Teaching Words and How They Work

Research shows that vocabulary is the best support for students’ comprehension of narrative and information texts. Often, vocabulary instruction focuses on a few target words in specific texts. However, to understand the many new words in complex texts students need to know how words work. This book, written by an award-winning authority on reading instruction, shows teachers how to make small changes to teach more words and also how words work. Many of these small changes involve enrichments to existing vocabulary practices, such as word walls and conversations with students. Each chapter includes descriptions of teachers’ implementation of small changes to support big gains in students’ vocabulary. This book, which has sufficient depth in research and theory for graduate and undergraduate courses in vocabulary instruction, also offers practical steps that K–8 teachers can use in any reading program to help all students grow their vocabulary.Teaching Words and How They Work shows teachers how to:Identify the most important word families to teach.Teach students to use opening text as background knowledge for comprehending the rest of the text.Use word walls with more purpose and greater student engagement.Select the right words to teach from new information texts.Better understand limitations of leveled texts and how to adjust. Use assets and address challenges to support English learners.Access free mentor and teacher resources online at textproject.org.

"Hiebert's (2020) latest volume, Teaching Words and How They Work: Small Changes for Big Vocabulary Results, addresses the complexity and necessity of vocabulary instruction from a pragmatic perspective and offers educators both the opportunity to learn more about the relationships among words and discover practical pedagogical techniques to implement in the classroom."--Journal of Language and Literacy Education, " Teaching Words can be a tool to inform early and late career educators seeking foundational knowledge about classroom vocabulary instruction. The historical footing paired with critical issues such as linguistic diversity, multilingual students, and intentional materials selection offers an empirically-based yet approachable guide for teachers to strengthen vocabulary instruction within their classrooms. As stated by Hiebert, 'Long-lasting changes in the complex contexts of classrooms are made through steady application of small changes' (p. x). With Teaching Words, educators can develop effective, meaningful vocabulary instruction one small change at a time."--Teachers College Record

Elfrieda H. Hiebert is president and CEO of TextProject, Inc., recipient of Literacy Research Association's Oscar S. Causey Award for outstanding contributions to reading research, and coauthor (with P. David Pearson) of Research-Based Practices for Teaching Common Core Literacy.