Reading components work together. Increasing skill on any component
affects skill on the others.RR
Word Meaning and More Word Meaning
- Most (68%) plan to continue their education at
area colleges. However, they will hit a wall in their ability to understand
more advanced texts that may not offer enough supporting vocabulary
and familiar contexts to help the reader understand words they may
not know or know well enough.
- When asked how many hours a week they read any
reading materials for pleasure (newspapers, magazines, etc.), 19%
reported less than 1 hour/week; 32% read between 1 and 3 hours/week.
About half of this group is not reading very much at all and what
they are reading is not challenging their present word knowledge.
So, even though they are good readers, their outside reading is not
doing much to increase their vocabulary. They will benefit from direct
instruction of vocabulary, especially of words they will need to know
if they want to go on to higher education.
- Assess their familiarity with words on the Academic
Word List.
- Teach the use of the thesaurus to find synonyms or other word
substitutions.
- Review prefixes and suffixes to show how they predictably change
the meaning of root word.
For more information on strategies for instruction and supporting research,
please read the section in the Mini-Course on Word
Meaning.