The purpose of this semester-long project was to redesign the ninth grade English language arts curriculum to include a literacy-based multicomponent intervention to meet the needs of developing readers, while simultaneously maintaining a rigorous curriculum challenging proficient readers in a general education classroom. I examined peer-reviewed…

This study was designed to explore the effectiveness of balanced literacy instruction in two pre-kindergarten programs in a North Eastern suburban school district. The researcher used a mixed-methods design which included classroom observations, student performance data, and teacher interviews to determine if the language arts program produced…

This project examined the words selected for instruction from fourth-grade English/Language Arts (ELA) and science programs with the goal of describing the unique words in these two text types. Seven features of the words were established: (a) length, (b) frequency, (c) frequency of a word's morphological family, (d) familiarity, (e) dispersion…

This book is designed to aid the student in developing word skills. It contains rules, games, stories, exercises, definitions, limericks, word origins, and other information related to words. (CK)

Make words come alive! Social studies and art can bring new dimensions to language. (Editor)

Suggestions for enriching reading programs are divided into six categories in this booklet. Part 1, describing syllable work, recommends using syllable strips (rather than ordinary jigsaw puzzles), word groups, and student teams to work with unscrambling syllables. Part 2 suggests an activity for working with double consonant words, for example,…

Discusses approaches for helping upper elementary-age children learn about words through integrated study of spelling, grammar, and meaning. Describes what word study is, discusses word study in an integrated language arts unit (providing several examples), and offers reasons for including word study in a language arts program. (SR)

Describes a teaching unit on portmanteau words, such as "smog" and "petrodollars," which are created by truncating two words. (SJL)

Developed to document the specifications for supplementary instruction in a skills-based vocabulary program, this report focuses on the study of synonyms as relating to the learning of specific words. One hundred twenty-nine general headwords and more than 1,500 synonyms for these headwords, specified for use in instruction in grades four through…

No language is as varied in history as American English and no language is as rich in word choices. Additions to our language from other cultures are discussed. Four categories of activities involving words are presented. (MT)

Assesses the results of a study of spelling development on the junior high level. Concludes that spelling instruction in the upper grades is worthy of serious consideration. (NKA)

Sample etymological study lessons for the intermediate grades. (SP)