Hey there, fellow secondary teachers! If you're looking for ways to improve students' reading comprehension, then you're in the right place!
I'm on my own journey as a teacher to learn how to improve reading comprehension in my high school students. I am used to teaching higher skills like analysis and application. However, after a new state-mandated test, I realized that my students were struggling with those higher-level skills because they couldn't even comprehend what they were reading!
The first thing I did to help my students was implement weekly vocabulary words and quizzes. I wanted to expose them to more tier 2 vocabulary words, so I found a list of ACT prep vocabulary and chose 5 words each week for a total of 8 weeks--that's 40 new words!
So, let's dive into the world of words and how beefing up your students' vocab can level up the way they read and comprehend!
Vocabulary is the foundation for understanding what it is that you're reading. And if you look at the skills that are necessary to become a good reader, there are three tiers of vocabulary within the 5 stages.
Let's break down the tiers first.
Tier one vocabulary are words that kids learn and start to recognize through oral conversations.
Tier two vocabulary are terms that appear in all disciplines and content areas but do not appear frequently.
Tier three vocabulary are terms that appear in a specific content area and again, are not frequently seen.
All of these tiers are necessary for students to develop. However, without exposure to tier two and tier three vocabulary words, it's likely they may never come across these words, or it they do, they would simply skip over them without discovering what they mean. And this is where the breakdown for reading comprehension begins.
If students are missing tier one vocabulary, it's likely they are reading well behind their grade level. And if they are lacking in tier two vocabulary, then reading at grade level becomes difficult.
Building students' vocabulary will help them to reconize words quickly while they are reading which allows them to focus on comprehension rather than recognition or pronunciation.
Alright, so now what? How can you build your students' vocabulary?
Preview bolded and italicized words: We know that if they are bolded or are listed in the margins of the text, then it's important to learn what the word means. However, I've come to realize that most students will not read definitions on their own. If a text does not have bolded or italicized words, pick out a handful of words that you think might be challenging and define them before reading the text.
Word of the day: List a word, the defintion, and a sentence with the word on the board to expose students to new vocabulary. If you want a more informal approach, mention the word each day at the start of class and try to work it into your conversations and lectures so students can see it used in context.
Weekly vocab words and quizzes: Pick a few words to learn and review each week. At the end of the week, give students a quick quiz to hold them accontable for learning and memorizing the word. This is the route I have chosen to use in my classroom for 9 weeks. I gave my students 5 words each Monday. I provided a defintion, synonyms, antonyms, and a sentence for students to record on a handout. We would play Quizlet Live or Blooket to review the terms and definitions. Then, each Friday, students took a short quiz to test their knowledge.
This unit has 8 weeks worth of new vocabulary, and the 9th week of the quarter is used to test the comprehensive knowledge of all 40 vocabulary words.
The quizzes are given through Google Forms, so they are self-grading with immediate feedback to students and no extra grading for the teacher!
The words were chosen from an ACT prep list of tier 2 vocabulary words, so they are words that students may have heard of before, but they probably don't know what they mean!
If you're interested in this unit, you can check it out here!
And if you're on your own journey of building good reading comprehension skills and finding reading strategies to use with your students, I'd love to have you join me on Instagram @positivelypunctuated to join in on the conversation about helping students to be good readers that can comprehend and understand at a high level.
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