Chapter 4

        The fourth chapter of the book, “Reading, Writing, and Literacy 2.0: Teaching with Online Texts, Tools, and Resources, K-8,” discusses vocabulary and fluency using multimedia support with regards to students from different socioeconomic homes. Vocabulary and fluency are important components in the literacy development of young children. Fluency Instruction helps students understand what they have read. Fluency Instruction is the ability to read text quickly and accurately. Students can practice orally reading through student-adult reading, choral reading, tape-assisted reading, partner reading, and readers' theatre. Reading fluency can be developed by modeling fluent reading as well as having students engage in repeated oral reading. Monitoring student progress in reading fluency is useful in evaluating instruction and setting instructional goals and can be motivating for students.

Vocabulary is important for beginning readers use their oral vocabulary to make sense of the words they see in print. Readers must know what most of the words mean before they can understand what they are reading. Vocabulary words are the words we must know to communicate effectively. Two Types of Vocabulary are oral and reading vocabulary. Oral vocabulary includes words that we use in speaking or recognize in listening. Reading vocabulary include words we recognize or use in print. There are four different kinds of word learning which are learning a new meaning for a known word, learning the meaning for a new word representing a known concept, learning the meaning of a new word representing an unknown concept, clarifying and enriching the meaning of a known word. Vocabulary develops indirectly and directly. Vocabulary develops indirectly when students engage daily in oral language, listen to adults read to them, and read extensively on their own. Vocabulary develops directly when students are explicitly taught both individual words and word learning strategies.

While vocabulary and fluency play a crucial role in literacy development, it is also important to focus not only on ways to teach, but how to address all of the needs of different students. Students who come from a poorer, lower class community have been shown to have a lower fluency rate and smaller vocabulary than students of middle or higher socioeconomic status.  Students in the classroom learn the same concepts, words, and strategies, but their indirect learning is what is different between different socioeconomic statuses. Using multimedia outlets can provide different ways of learning, creating, and expanding students’ comprehension. It is important for schools to work towards helping the children who come from low socioeconomic homes to reach their full potential. Working toward this goal will greatly improve student literacy comprehension.