Customer Reviews

Creating Robust Vocabulary: Frequently Asked Questions and Extended Examples (Solving Problems in the Teaching of Literacy)

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This book, and the first one, are just fabulous. I used them to make a "vocabulary" unit for my 1st graders, based off of the first Magic Treehouse book. The students have latched on to the new words so much that anytime I read one in another context, say a read aloud, the kids shriek with glee-- no kidding. My first graders are happily using words like "muttered", "glance", "peer", "boldly", "cautiously", and more.

I love that the vocabulary instruction has made a huge impact, yet most days I didn't spend more than 5-10 minutes a day on it. (I mixed in some longer days here and there as well.) The instruction is SO FUN and not dull at all.

The only negative thing is that the lessons take a long time to plan and are implemented so quickly. In other words, it takes way longer to write a lesson than to implement it. That being said, these are lessons I will use year after year. If you've read this book and could use my Magic Treehouse Dinosaurs Before Dark unit, leave me a comment with your e-mail and I'll get it to you.

It would be ideal do have a few teachers write a few different unit studies and then share them.

Anyway, if you couldn't tell already, I just love this book, as it is one that REALLY HAS made an impact on my classroom teaching instead of just sitting on my shelf. (I have way too many of those!)

Oh, last thing-- while I am writing from the perspective of a 1st grade teacher, this book is relevant all the way up through high school.

If you want to know how to make your vocabulary instruction effective, regardless of age level, this is the book you need to read and use. Examples included.

This resource does exactly what the title promotes, it creates robust vocabulary effectively! This reader-friendly book explains the importance of focusing on high utility, tier two words when teaching vocabulary to students. This book contains a great variety of lessons when explaining the five day vocabulary plan. It provides choices of lessons for teachers so the plan can be adjusted to a particular class and their needs and strengths. Another great component of this book is the emphasis that these vocabulary lessons can be used for any grade level, elementary or secondary. After reading this book, I will always incorporate Beck's vocabulary plan while teaching students of all ages.

I read their first book and finished with some questions. Thank goodness this second book was written because it not only answered my questions, it guided me through the process of teaching vocabulary from start to finish. The "start" was thinking about what kinds of vocab words to teach that are the highest yield cross content. Then the authors take various text and show their thinking process of selecting and not selecting words. After that, they took me through a 5 day vocabulary unit and assessment. The treasure chest is in the Appendix with a menu of vocabulary activities that promote active processing of the vocabulary words. This is now a permanent collection on my Kindle "teaching library".

The only downside is the lack of strategies to teach content vocabulary in the math and sciences. Despite that, it's worth it weight in gold!