ABSTRACT
A storybook intervention for kindergarten children that integrates principles of explicit vocabulary instruction within the shared storybook reading experience is described with findings from an experimental study demonstrating the effects of this intervention on the vocabulary development of kindergarten students at risk of reading difficulty. Older students in third grade and above acquire a great deal of new vocabulary through wide, independent reading. Younger students who have yet to become skilled readers, however, must learn word meanings through a different medium. Children who are at risk for reading difficulties with lower initial vocabularies are less likely to learn unknown words from incidental exposure during storybook reading activities than their peers with higher vocabularies. Conspicuous instruction is explicit and unambiguous and consists of carefully designed and delivered teacher actions. Teachers engaged children in scaffolded discussion of the story by activating prior knowledge, eliciting responses about story elements, linking story themes to children's own experiences, and facilitating story recalls.
