Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12
By Janet Allen
Allen, J. (1999). Words, words,words: Teaching vocabulary in grades 4-12. York, Maine: Stenhouse Publications.
Janet Allen (1999) does an amazing job incorporating up-to-date research with the newest types of best practice, in terms of vocabulary instruction. Allen shows teachers alternate ways of using the dictionary in order to look up words, by suggesting ideas such as: making connections with words, activating prior knowledge of students and building upon concept knowledge. One of the research based strategies Allen presents asks students to think of what the identified word “is,” what it “is not,” and examples and non-examples of words that they are studying. For example, the word “preposterous” is “unbelievable.” It is not “predictable.” An example of the word “preposterous” would be “Dennis Rodman” while a non-example would be a quote saying, “Can I go to the bathroom? (Allen, 1999).”
By Janet Allen
Allen, J. (1999). Words, words,words: Teaching vocabulary in grades 4-12. York, Maine: Stenhouse Publications.
Janet Allen (1999) does an amazing job incorporating up-to-date research with the newest types of best practice, in terms of vocabulary instruction. Allen shows teachers alternate ways of using the dictionary in order to look up words, by suggesting ideas such as: making connections with words, activating prior knowledge of students and building upon concept knowledge. One of the research based strategies Allen presents asks students to think of what the identified word “is,” what it “is not,” and examples and non-examples of words that they are studying. For example, the word “preposterous” is “unbelievable.” It is not “predictable.” An example of the word “preposterous” would be “Dennis Rodman” while a non-example would be a quote saying, “Can I go to the bathroom? (Allen, 1999).”
Words, Words, Words also does a wonderful job of describing ways to assess this new way of vocabulary instruction that is valuable and meaningful. Students no longer are asked to match definitions to their target word. Having students infer using their targeted words is a great way to see if students understand meaning. For example, a teacher might take the word “preposterous” and say, “One of our words this week was preposterous. What kind of in-school behavior would the principal think was preposterous (Allen, 1999)?” This technique provides students the opportunity to apply the word to a real world situation, and not simply memorize the word and its definition. Many graphic organizers and activities are included in this helpful book to enable a smooth transition to this new type of teaching and assessing of vocabulary.
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