Literacy,

Leora Heitlinger 

Literacy Learning Specialist.

Good Afternoon,

My article today is a continuation of the exploration of the ‘Big 6’ in reading. Today’s specific topic is Vocabulary.

Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and their meanings. Paris (2005) identifies vocabulary as one of the unconstrained skills, meaning that it is a skill that we continue to develop over our life time.

HOW DOES VOCABULARY RELATE TO READING?

When successful, students…

• Can use a range of strategies to predict the meaning of new words.
• Can activate meaning-related words automatically.
• Can use meaning to support comprehension.
• Can recognise and understand prefixes; un,dis,de,pre,sub,inter,trans,super,semi,anti.
• Can understand and use Latin roots; port, form,rupt,script etc.

When having difficulties, students…

• Are unable to link words sounded out to a known word eg shared aspects of word meanings.
• May struggle with comprehension.
• Use a limited range of words in writing.

Teaching Tips

Keep it Fun! Looking words up in a dictionary is only a small part of vocabulary study.

Words chosen for study should be meaningful and ideally come from texts that they are reading. They should also be words that they will use in their reading and writing in the future.

It should be about discovery and it should be about learning from each other and doing their own research, learning all about and having fun with words. Below is an example of discovering the word blue and all its different meanings depending on a context.

Happy Reading,

Leora Heitlinger