Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice (Solving Problems in the Teaching of Literacy) [Paperback]

James F. Baumann Phd (Editor), Edward J. Kame'enui Phd (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1572309326 | ISBN-13: 978-1572309326 | Publication Date: October 28, 2003 | Edition: 1

This highly practical book presents research-based approaches to building students' vocabulary and promoting a lifelong appreciation of words. Prominent researchers identify and discuss the multiple components of effective vocabulary instruction--teaching the meanings of specific words, teaching students strategies for learning new words on their own, and providing opportunities for word and language play. In every chapter, findings on the processes of successful vocabulary learning are translated into useful, effective instructional activities and techniques. Outlined are important new ideas for designing curricula and providing experiences that help students of all ages and skill levels gain access to the meanings of words that they read. Throughout, engaging classroom examples enhance the utility of this teacher-friendly resource.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you are a classroom teacher, a reading specialist, a reading coach, a district staff developer, a central office reading supervisor, or a professor teaching foundational courses on reading strategies, you'll want this book! Invite a group of colleagues to read and discuss this text with you. Make it the focus of your next education book club or one of the texts you suggest for your university course. Taken as a whole or section by section, the book presents valuable information to broaden your understanding of vocabulary development and vocabulary instruction. Each chapter offers theoretically and empirically based information.You'll learn from the field's most knowledgeable researchers as they present strategies for teaching specific words, for teaching ways to learn words, and for building word consciousness while engaging students in language play. Each chapter is highly readable, practical, and fun. You'll find many new ideas for enriching and extending your classroom teaching and helping students gain greater access to the meanings of words they read."--Kathy Jongsma, EdD, Orlando, Florida

"This comprehensive volume is an essential tool for researchers and practitioners committed to improving students' literacy achievement. It provides the best information available from outstanding scholars who clearly explain why and how to help students increase their understanding of the words they encounter in reading. An excellent resource, it presents research-based strategies that can be put to use in classrooms and are likely to engage student interest."--Lois G. Dreyer, PhD, Southern Connecticut State University

"Comprehension occurs when readers actively construct meaning by engaging with the words they read and integrate new knowledge into what they already know. Vocabulary acquisition is an essential component of comprehension, yet one that has been overlooked in recent years. Baumann and Kame'enui masterfully highlight the significance of research on this critical topic and present instructional practices that are thoughtful, engaging, and meaning-based. This volume will prove invaluable to reading and curriculum specialists who seek to provide teachers with support and guidance for working with our ever-diversifying student population."--Elizabeth W. English, PhD, Principal, Sunrise Valley Elementary School, Fairfax County, VA

"This book is essential for all teachers of reading in the elementary grades. Moving beyond the mechanics of reading, chapters written by an outstanding group of established scholars address specific issues regarding content and methodologies for vocabulary instruction. In addition to educators, speech-language pathologists will find this an excellent resource. It will also be an invaluable text for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in reading instruction."--Linda J. Lombardino, PhD, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Florida

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1: Vocabulary: The Plot of the Reading Story Edward J. Kame'enui and James F. Baumann Part I: Teaching Specific Vocabulary Chapter 2: Direct and Rich Vocabulary Instruction Margaret G. McKeown and Isabel L. Beck Chapter 3: Teaching Vocabulary in the Primary Grades: Vocabulary Instruction Needed Andrew Biemiller Chapter 4: Vocabulary Instruction for Young Children at Risk of Experiencing Reading Difficulties: Teaching Word Meanings during Shared Storybook Readings Michael D. Coyne, Deborah C. Simmons, and Edward J. Kame'enui Chapter 5: Word Wizards All!: Teaching Word Meanings in Preschool and Primary Education Steven A. Stahl and Katherine A. Dougherty Stahl Part II: Teaching Vocabulary-Learning Strategies Chapter 6: Teaching Prefixes: As Good As It Gets? Michael F. Graves Chapter 7: The Developing Vision of Vocabulary Instruction Robert J. Marzano Chapter 8: The Vocabulary--Spelling Connection: Orthographic Development and Morphological Knowledge at the Intermediate Grades and Beyond Shane Templeton Chapter 9: Word Study for Vocabulary Development: An Ecological Perspective on Instruction during the Early Stages of Literacy Learning Donald R. Bear and Lori Helman Chapter 10: Unlocking Word Meanings: Strategies and Guidelines for Teaching Morphemic and Contextual Analysis Elizabeth Carr Edwards, George Font, James F. Baumann, and Eileen Boland Part III: Teaching Vocabulary through Word Consciousness and Language Play Chapter 11: Logology: Word and Language Play Dale D. Johnson, Bonnie von Hoff Johnson, and Kathleen Schlichting Chapter 12: Developing Word Consciousness Judith A. Scott and William E. Nagy Chapter 13: Keep the "Fun" in Fundamental: Encouraging Word Awareness and Incidental Word Learning in the Classroom through Word Play Camille L. Z. Blachowicz and Peter Fisher

