Stephanie Downey Toledo is a bilingual speech language pathologist in New York City as well as a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has collaborated with the LEADERS project on this module series and others. Check them out on LEADERSproject.org!
Explicit vocabulary instruction is a crucial component to successful reading development. Acquiring vocabulary refers to knowing the meaning of words but ALSO to understanding the meaning of the words in relationship to the passage and context. As children move from learning to decode to developing reading comprehension, vocabulary accounts for the majority of variance in reading comprehension for students. Research has demonstrated that students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are often at a disadvantage in having the academic vocabulary necessary for school. Remember that students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds include English language learners, speakers of non-standard English dialects and those from other socio-economic groups. This module examines myths persistent in vocabulary instruction and provides evidence based strategies to appropriately support vocabulary acquisition.
