Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12 [Paperback]

Janet Allen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1571100857 | ISBN-13: 978-1571100856 | Publication Date: January 1, 1999

Do you spend hours creating word lists and weekly vocabulary tests only to find that your students have "forgotten" the words by the following week? Janet Allen and her students were frustrated with the same problem. Words, Words, Words describes the research that changed the way she and many other teachers teach vocabulary. It offers educators practical, research-based solutions for helping students fall into new language, learn new words, and begin to use those words in their speaking and writing lives.

This book offers teachers detailed strategy lessons in the following areas:

• activating and building background word knowledge;
• making word learning meaningful and lasting;
• building concept knowledge;
• using word and structural analysis to create meaning;
• using context as a text support;
• making reading the heart of vocabulary instruction.

Words, Words, Words provides educators with a strong research base, detailed classroom-based lessons, and graphic organizers to support the strategy lessons. At a time when teachers are struggling to meet content standards in reading across the curriculum, this book offers some practical solutions for meeting those standards in ways that are meaningful and lasting.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...Words, Words, Words does provide a range of strategies, solidly backed by research, for offering students of any age a rich learning experience that will enhance their vocabulary and may even help them enjoy playing with words and language. Any teacher who is interested in exploring new ways of teaching new words should read this book. -- Education Book Review, April 1999

Words, Words, Words...Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12 is a terrific resource to have available in your classroom. Author Janet Allen uses a conversational tone and puts vocabulary research into perspective when she talks about our own research as teachers and the research of "noted authorities." Once Ms. Allen sets the scene for her comments, she goes on to take what we've learned from research and translates it into practice. There are a lot of nice tips and strategies in this book, including Professional References and Literature References. Best of all, it has the "ring of the true practitioner's voice." -- Teaching K-8, May 1999

About the Author

Janet Allen (EdD, University of Maine) is associate professor of education at the University of Central Florida and has directed the Central Florida Writing Project. An international literacy consultant, she is recognized for her work with at-risk students. Janet taught high school English and reading for twenty years in rural Maine, where she received a Milken Foundation National Educator Award and the Maine Educator Award. Her books include There's Room for Me Here: Literacy Workshop in the Middle School, co-authored with Kyle Gonzalez (Stenhouse 1998) and It's Never Too Late: Leading Adolescents to Lifelong Literacy (1995).

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Stenhouse Publishers (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571100857
• ISBN-13: 978-1571100856
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 3.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Janet Allen is one of the most prominent and outspoken literacy advocates in the country. A former elementary school teacher and university instructor, hundreds of teachers attend her seminars each year. Her books Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12 and Yellow Brick Roads: Shared and Guided Paths to Independent Reading have been praised by elementary and secondary school teachers, education professors, adult literacy advocates, and ESL instructors. Dr. Allen lives in Orlando, Florida.Christine Landaker has been teaching for the last ten years; her first nine were in urban and suburban schools in Orlando, Florida. Her first love is history and the social studies, followed closely by her love of reading and English. She has seamlessly combined the two in her classroom. Christine is currently an 8th grade English teacher at Pierce Middle School in Milton, Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books on vocabulary instruction, August 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12 (Paperback)

Janet Allen has done a terrific job of blending theory with practice. Taking the last twenty years of research on vocabulary, Allen synthesizes the major guiding principles and illustrates a variety of strategies for helping students to acquire and develop vocabulary. As always, Allen writes in a clear, reader-friendly, no-nonsense style--a refreshing change from many of the language arts books in the field. As a reading specialist for the past twenty years, I highly recommend her new book.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Have Book for Educators, August 9, 2005

By 

S. Pearson "pearsonsj" (Hartford, CT) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12 (Paperback)

Regardless if you are teaching elementary school or middle school, you have students in your classroom who are poor readers and writers. Janet Allen's book -- all of them, for that matter -- are comprehensive guides to providing tips and strategies on how to assist them to "own their learning." So many pages of this book are folded down, as a means to remind me to use the strategy in my own classroom. Her book recommendations are also very handy, especially when you want to model different instructional strategies on learning new vocabulary while reading.

I can't say enough about this book and the rest of Allen's books without sounding like I am repeating myself. As an educator, I value good books that help me to become a better teacher -- this is such a book. You will not be disappointed.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vocabulary Help Grades 4-12, June 26, 2008

By 

J. E. Stephens "Jeanne" (Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12 (Paperback)

An excellent resource for all teachers. There are lots of ideas to help activate students background knowledge. There are ideas to teach context clues, words walls, prefixes, suffixes, and roots.

My favorite section was an idea on how to use alphabet books with older students. I plan to incorporate this lesson in my classroom.

All teachers should buy this book. This is also a great book for a professional book study.