http://reading.indiana.edu/www/index.html

Latest reading news (links) and latest research and statistics in reading and education, from a leading research university, Indiana University.

http://www.clari.buffalo.edu/FAQs_professionals.asp

A website owned by SUNY-Rochester, called Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction.  Resources for professionals related to coaching.

http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/reading_first1vocab.html

This website from the National Institute of Literacy explains vocabulary instruction, types of vocabulary children have to learn, direct and indirect methods of teaching vocabulary, and examples of classroom instruction.

http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/explore/vocabulary.html

Vocabulary is also very important to reading comprehension. Readers cannot understand what they are reading without knowing what most of the words mean. As children learn to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new words that are not part of their oral vocabulary.

URL:  http://www.literacymatters.org/content/readandwrite/vocab.htm

From the Literacy Matters website comes a resource for teaching expository vocabulary.  Good vocabulary instruction emphasizes useful words (words that students see frequently), important words (key words that help students understand the text), and difficult words (idiomatic words, words with more than one meaning, etc.).

By: Edwin S. Ellis (2002)

URL:  http://www.ldonline.org/article/5759

“Perhaps the least effective way to study vocabulary is the “look and remember” technique.” Ellis describes ways other than lists that we should be using to help students learn vocabulary.

Reading Comprehension

http://www.literacy.uconn.edu/compre.htm

Within this page from the University of Connecticut, we find the complex processes involved in reading comprehension divided into three categories (much like the National Reading Panel Report). The categories include vocabulary instruction, text comprehension instruction, and teacher preparation and comprehension strategies instruction. You’ll also find useful websites that students can visit to practice their use of comprehension strategies with fiction and non-fiction texts at a variety of reading levels.