Assignment:
Explicit Vocabulary Instruction
Research consistently shows learning deficits and lower achievement scores for children of color, low SES, and ELLs. This gap starts at an early age with many children entering kindergarten knowing thousands of fewer words than their higher SES counterparts.
As you read the article "Vocabulary: The Key to Teaching English Language Learners to Read," you see that Direct Vocabulary Instruction is one method that has been shown to help close this gap.
Find two research articles that discuss other ways to explicitly provide instruction in vocabulary development to demonstrate your breadth of knowledge regarding vocabulary development. With the knowledge that, "a large vocabulary is one of the best general indicators of intelligence" (Marzano, 2009, p. 51), discuss ways in which you can use these approaches in your own ECE class. Where and how do successful students learn the vocabulary that they know? What types of direct and indirect strategies would you employ to encourage and enhance the acquisition of vocabulary in young children?
Focus on how to develop children's ability to comprehend and use academic language both orally and in writing.