Vocabulary Instruction for Struggling Students

Patricia F. Vadasy, PhD, is Senior Researcher at the Oregon Research Institute in Seattle, Washington. Her background is in early reading acquisition and instruction, instructional design, and intervention research. Dr. Vadasy oversees a research team engaged in research on effective school-based literacy interventions for at-risk and struggling students. She has published findings on her grant-funded intervention research widely in peer-reviewed journals. She is the lead author (with Rollanda E. O’Connor) of the Sound Partners code-oriented supplemental tutoring program. J. Ron Nelson, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His research and over 150 publications have focused on serving children at risk of school failure and on research issues, and he has developed a number of behavior and literacy interventions. Dr. Nelson is a recipient of the Distinguished Early Career Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children.

1. Origins of Vocabulary Knowledge and Its Role in Reading Comprehension 2. Word Properties That Affect Vocabulary Instruction 3. Making Principled Decisions about Vocabulary Instruction 4. Early Approaches to Vocabulary Instruction 5. Evidence-Based Instructional Approaches for School-Age Children 6. Independent Vocabulary Learning Approaches 7. Vocabulary Assessment 8. Teaching Vocabulary to English Language Learners