Preteaching vocabulary is a strategy that introduces difficult words to students with exceptional learning needs before they begin reading. It is important because vocabulary knowledge is the strongest predictor of reading comprehension. The teacher should present keywords from the text beforehand to prevent confusion, place words in context, and access students' prior knowledge to help them better understand unfamiliar terms. Using this strategy results in less student confusion and frustration since the reading assignment is more accessible after learning the important vocabulary in advance.

1. Preteach Vocabulary
By Chris Kaino
Sandra Isassi

2. What is it?
- As presented in Chapter 8,
Preteaching Vocabulary is an
inclusion strategy that caters to
students with ELN (Exceptional
Learning Needs).
- It is when a teacher introduces
difficult vocabulary words before
students begin the reading.

3. Why should we Preteach Vocabulary?
- “Vocabulary knowledge is the
number one predictor of
secondary students’ reading
comprehension of content area
textbooks.” (Sean & Fuchs,
2002)
- Good readers have stronger
vocabularies, while ELN have
poor vocabularies.

4. How to use this strategy:
This strategy is used as an
introductory tool to help students
learn difficult vocabulary that will
later be found in the text. We will
teach them keywords beforehand in
order to prevent confusion during
their individual reading of the text.

5. Strive for Better Understanding
A main concept to keep in
mind while using this
strategy is to place the
word and its meaning into
context:

6. Accessing Students’ Prior Knowledge
A useful technique for
preteaching vocabulary is by
placing the word in a context
that the students may
already be familiar with. This
is called accessing a student’s
prior knowledge.

7. Numerous Meanings
Prevent confusing students by
presenting multiple meanings of the
vocabulary word.

8. Results:
After teaching this inclusion strategy
students will:
- Be less confused now that there
is a bigger picture in mind
- No longer feel frustration from
lack of understanding
- Complete the reading
assignment since it is more
accessible and easier to
understand