Children love to be read to so a great way to expose children to a plethora of wonderful language that can build those verbal skills is by having them listen to stories online or on their iPods. Listening to oral stories can also strengthen visualization skills in young children. There are many free podcasts and [...]

A great way to build student interest in words is to develop as a class an oversized or “Big Book” class thesaurus. Throughout the year as students learn new words, have them look them up and generate some additional synonyms for each word. This can help students expand both reading skills as they search for [...]

An excellent way to help students think about new words they encounter as they read is to create a double sided bookmark where students collect new words as they read. At the top of the bookmark, put “A word that the class should know is:” and leave some space for students to write their new [...]

If students are to comprehend what they read, they have to understand the meaning of the words used in the text. Teachers, therefore, should explicitly teach students the words they need to know if they are to truly grasp the content of a story. Take the word “dinghy,” for example. Students may need to be [...]

One helpful way to draw student attention to words and the patterns found in words  is to ask students to engage in words sorts. There are three types of word sorts that you can use that are effective for both native speakers as well as English Language Learners. These are: sound sorts, pattern sorts and [...]