ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how to teach words, for the purpose of increasing comprehension. Specific guidelines and teaching ideas are described to increase students' vocabularies so they can more easily employ comprehension problem solving strategies. Ways to problem solve unknown words are highlighted, along with ways to deepen understanding of words. The chapter emphasizes the need for teachers to distinguish between words as labels and words as concepts. The classroom snapshot profiles one teacher's efforts to integrate best practices into a daily word study routine that focuses on three basic word aspects: meaning, spelling, and sound. General teaching strategies and strategies specific to teaching vocabulary are printed in boldface. Strong comprehenders tend to have strong reading, writing, speaking, and listening vocabularies, but each person's profile has a unique design. Vocabulary development, as measured by the number of words a person can read, is frequently used to predict IQ score.
