Would you like to expand your child’s vocabulary? When I am reading aloud, I will often define a word as I am reading it. Many times, I will provide visual cues to go with unfamiliar words so the child can get a “picture” in their mind of the word. With regard to vocabulary expansion, I am more spontaneous in my choice of specific words and wanted to find concrete criteria for vocabulary selection.
I found an interesting article titled Selecting Words for Instruction During Primary Read-alouds (2015) by Karen J. Kindle. This article explored how how to identify words that teacher selected for instruction during read-alouds in the classroom and how what the teacher’s rationales were in selecting these words. Why is this topic important? Vocabulary growth during read-alouds is important because learning specific vocabulary is crucial for academic, social and daily communication needs. The more vast our lexicon is, the better we can communicate and express ourselves.
The study by Karen Kindle (2015) was conducted with four elementary school teachers including one kindergarten teacher, one first grade teachers and two second grade teachers. All teachers were different with regard to their age, experiences and philosophies of teaching. They were not given any criteria to follow during the observations. and were motivated to participate in the study.
To learn more about this article and read tips about expanding vocabulary during a read aloud with your child, check out my ebook here.
Resource:
Kindle, Karen J. “Selecting Words for Instruction During Primary Read-alouds.” Reading Horizons 54.1 (2015): 52-77. Web.