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: Teaching, Education, Nonfiction, Professional Development

Paperback

Published March 1, 2013

Reviews

[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.

[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.

[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