Abstract
Struggling readers often find reading difficult due to a lack of word consciousness and an extensive vocabulary deficiency. Teaching weekly word lists is simply not enough to help struggling readers develop the word knowledge they need to catch up to their more advantaged peers. This project addressed the complexity of word consciousness and lexical semantics at a morphemic level, and provided specific strategies that will help students grapple with this complexity. The research revealed that students acquire most of their vocabulary knowledge incidentally through independent reading. Many students seem to learn to acquire vocabulary incidentally on their own, but struggling readers need explicit direct instruction in independent vocabulary acquisition skills. One such approach includes teaching students to use morphology and contextual analysis to create a hypothesis of the meaning of a word. Additionally, source-based instruction provides students engaging and meaningful experiences with text, increasing their motivation and self-efficacy. There is no single approach to teaching vocabulary. However, teaching students independent vocabulary acquisition skills provides them with a lifelong skill that can be used to increase their vocabulary repertoire long after they leave the K-12 educational system. By integrating research-based practices, a handbook was created that supports teachers in the development of a vocabulary companion unit using engaging literature that is already being taught in the classroom. A sample unit is included in the handbook that provides a model to educators interested in supplementing their novel units by teaching vocabulary acquisition skills and strategies.