UC Irvine

Vocabulary instruction in schools is often fragmented, which results in students having problems engaging with textbooks and other academic materials. A system of cross-content, whole-school vocabulary could prove to be the solution to better reading comprehension. In order to implement a program of whole-school vocabulary instruction, the teaching team needs to select vocabulary words to teach, ensure that these words are repeated and that students are well-exposed to their usage, encourage students to experiment with and use these words, and teach them word learning strategies. Students from the Word Generation Program, which supports reading accuracy, fluency, syntax issues, background knowledge, and comprehension, learned more words over a shorter time span than students who did not participate in the program.