Lily Wong Fillmore argued that native English speaking teachers take Language for granted. Those who know English well, may not understand that students “who are speakers of varieties of English––[may] find the academic registers used in texts to be more difficult to untangle than do speakers of “standard English” who
In their introduction to the 2015, Perspectives on Language and Literacy Journal, Berg and Buckerfield introduced the issue with, Vocabulary Research Meets the Classroom. They stated, “the examination of how to effectively teach vocabulary so that our students are equipped with the word knowledge necessary, not to simply survive, but to
In a previous post, I wrote about encouraging students to look inside of words for spelling patterns. In this week’s post, I am directing students to look inside of words again, but this time we are focusing on smaller words, words that are considered Anglo-Saxon base words. I then explain
It’s important for teachers to know the current levels of their students in order to enhance effective literacy instruction. There are many screening tools provided by the school system as well as informal assessment that teachers purchase for additional information about the student. Although my school system provided me with
As we get closer to the summer break, I want to get my students hooked on a couple of books that I expect them to read over the summer. I have a few reluctant readers who would prefer doing anything else rather than reading. Still, I would like to capture
Questions are a powerful source for building a word conscious classroom. And, Queries are even more powerful because they create the surge that promotes deeper thinking by students. Many teachers use questions to help guide students through strategy usage and problem solving. While questions can be used to assess student
While at The George Washington University working on my Master’s Degree, I got the privilege to take a course with Dr. Anna Uhl Chamot. After learning about her passing, I wanted to contribute one of my podcast episodes to her magnificent work. Dr. Chamot, along with Dr. O’Malley, created the
When I was learning how to read, I can recall my First Grade teacher using diacritical marks that indicated how to call the target words. My First Grade teacher may have taught me the names of those diacritical marks, but it was not until I was in my thirties, that
We write learning objectives every day. But our learning objectives are mostly linked to content learning and not language learning. Not only do students striving to learn English need language learning objectives, but any student that is learning how to use the functions of our English language need language learning
“Andrew Biemiller (2004) believes that the inability to readily assess vocabulary growth has been a major reason for lack of attention to vocabulary in the primary grades” (Diamond & Gutlohn, 2006, p. 31). Hence, we use running records and other informal reading inventories while assessing our students present levels in