Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction

by Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, Linda Kucan

Hundreds of thousands of teachers have used this highly practical guide to help K–12 students enlarge their vocabulary and get involved in noticing, understanding, and using new words. Grounded in research, the book explains how to select words for instruction, introduce their meanings, and create engaging learning activities that promote both word knowledge and reading comprehension. The authors are trusted experts who draw on extensive experience in diverse classrooms and schools. Sample lessons and vignettes, children's literature suggestions, "Your Turn" learning activities, and a Study Guide for teachers enhance the book's utility as a classroom resource, professional development tool, or course text.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Teaching, Professional Development

Paperback

Published March 1, 2013

Reviews

[Justus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed with this but maybe I just went it with expectations that were too high? Also, even this second edition is reasonably old (from 2013) and it could really stand a third edition that incorporates a lot of the things that feel like they've become a standard part of the conversation in modern education: cognitive load, retrieval practice, daily reviews, etc.

There's still a lot to get out of this but I still came away generally disappointed. It is also one of the most "skimmable" books I've read recently.

This one of those "everything" education books covering everything from Foundation to High School, assessment, differentiation, writing, and more. Very few people are going to be equally interested in both ends of the spectrum so you'll probably find yourself skipping vast swathes of the book.

But even when you're not skipping entire sections many of the discussions are overburdened with too many explanations. For example in Chapter 2 they have an otherwise very good long discussion on how tricky it is to introduce word meanings and why dictionary definitions generally suck. (They are constrained by print space so their definitions are pretty weird and often non-useful!) So you need to come up with child-friendly explanations. Sure, fair enough, though I feel like anyone who has even once glanced at a dictionary definition with a kid would have learned this instantly. But then they spend an entire page giving examples of bad dictionary definitions and better child-friendly ones. covert, disrupt, illusion, improvise, morbid. I got it already!

My biggest disappointment, though, is that I guess I expected more guidance given their decades of research in the area.

Chapter 4 is what I was most interested in: "Bringing Vocabulary into the Earliest Grades". This entire chapter is based around two studies. They mention in passing that you can introduce 3-5 words (though all their examples use just 3 words so the implication is that's the default) and then study them for 3 consecutive days.

Which just left me with so many questions. Why not introduce 10 words? Why not 7? Why not study for 2 days? Why not 4? Why not introduce two new words a day but do it every day and then do interleaved practice instead of blocked practice? What about spaced practice?

I was also a bit surprised that there was little emphasis on non-examples. Though this may be a product of its age -- but Direct Instruction has been talking about the importance of non-examples since the 60s. We know that in many cases examples alone are not sufficient and learners need close in non-examples to help them discriminate between closely related concepts. It is understandable that coming up with non-examples on the fly is extremely difficult but when you're created an actual lesson in advance it seems like a bit of a no-brainer to foreground it. Especially since most of what we want to teach explicitly will be shades of meaning on a concept they already know.

To be somewhat ungenerous -- while the specific routines were useful and the theoretical discussions were good -- I came away feeling like there was a massive missing middle. All I really got was "do some explicit instruction and do it more than once". Which...that's how everything works so I guess no surprise that vocabulary should be taught the same way.

This criticism may seem unfair -- to a large extent these are researchers who are just reporting on their research and their research is limited by time and funding. And perhaps I went into this with expectations that were way too high.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is outstanding and jam-packed with a lot of information. The authors have conducted a vast amount of research, so the suggested instructional activities are proven. I love the many examples they have included for how to make vocabulary instruction engaging, effective, and (as they put it) ROBUST. They give examples for elementary, middle, and high school teachers. They also include specific advice for how to differentiate instruction for English Language Learners and struggling readers.

[Colleen Aben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast and fantastic. It took me less than a day to read after it was recommended in my LETRS resource group. I have never taught vocabulary before and this resource is chock full of information. It's given me a lot to think about and I am definitely going to switch to using picture books playing games to help learn the vocabulary words. My only wish is that the activities they shared could be made multisensory or interactive because it can be hard for kids to sit for that long and just chat about a book.

[North Landesman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a useful, interesting, dense book. It is not fun to read. It will make a teacher think and reflect. The central premise, that it is difficult for students to read, write, or learn if they don't know what words mean, is correct. The implication of what teachers should do if that premise is correct is important. This book has made me think and reflect on how I want to approach vocabulary instruction.

[Kylie Wetherell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is packed with ideas and activities for teaching and supporting vocabulary instruction. I appreciate that the authors go into why vocabulary instruction is important but also spend a majority of the book explaining implementation. They break it down in a way that doesn’t feel daunting to implement.

[Arlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful text that has made me look at my practices with ELA. I am working at being more intentional with vocabulary instruction, and I'm excited about incorporating more of the practices in this book. It took me a while to read this book, and I definitely talked about what I was reading in the staff room - a lot!

[Natalie Wenzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book, read during Redwood Reads. This informed my understanding of how vocabulary instruction can be woven into daily moments in the classroom, as well as at home, how to teach a vocabulary word in explicitly clear terms, and gave ample practical ways to instruct & review words.

[Jay-Jays Garden · Rating 5 out of 5]

My school principal, Meg Schimming, recommended we use this book as a book study and spend the last 5-10 minutes of each staff meeting discussing parts of the previous 2 chapters that we found insightful. This book was a game changer for my teaching pedagogy. My prep students authentically use rich language in both their spoken and written language. Unbelievable.

[Jen Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of good examples. Very useful. Probably the best source if you're looking to improve vocabulary besides flashcards, telling students to write sentences, or quizzing them on memorized definitions, to give students actual practice using words.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tier 2 words are the words that are not used in common language (Tier 1) but not used in specialized fields (Tier 3). Teach Tier 2 words using student-friendly definitions. 400/yr
(didn't finish fully but this is an excellent resource for teaching vocabulary

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about teaching vocabulary in the classroom.

[Steven Kolber · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed and clear book with well established academic citations and clear illustrations of each strategy and example explored.

[Laura Brockman ❤️]

A little summer reading for professional development. Some fresh ideas about building vocabulary.

[Meredith]

Lots of solid ideas. Best for vocabulary acquisition in students' first language compared to a second language classroom

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in 2024 with a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) book club that I organize. This is likely a 5 star book if you are a classroom teacher and/or new to robust vocabulary instruction. As a SLP, much of this information was review for me personally, and as a professional who works with clients in one-on-one sessions once per week, some of the instructional sequences and routines are not attainable for my role. Although this book is clearly written for classroom teachers, I still found it informative and pulled out some new strategies and activities for vocabulary instruction.

Read my full review and summary on my blog: https://www.slpliteracycorner.ca/blog...

[sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️
I read this book for a book study over the summer and it was really good. It has a lot of great strategies for teaching and helping students with robust vocabulary and tiered words