Aimee McGillis

EDU 346

Mrs. Wargo

Wednesday February 10, 2021

Assignment #5 : Article Review

The International Literacy Association’s article, Going Nuts for Words:

Recommendations for Teaching Young Students Academic Vocabulary focuses on the

importance of a child’s vocabulary, and provides strategies as to how teachers might

develop these skills in their students. Zucker, Cabell, and Pico discuss the imperative

nature of cultivating habits in children that prompt them to ask what a word means, as

well as why specifically early vocabulary development is, “critical to later reading

success”, while describing strategies for high quality instruction. Through their research,

these authors, “conclude with evidence that early childhood teachers can improve both

the quantity and the quality of their academic vocabulary instruction with these

instructional strategies.”, and that, “...given that children need to learn thousands of

words per year, getting children to love new words becomes critical.”

The article introduces to the reader a number of strategies, such as implementing

the use of cognates in the learning process, word consciousness, a stressing on academic

vocabulary, vocabulary-focused shared reading routines, among other examples. Of this

plethora, the strategy which stood out most as extremely applicable and relevant to

everyday instruction in the early elementary classroom, was the integration of word

consciousness and academic vocabulary. The authors write that, “If direct instruction is

the initial invitation to learn a new word, word consciousness supports are the next step
to harnessing the power of words as children make them their own in conversations.”.

This approach nourishes students’ desire to learn new vocabulary and acquire reading

knowledge, securing its place as a useful tool to apply to the early elementary classroom.

Furthermore, including the “...explicit instructional focus on academic vocabulary that

comprises two types of sophisticated vocabulary: (a) domain-general topics, most of

which include concepts that are not present in the immediate context, such as emotions,

cognition, judgments, causal explanations, or predictive inferences; and (b) domain-

specific topics that are technical vocabu- lary specific to various disciplines such as

science, engineering, history, or the arts.” highlights the influence of tiered words in the

acquisition of vocabulary knowledge. Finally, it is noted that, “Moreover, vocabulary is

viewed as an indicator of what children know about the natu- ral and social world

(Anderson & Nagy, 1993). Having broad world knowledge and vocabulary provides an

academic advantage as this knowledge builds over time (Stanovich & Cunningham,

1993).”.

It is non-negotiable that the role of vocabulary in the development of literacy

among young readers is imperative, and “Therefore, from the youngest grades,

educators must be intentional about providing children with experiences to build a

broad vocabulary.” Considering factors such as the balance between incidental vocab

learning versus direct vocab instruction, the three types of words (basic, domain-

general, domain-specific), cognates, word consciousness, before, during, & after reading

strategies, what constitutes a word selection process, definition checklists, sophisticated

words, homophones broadens the scope of vocabulary instruction while simultaneously

breaking it down into decodable pieces that equip educators to better provide learners

with helpful cues and methods of adopting information.

 Taking into account how this article has influenced my understanding of the

language arts is very much tied to my understanding of the foundational concepts which

are held in our classrooms at Geneva. The overarching theme among all learning and

character development never strays far from the knowledge that all children are created

in the image of God, and adding on that this includes a capacity for language is not

much of a stretch. In conjunction with this assumption, this article supports the claim

that children are capable of great understanding and knowledge, and that we as

educators must respect their intelligence, efforts, and always see their potential, even

when it is hidden from view. In continuation, this article touches upon the thought that

children are to be prepared for more than just keepers of knowledge. While educators

should inherently be encouraging the acquisition of knowledge among their students,

teachers should also value the complete character of their students. This means

contemplating the way a bilingual student learning cognates may be able to apply their

newfound knowledge in other areas of their life, such as helping a parent learning

english with less access to education. Furthermore, the evident nature of this article to

differentiate based on the varying needs of the learners in any given classroom is

directly associated with the foundational concept of acknowledging and recognizing the

varied gifts and abilities of God’s people. Responding to the needs of a unique classroom

requires a thoughtful reply, guided by care and commitment to not only true learning,

but the students themselves. Consequently, the classroom must be set up in a way in

which students can relate to material (tiered instruction, group readings, child-friendly

definitions), and be interested in (using a mascot, rouine, etc.) their learning.

 Ultimately, observing and taking into account the specific needs a classroom has

will enable a teacher to better modify instruction, with the use of both strategies such as

those discussed in this article, and the foundational concepts, in order to develop within

their growing learners a worldview which places significance on language arts.

 Works Cited:

1. Pico, D. L., Cabell, S. Q., & Zucker, T. A. (2019). Going Nuts for Words:

Recommendations for Teaching Young Students Academic Vocabulary.

Retrieved February 6, 2021, from

https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19362714/?cookieSet=1.