers, and insights from students, drawn from the study.