Conversation, Vocabulary, and

Comprehension
Module 7
Loren Evans and Kelsey Gillman

3 Major Factors In Literacy

Instruction

Comprehension
Vocabulary
Conversations

Comprehension
Comprehension is a constructive,
interactive, process that involves three
factors:

The Reader
The Text
The context in which
the text is read(Gunner,
290)

Conversation
Conversation is the
all- important context
of language
development.
Although the childs
earliest contributions
are extremely
rudimentary, they
permit the adult
participant to build
around them. (Wells
1981, p. 17)

COMPREHENSION
STRATEGIES

Development of
Comprehension

Comprehension is the building and activation of

schema.

As students read, the rebuild their schema,

developing better comprehension skills.

Vocabulary

Good readers MUST build their vocabulary

and develop methods to put proper
meaning with unknown words.

Vocabulary
Adding To Vocabulary

Studies indicate that students learn new words by being read aloud to.
(e.g,.Elley, 1989)

Children also learn new words through independent reading.

Children learn new words through higher level conversations, usually

with adults or older siblings.

Selecting Instructional Words

The majority of your instructional words should
fall in the tier 2 category along with some tier 3
words. Tier 2 words tend to be found in more than
one content area and are therefore useful.

How to effectively develop

word knowledge
Teachers can develop word knowledge through
many methods such as:
Labeling objects
Graphic Organizers
Word Sorts
Word Of The Day
Word Games
Word Origin Investigations

Conversations

A conversation is the transfer of oral language

between one or more speakers and one or more
listeners.

Conversations With Children

Children of all
ages, preschool
through high
school, need
frequent
opportunities to
formulate their
thoughts in
spoken language
(Clay, 28).

Opportunities To Speak
Valuable conversations must occur in many areas
such as:
Math
Reading
Science
Physical Education
Music
Social Studies

WHOS Responsible?
The teacher bears primary responsibility
for the quality of conversation in the
classroom (Clay, 33).
It is the teacher who needs to organize
and control the classroom talk and to
maintain order among the interactions,
with the suppression of too much noise
and unwanted activity (Clay, 34).

References
Clay, M. M. (2014). By different paths to
common outcomes: Literacy teaching and
learning. Aukland, New Zealand: Global
Education Systems (GES).
Gunning, T. G. (2016). Creating literacy
instruction for all students. Ninth Edition.
Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.
Wells, G. 1981. Learning Through Interaction:
The Study of Language Interaction. London:
Cambridge University Press.