Vocabulary: The Key to Unlocking Complex Text

The words that students know predicts comprehension of what they read. Expanding, and deepening, students’ understanding of academic word families is a critical function of successful reading instruction, delivering students benefits across all content areas. Harnessing the power of digital resources has led to a revolution in our knowledge about vocabulary, as we’ve now been able to identify the features of words in large numbers. Elfrieda (Freddy) H. Hiebert will provide valuable insight into conclusions from this recent scholarly research, and how these conclusions can transform vocabulary instruction in ways that expand students' knowledge of words, their ability to comprehend complex texts, and make vital connections across multiple texts.