I had been particularly influenced by Wesley Becker's famous Harvard Educational Review article (1977) noting that the impact of early DISTAR success with decoding was muted for reading comprehension in later elementary grades by vocabulary limitations. Becker argued that this was a matter of experience rather than general intelligence by observing that while his DISTAR students' reading comprehension fell relative to more advantaged students by grade 4, their mathematics performance remained high.
- He suggested that the difference was that all the knowledge that is needed for math achievement is taught in school, whereas the vocabulary growth needed for successful reading comprehension is essentially left to the home.
- Disadvantaged homes provide little support for vocabulary growth, as recently documented by Hart and Risley (1995).
- I was further influenced by the finding of my doctoral student, Maria Cantalini (1987), that school instruction in kindergarten and grade 1 apparently had no impact on vocabulary development as assessed by the Peabody vocabulary test. Morrison, Williams, and Massetti (1998) have since replicated this finding.
- This finding is particularly significant in view of Cunningham and Stanovich's (1997) recently reported finding that vocabulary as assessed in grade 1 predicts more than 30 percent of grade 11 reading comprehension, much more than reading mechanics as assessed in grade 1 do.
Teaching Vocabulary:
Early, Direct, Sequential
by Andrew Biemiller
Our schools here teach vocabulary K-8 (don't know about high school).
As with so many other subjects, vocabulary isn't taught systematically; the kids study word lists from whatever they're reading in class.
I imagine vocabulary instruction here would be more effective if they did some form of systematic instruction, too, but I don't know.
We're still struggling through Vocabulary Workshop, which I continue to believe is a dandy series. (Struggling, meaning struggling to find time to do it.)
I'm curious about the Greek and Latin roots approach, too.
non-school factors and math
non-school factors, math, and reading
See this new study: Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap and marvel how the clueless researchers draw all the wrong conclusions since the high SES kids scored higher on the reading comprehension test and made gains during the summer.
ReplyDeleteoh gosh....
ReplyDeleteI am SOOOO tired of watching researchers and journalists draw the wrong conclusions.
If I read one more article about character education at KIPP I'll scream.
I'm having trouble finding time with the Vocabulary Workshop, too. Grade-schoolers are soooo much easier to after-school than middle schoolers.
ReplyDeleteMiddle schoolers are impossible.
ReplyDeleteEd finally told C. last night that if there was any screaming AT ALL he was grounded.
He's never been grounded before, and he took that to heart.
I'm now looking forward to his first serious grounding. That's how obnoxious a middle school kid can be.