Vocabulary and Reading

Once a child begins to read, two things happen: their vocabulary expands very quickly and they need to pay attention to new vocabulary as it comes up in their reading. This seems contradictory but it simply boils down to the fact that vocabulary is important. As an example, in some of our reading groups, we have had to spend some time talking about the many ways authors say "said" as in the phrase - said Jill or Jill said. This week we talked about this as a whole crew. It can be confusing for new readers to understand all of the very subtle shades of meaning in these various words. Just take a look at the list below of a some of the words that authors use to say "said" that we have found in our reading.

Words We Have Found Used in Books to Mean "Said":
replied
asked
cried
shouted
yelled
whispered
whimpered
laughed
joked
mumbled
murmured
scolded
shrieked
wailed
exclaimed
suggested
answered
asked
retorted
demanded
begged
announced
commented
added
continued
observed
reported
insisted
bellowed
moaned
tattled
declared

These are just some of the ways we have found in our reading. There are so many more. This is just one small example of why reading is such a complicated skill and why even after a child knows how to read, there are still so many things to learn about reading.