Free Range Readers

Nurturing Self Reliant Readers and Writers in K-6 classrooms

Academic Vocabulary Matters!

| 0 comments

As I reflect on the systems I want to revisit for reading instruction with my 5th graders this year, I am determined to be more intentional about the place for academic language in my reading lessons. Probably one shift I need to consider is from implicit to more explicit instruction when it comes to academic language. I’ve found the work of Nonie Lesaux and colleagues compelling, and I think some of the ideas put forth in a current book, Cultivating Knowledge, Building Language, makes a ton of sense to me.

Building academic vocabulary

Building academic vocabulary

A big focus this past year was on building volume and stamina in reading with my students. Largely inspired by Donalyn Miller’s work, I implemented the 40 book goal and helped my students achieve it. All but 2 students reached the magic 40 book goal, and the two who did not at least cleared 25 books. I collected a lot of data through their reading logs, which I set up in googledocs. Students regularly reflected on their progress, and it was a rewarding journey for me as well as for them. On an end-of-year survey, several students mentioned that I am a teacher “who makes kids love books” and that made me very happy. BUT……

I am learning that, as important as reading volume is, it is not enough. Most of my students are English language learners and I noticed that as the books become more challenging, a number of them start to dip in their comprehension. By far the biggest challenges to their comprehension are figurative language, content vocabulary, connectives, and morphology.

I was struck by this statement from Lesaux, “Good readers tend to have very large and sophisticated vocabularies in the language in which they are reading. A lot of English language learners are still acquiring that vocabulary, and so they don’t bring with them enough vocabulary to make meaning from the text.”

So, my work is cut out for me. I will be sharing my findings as the year unfolds, and I will see how I can bring about improvements through some focused word study connected to knowledge building. Lesaux and Russ Harris provide structures for intentional teaching of vocabulary that I am eager to try out. Stay tuned!

Author: mnosal

I have been in education for all of my life, in one way or another. After teaching 5th grade at an urban public charter school, I have decided to return to the public schools and to literacy coaching K-5. I also teach and mentor preservice teachers.

Leave a Reply

Required fields are marked *.


Skip to toolbar