National Institute for Literacy - Assessment Strategies & Reading Profiles - Suggestions for Instruction: Profile 2

Reading components work together. Increasing skill on any component affects skill on the others.^RR

Word Meaning and More Word Meaning

Most (68%) of Profile 2 learners plan to continue their education at area colleges. However, they will hit a wall in their ability to understand more advanced texts, which may not offer enough supporting vocabulary and familiar contexts to help these readers 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 this Mini-Course on Word Meaning.

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	Description of the ARCS Comparison Profile 2



	Suggestions for Instruction for Profile 2 Learners



	Additional Profile 2 Information from the Research



	Comparison of the Three Profiles in the GED Group



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