Practice Brief-Struggling Readers.pdf

elevant characteristics of successful and struggling readers in the area ofvocabulary knowledge.Successful readers• Are exposed to a breadth of vocabularywords in conversations and print at homeand at school from a very early age.• Have word consciousness.• Understand most words when they arereading (at least 90%) and can makesense of unknown words to build theirvocabulary knowledge.• Learn words incrementally, throughmultiple exposures to new words.• Have content-specific prior knowledgethat helps them understand how wordsare used in a particular context.Struggling readers• Have limited exposure to new words.• May not enjoy reading, and therefore donot select reading as an independentactivity.• May lack word consciousness, includingan awareness of the complex and variednature of words in written and orallanguage.• Are unable to comprehend consistentlywhat they read or to learn new wordsfrom reading.• Lack the variety of experiences andexposures necessary to gain deepunderstanding of new words.• Often have limited content-specific priorknowledge that is insufficient to supportword learning.Instructional Practices Associated withImproved Vocabulary KnowledgeEffective vocabulary instruction engages students in developing wordconsciousness. Word consciousness requires a deep knowledge of specificwords. It also requires skill in “figuring out” new or unfamiliar words basedon knowledge of similar words or word classes (Graves, 2006). Vocabularyinstruction can be divided into three areas: (1) Additive vocabulary instructionfocuses on teaching specific words; (2) Generative vocabulary instructionteaches word-learning strategies, which allow for independent word learning;and (3) Academic vocabulary instruction addresses word learning and wordlearningstrategies in specific academic content areas. These strategies areeffective for teaching vocabulary to all students. They may be particularlyeffective for supporting students with learning disabilities (LD) (Bryant,Goodwin, Bryant, & Higgins, 2003; Jitendra, Edwards, Sacks, &Jacobson, 2004).15