Review
"Vocabulary is the bedrock supporting academic language proficiency. Without any doubt, speech-language pathologists recognize the critical importance of vocabulary learning for children and adolescents struggling with language and literacy learning. The challenge is how we can better support genuine vocabulary learning so that struggling students will be better positioned to meet the new reading and writing standards. This book offers speech-language pathologists a strong conceptual framework and evidence-based strategies for achieving the goal of functional vocabulary learning. The rich and detailed strategies are presented in a highly readable way. This accessibility allows the creative speech-language clinician to find many ideas that can easily be adapted into meaningful strategies for boosting the authentic word knowledge that most students with language learning disabilities urgently need for attaining academic language proficiency."--Elaine R. Silliman, PhD, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Florida

"This little book is a gem. It shows how teachers can teach word meanings so powerfully that students of all ages will be able to grasp an author's meaning or communicate their own more effectively. The book offers a well-organized and first-rate plan for teaching vocabulary, presented by a team of researchers with a genuine grasp of the practical."--Timothy Shanahan, PhD, Center for Literacy, University of Illinois at Chicago

"This book succinctly addresses the challenges of teaching and developing vocabulary, providing research-based, clearly spelled-out strategies and many, many rich examples. It gives teachers the tools they need to effectively increase students' vocabularies. Reflecting the authors' own expertise with words, the book is written clearly enough for undergraduates, yet has a level of depth that will lend new insights to even the most advanced student of language and literacy. This book should be required reading in teacher and reading specialist preparation programs and should be used in in-service programs with reading, language arts, and English teachers as well as with content area teachers. If the strategies and suggestions offered in this book were widely and intensely implemented, we would see significant increases in students' verbal abilities and reading comprehension scores."--John J. Pikulski, PhD, School of Education, University of Delaware

"Bringing Words to Life lives up to its title. It made me want to gather a group of kids immediately, so I could start putting these sensible, practical, novel, and intriguing ideas about building vocabulary into practice. Beck, McKeown, and Kucan show how much fun learning words and teaching words can be. Every early childhood and elementary teacher should have this book on their bedside table for inspirational reading."--Catherine E. Snow, PhD, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University



Review
"Vocabulary is the bedrock supporting academic language proficiency. Without any doubt, speech-language pathologists recognize the critical importance of vocabulary learning for children and adolescents struggling with language and literacy learning. The challenge is how we can better support genuine vocabulary learning so that struggling students will be better positioned to meet the new reading and writing standards. This book offers speech-language pathologists a strong conceptual framework and evidence-based strategies for achieving the goal of functional vocabulary learning. The rich and detailed strategies are presented in a highly readable way. This accessibility allows the creative speech-language clinician to find many ideas that can easily be adapted into meaningful strategies for boosting the authentic word knowledge that most students with language learning disabilities urgently need for attaining academic language proficiency."--Elaine R. Silliman, PhD, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Florida

"This little book is a gem. It shows how teachers can teach word meanings so powerfully that students of all ages will be able to grasp an author's meaning or communicate their own more effectively. The book offers a well-organized and first-rate plan for teaching vocabulary, presented by a team of researchers with a genuine grasp of the practical."--Timothy Shanahan, PhD, Center for Literacy, University of Illinois at Chicago

"This book succinctly addresses the challenges of teaching and developing vocabulary, providing research-based, clearly spelled-out strategies and many, many rich examples. It gives teachers the tools they need to effectively increase students' vocabularies. Reflecting the authors' own expertise with words, the book is written clearly enough for undergraduates, yet has a level of depth that will lend new insights to even the most advanced student of language and literacy. This book should be required reading in teacher and reading specialist preparation programs and should be used in in-service programs with reading, language arts, and English teachers as well as with content area teachers. If the strategies and suggestions offered in this book were widely and intensely implemented, we would see significant increases in students' verbal abilities and reading comprehension scores."--John J. Pikulski, PhD, School of Education, University of Delaware

"Bringing Words to Life lives up to its title. It made me want to gather a group of kids immediately, so I could start putting these sensible, practical, novel, and intriguing ideas about building vocabulary into practice. Beck, McKeown, and Kucan show how much fun learning words and teaching words can be. Every early childhood and elementary teacher should have this book on their bedside table for inspirational reading."--Catherine E. Snow, PhD, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University



Book Description
Exciting and engaging vocabulary instruction can set students on the path to a lifelong fascination with words. This book provides a research-based framework and practical strategies for vocabulary development with children from the earliest grades through high school. The authors emphasize instruction that offers rich information about words and their uses and enhances students' language comprehension and production. Teachers are guided in selecting words for instruction; developing student-friendly explanations of new words; creating meaningful learning activities; and getting students involved in thinking about, using, and noticing new words both within and outside the classroom. Many concrete examples, sample classroom dialogues, and exercises for teachers bring the material to life. Helpful appendices include suggestions for trade books that help children enlarge their vocabulary and/or have fun with different aspects of words.



About the Author

Isabel L. Beck, PhD, is Professor of Education in the School of Education and Senior Scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center, both at the University of Pittsburgh.

Margaret G. McKeown, PhD, is a Research Scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh.

Linda Kucan, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the department of Language, Reading, and Exceptionalities in the Reich College of Education at Appalachian State University.



Excerpted from Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction by Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, Linda Kucan. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1. Rationale for Robust Vocabulary Instruction
2. Choosing Words to Teach
3. Introducing Vocabulary
4. Developing Vocabulary in the Earliest Grades
5. Developing Vocabulary in the Later Grades
6. Making the Most of Natural Contexts
7. Enriching the Verbal Environment
Appendices: A. Text Talk Books and Vocabulary Words
B. Books for a Lively Verbal Environment

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Exciting and engaging vocabulary instruction can set students on the path to a lifelong fascination with words. This book provides a research-based framework and practical strategies for vocabulary development with children from the earliest grades through high school. The authors emphasize instruction that offers rich information about words and their uses and enhances students' language comprehension and production. Teachers are guided in selecting words for instruction; developing student-friendly explanations of new words; creating meaningful learning activities; and getting students involved in thinking about, using, and noticing new words both within and outside the classroom. Many concrete examples, sample classroom dialogues, and exercises for teachers bring the material to life. Helpful appendices include suggestions for trade books that help children enlarge their vocabulary and/or have fun with different aspects of words.

SYNOPSIS

Three American educators and researchers from the fields of learning, language, and reading explain the rationale for robust vocabulary instruction, as a means of creating the beginning of students' lifelong fascination with words. The text provides K-12 teachers with examples of such instruction for early, intermediate, and later grades. Coverage includes criteria for selecting words for instruction, ways of introducing new vocabulary, developing vocabulary activities, using natural contexts to derive word meanings, and techniques for creating a rich verbal environment in the classroom. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

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