Teaching Words and How They Work
Small Changes for Big Vocabulary Results

Elfrieda H. Hiebert (Author)

9780807763179

Paperback / softback, published 6 December 2019

168 pages
22.6 x 15.4 x 0.7 cm, 0.24 kg

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.

• Contents
• Preface 
  ix
• 1. 
  Learning Words and How Words Work 
  1
• Vocabulary and Texts: A Two-Way Relationship 
  2
• Vocabulary Instruction: A Focus on Relationships Among Words,  
   
  Not Individual Words 
  4
• How to Implement New Vocabulary Insights:  
  Small Changes = Big Results 
  8
• The Last Word 
  10
• 2. 
  Making Small Changes in Vocabulary Instruction 
  11
• Small Changes = Big Results: WHY 
  12
• Small Changes = Big Results: WHAT 
  13
• Small Changes = Big Results: HOW 
  15
• The Last Word 
  20
• 3. 
  Why a Small Group of Word Families Is So Important  
  25
• The Evidence 
  25
• Small Changes = Big Results 
  35
• The Last Word 
  38
• 4. 
  A Short History of English and Why It Matters 
  41
• The Evidence 
  42
• Small Changes = Big Results 
  49
• The Last Word 
  53
• 5. 
  Recycling and Remixing:  
   
  Multiple Meanings and Uses of Words 
  54
• The Evidence 
  56
• Small Changes = Big Results 
  61
• The Last Word 
  64
• 6. 
  The Vocabulary Networks of Narrative Texts 
  66
• The Evidence 
  67
• Small Changes = Big Results 
  77
• The Last Word 
  80
• 7. 
  The Vocabulary Networks of Informational Texts 
  82
• The Evidence 
  83
• Small Changes = Big Results 
  91
• The Last Word 
  94
• 8. 
  Vocabulary and Text Complexity Systems 
  98
• The Evidence 
  99
• Small Changes = Big Results 
  107
• The Last Word 
  111
• 9. 
  Different Labels But the Same Concepts: English Learners 
  113
• The Evidence 
  114
• Small Changes = Big Results 
  119
• The Last Word 
  123
• Children’
  s Literature and Instructional Texts 
  125
• References 
  131
• Index 
  139
• About the Author 
  154