Reading comprehension
For beginning readers, much of the vocabulary in the books they read will be Tier 1 words from their oral language. At this stage, children’s oral language and listening comprehension may be above the level of difficulty of the words they can read.
Vocabulary in books read aloud To extend young children’s vocabulary, the meaning of new words can be introduced when reading aloud from either literature or information books, and also in everyday conversations with children. Select about three new words from a book or around a topic of conversation, and introduce the words in context—perhaps by reading the book then going back to explore the words, explaining the meaning of the new words in childfriendly language and then using the words in another context. After this, the children can provide examples of the words in another context. The following steps are useful when reading aloud to extend children’s vocabulary.
1 2 3 4 5 6
Read the book to contextualise the word. Children repeat the word (‘Say the word with me’). Explain the meaning of the word in everyday language. Give examples of the word in a context other than that of the story. Children use the word in their own example. Say the word again.
For example, when reading a book on spiders the teacher might select the word predator because the meaning may be unclear to the children. The book is read and then the meaning of the word is described. Teacher: The word predator means hunter, a creature who hunts for food to eat. A spider is a predator. Lions are predators because they hunt animals like deer to eat. Can you think of a sentence with the word predator? Child 1: A snake is a predator because it catches mice to eat. Child 2: A big fish is a predator hunting small fish.
Vocabulary in everyday conversations While vocabulary instruction can occur during reading aloud, there are many opportunities to extend vocabulary in everyday conversations. In the following examples, the children were exploring the topic of water and lists of words or word walls were created to build vocabulary to describe water.
219