Promoting literacy through language: Research on the development and instruction of language and the relationship between language and literacy

Rebecca Silverman is an Associate Professor in the College of Education and a Co-Director of the Language and Literacy Research Center at the University of Maryland, College Park.  Her research focuses on promoting the language and literacy development of children from diverse backgrounds and with varying strengths and needs in early childhood and elementary school.

Language provides the foundation for literacy, and Dr. Silverman has studied the development and instruction of literacy through language throughout her career.  In her presentation, she will provide an overview of her research on vocabulary and comprehension in pre-kindergarten through 5th grade, and she will discuss, in depth, an ongoing research project called CLAVES, which stands for Comprehension, Language, and Vocabulary for ELs in English and means keys or clues in Spanish.