Vocabulary Development
Steven A. Stahl
Published in 1999 by Brookline Books
This book is one in a series of books that I heartily recommend
(not just this book, but all of the books in this series). The series
is called "From Reading Research to Practice: A Series for Teachers." The
series was edited by Jeanne Chall, and every book in the series is short,
concrete, and very useful.
This particular book directly addresses the issues related
to vocabulary instruction and vocabulary development, providing an overview
of the research and important topics, and then providing very concrete examples
of activities and strategies that educators can use to enhance the vocabulary
development for students. This is a book that "novice" teachers or
lay-people can pick up and read with full understanding in just a few hours.
I have used this book in study circles and as a professional
development resource many times over the years with a great deal of success.
Steven Stahl is a delightful writer who masterfully cuts to the core issues
in vocabulary instruction and provides a solid foundation for teachers to
build their instruction and knowledge upon. This book is an excellent
starting point for professional development in vocabulary instruction.
Read this book first.
Language and Reading Success (From Reading Research to
Practice, V. 5)
by Andrew Biemiller, Paula Menyuk
Published in 1999 by Brookline Books
This book is another in the series of books that I heartily
recommend (not just this book, but all of the books in this series).
The series is called "From Reading Research to Practice: A Series for Teachers."
The series was edited by Jeanne Chall, and every book in the series is short,
concrete, and very useful.
This book provides information about vocabulary development
in children as the learn to speak, listen, read, and write. The authors
also talk about determining the readability of text, and discuss ways to
assess the vocabulary difficulty of text.
This book focuses more on language issues and their relevance
to reading development, but a very large part of this book is dedicated
to discussion of vocabulary development. Like the Steven Stahl book
above, this one is very short, but quite informative.
Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction
Isabel Beck, Margaret McKeown, and Linda Kucan
Published in 2002 by Guilford Press
This wonderful book provides a very practical introduction
to effective vocabulary instruction. Beck's now widely accepted concept
of "Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3" words is introduced and explained, and some
very practical demonstrations of lessons are given as well. This book
is an excellent example how "research-into-practice" should be done -- it
is very readable, informative, practical, and concrete.
While I am deeply impressed with this book, I do have to
say that it is not a complete book on vocabulary instruction. This
book provides some excellent and engaging strategies for broadening vocabulary,
but no attention is paid to explicit instruction in morphemic analysis (examining
word parts and considering their relevant meanings) nor is there any discussion
of the important topic of vocabulary instruction for students who are bilingual
or who are learning English as a second language. This is not a criticism
of the book; I only bring it up to encourage educators to go beyond the information
contained in this book. It is an excellent follow-up to Steven Stahl's
book -- a little more advanced; a little more detailed. However, I
would continue to scaffold professional development with teachers to the
next level.
Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice
edited by James Baumann and Ed Kame'enui
Published in 2003 by Guilford Press
This is a much more advanced, detailed book that I would
recommend for educators who have already read and started applying Stahl's
and Beck's books on vocabulary. Each chapter of Vocabulary Instruction:
Research to Practice was written by an expert in the field of vocabulary
instruction, and very nice examples of activities are provided by most of
the authors to help educators apply what they learn in their own classroom
instruction.
The topics are much more diverse, and because each chapter
is authored by a different person, they each have a slightly different feel
(with some being more concrete and applicable, and others being more abstract
and theoretical). Most of the chapters are very relevant and important,
however, and I would strongly recommend that this book be used in more advanced
professional development activities with teachers who are ready for more
abstract and theoretical discussions.
Chapters by Isabel Beck and Margaret McKeown, Andrew Biemiller,
and Steven Stahl and Katherine Dougherty Stahl are very informative reminders
of the importance of rich, meaningful vocabulary instruction. Chapters
by Michael Graves and Shane Templeton and Elizabeth Carr go well beyond the
traditional view of vocabulary being a simple familiarity with words and
their meanings. They remind us that good vocabulary instruction also
focuses on breaking words apart and analyzing their morphemes (the meaningful
parts of words). The words "know" and "knowledge" and "acknowledge"
all have similar meanings -- obvious if you know to examine word parts and
consider root meanings of words.
This is an excellent book for the advanced reader who wants
to gain a wide understanding of a lot of different issues related to vocabulary
development and vocabulary instruction.
