The Read Aloud and Vocabulary Development #doctoralpursit

Karen J Kindle wrote an article in The Reading Teacher in 2009 titled: "Vocabulary Development During Read-Alouds: Primary Practices." This article brought out some key points that I would like to share with you today. (My blog post this week is not class related but it is something that I can share with the K-2 teachers I will work with this school year. As an elementary school teacher, if you are not already doing read-alouds with your students, you should be. Read-alouds are proven to be an effective way to give vocabulary instruction. Read-alouds help build oral language skills, early literacy skills, and are a good means of developing rich vocabulary. Read-alouds help expose children to different words, and richer text than they would encounter by just reading their Basel and or their decodable readers. Wide reading, reading of lots of different texts is a good way to aid in vocabulary acquisition. The teacher needs only to consider these three things to get started with building vocabulary:

1. select appropriate texts
   
2. identify words for instruction
   
3. select strategies that facilitate word learning
   

During your read-aloud word learning happens incidentally and purposefully. Repeated readings (reading the same text on more that one occasion) helps with word learning because kids get multiple exposures to the words they encounter and research shows that this is necessary for work acquisition. Karen Kindle mentions research Susan Carey did in 1978 discussing 2 stages of word learning. Stage one deals with fast mapping, where students learn to infer from context (using context clues) and stage two deals with extended mapping, which is what happens with additional exposures to the words you want students to learn.
It is important to note that the way books are shared with students matters. Teachers should create conversations between themselves, the text, and the students by the questions and comments they interject as they read. Research is not clear as to how effective different types of questions during read-alouds are so just as a rule of thumb, be on purpose and intentional when doing a read-aloud for your students. Active involvement in the discussion is more noticeable than the types of questions that you ask.  
Here are some instructional strategies mentioned in the article that may help you focus your read-alouds:

1. questioning
   
2. providing a definition
   
3. providing a synonym
   
4. providing examples
   
5. clarifying and/or correcting student responses
   
6. extending student generated answers
   
7. labeling
   

The article also gave some recommendations to aid you in effective vocabulary instruction during a read-aloud. Remember to identify the words you want to teach them. Consider the types of words you want them to know. Target some key strategies to use and have a back up plan if those strategies don't work. Multiple exposure is key so infuse those words taught into the daily classroom language.

Kindle, Karen J. "Vocabulary Development During Read-Alouds: Primary Practices". The Reading Teacher 63.3 (2009): 202-211. Web.