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: The Guilford Press; 1 edition (October 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572309326
• ISBN-13: 978-1572309326
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #641,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great help for teachers who need to design a vocab curriculum, September 13, 2006

By 

a writing teacher (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice (Solving Problems in the Teaching of Literacy) (Paperback)

I am an educator who recently had to overhaul and redesign a large-scale vocabulary instruction program. The information in this book was invaluable to me. I found it to be accurate, insightful, actionable, well-organized, and comprehensive.

As another teacher suggested, this book is not full of teaching activities, lesson plans, or word lists. (If you want that kind of book, you might try The Vocabulary Teacher's Book of Lists.) It is, however, full of big-picture facts and credible answers to important questions. It gave me confidence in my approach and helped me make many decisions. It also helped me plan teacher training.

If you are teaching in a traditional classroom setting with an established curriculum and an established set of practices, this book will probably not change the way you teach very much (although it might be interesting). However, if you are making larger-scale decisions about your vocabulary program, this book is a wonderful resource.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Documented Research with Practical Relevance, August 11, 2007

By 

Avi Shmidman (Alon Shvut, Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice (Solving Problems in the Teaching of Literacy) (Hardcover)

If you are a teacher who would like to become familiar with the latest academic research regarding vocabulary acquisition, but who has neither time nor energy to wade through hundreds of pages of technical research in academic journals, then this is the book for you!
Too often, a wide ravine separates literacy teachers from academic researchers in the field. The teachers tend to focus on practical textbooks, oriented around lesson plans for specific grades (such as those in the Scholastic Teaching Resources series), while the researchers produce highly technical articles published in journals such as the Journal of Child Language or Reading Research Quarterly, which are all but inaccessible to the average teacher, whether because of the lengthy and technical nature of the articles, or because of the limited time available to practicing schoolteachers.
However, the present compendium of articles successfully bridges this gap, bringing the latest results of academic literacy research to the literacy teacher. Concepts are presented clearly and succinctly, in a fashion which underscores their relevance to the challenges of the literacy classroom. At the same time, however, these studies do not suffice with a simple recital of the research results; rather, they also include detailed explanations of the field tests from which the concepts emerge, along with complete bibliographical references. Thus, the reader emerges informed not only of the results of the research but with an overview of the research process as well; and the reader who wishes to explore any given matter further needs only follow up the copious bibliographical notes within.
Underlying most of the studies within the book is the contention that wide reading will generally not suffice to build a child's vocabulary. On the one hand, studies show that in the overwhelming majority of cases, the context surrounding unfamiliar words is not sufficiently rich to allow the child to learn the words in any meaningful way. Additionally, the frequency of unfamiliar words tends to be too low for the words to become ingrained within the mind of the reader. On the other hand, additional studies demonstrate that using a variety of proactive instruction strategies, significant quantities of words can be acquired and internalized, such that reading comprehension is bolstered considerably. These latter studies investigate strategies for analyzing unfamiliar words (such as morphology instruction), as well as methods for heightening awareness of new words (such as the Vocabulary Self Selection method).
Given the wide range of authors included within this compendium, it is natural that some differing viewpoints will emerge. For instance, although the word "predict" is used by Shane Templeton as a prime example of a word which can generate a fruitful morphology session in the classroom (page 133), Michael Graves, in his discussion of prefix instruction 50 pages earlier, specifically notes that words such as "predict" are not sufficiently transparent and should be excluded from morphology discussions (page 83). Nevertheless, such differing positions are perfectly reasonable and are certainly welcome in the present book, allowing teachers to make informed decisions, choosing varying methods and strategies as appropriate for their particular students.
The one fault which I have found in this book is that the authors fail to take their vocabulary acquisition methods one step further, towards the writing process. That is, the overarching concern of virtually every one of the writers is the learning of vocabulary for reading comprehension. While this is certainly a worthy goal, and certainly precedes any effort placed upon developing writing skills, I felt that the research explored here regarding the integration of new vocabulary should have also been exploited to develop strategies which would encourage the students to use the newly acquired words in their writing as well.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative for the Non Reading Teacher, March 19, 2006

By 

Penny E. Christensen (Pendergrass, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice (Solving Problems in the Teaching of Literacy) (Paperback)

This review of research is just as important for the Non Reading classroom teacher.

I started by skipping through the chapters that I thought applied to me, but ended up reading all of the chapters and finding use for all of the information.

I shared this with collegues who ended up buying their own copies!