Why do you think so many students can "identify words", but can not understand what they have read?
I think many students can not understand what they have read because they have not acquired the language proficiency needed to succeed in understanding the vocabulary. And also, most of our students are EELs (English language learners). EELs experience immense difficulties reading their textbooks because the language of academic subjects (such as social studies, science, math) requires a high degree of reading and writing ability that English language learners do not have.
How do you think we, as educators, can best solve this problem?
As educators we can solve this problem best by determining standards and objectives, choose the concept to teach, eliminate unnecessary information that will be too difficult for students of low English proficiency, choose key specific vocabulary to pre-teach and develop assessments to determine students English proficiency.
Writing definitions that are simple and brief can also help students improve their vocabulary skills. Use highly illustrated books. Using visuals are power tools for comprehension instruction because they offer concrete, memorable representation of abstract content. Creating interest in the subject by using pictures, real objects, maps, or personal experiences and repeat vocabulary words as often as you can so that students can remember them.
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