Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction by Isabell Beck, Margaret McKeown, and Linda Kucan. The seven chapters of this book provide an explicit rational for a robust vocabulary as well as practical ways to provide effective vocabulary instruction to the students under your care.
The authors spent some time reviewing current research about vocabulary and vocabulary instruction. Through their research, the authors determined that there were simply too many vocabulary words to teach children. Tier research lead them to categorize words into three tiers. Tier 1 words consist of the most basic words - lady, block, sad, run, like, etc... Tier 1 words typically do not need explicit instructional attention within the school setting. Words within the tier 2 realm are typically high frequency words. These are words one would come across in a variety of domains. Tier 2 words are not exclusive to one event, one content, or one situation. Tier two words are tier two because of the enormous role they play in the language user's repertoire. They tend to cross over easily into a wide variety of settings and/or contents. Some examples of tier 2 words are "introduce, introduction, reintroduce, and introducing. Tier 3 words are those vocabulary words that are exclusive to a particular situation and or subject. Tier 3 words are limited in their use. The remainder of the book focuses on tier 2 vocabulary words. The authors cover techniques on how to chose tier 2 words to explicitly teach and practical ways to introduce tier 2 vocabulary words in the elementary and secondary grades.
TWO CENTS WORTH:
Vocabulary usage or the development of my vocabulary has been difficult for me for as long as I can remember. When writing about a subject or writing vocabulary words sentences, I was the kid who "over-used" the following words: live, love, very, cool, and like. Bringing Words to Life was a book I didn't know I would find personally and professionally valuable and meaningful to me. In my world there were only two tiers of words: the simple word tier and the hard word tier. Occasionally a fellow student or colleague would befriend me and dare to take time to explain various tier 2 words that they used. Their patience and nonjudgement I have been grateful for. After reading this book, a whole new world has opened up to me. Utilizing some of the Thinking Maps organizers, I am more prone to take a simple tier 1 words and discover several other vocabulary words that can be used in its place. As an educator, I am grateful for the scientific research that supports the author's premise as well as a wide variety of strategies to build a robust vocabulary in the students one teaches.
For those of us who see vocabulary as a key to understanding and expanding one's knowledge in all curricular areas (i.e. writing, English language arts, science, math, social studies, physical education, etc...), this book will be a valuable resource for administrators and teachers. This would be an excellent book for staff development, staff discussions, and staff implementation. I am confident that the information in this book will have a positive impact on the way teachers see vocabulary and, most importantly, how they develop vocabulary in the students under their care.
I found this book to be empowering, encouraging, and easy to implement into my daily life as an educator. I look forward to sharing this with my staff, students, and colleagues.
NO AR QUIZ.
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