Resource for Educators: Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction

Bringing Words To Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction
By: Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown and Linda Kucan

Beck, I. L., Kucan, L., & Mckeown, M. G. (2002). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. New York: The Guilford Press.

Bring Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction details the importance of vocabulary instruction in the classroom. Teachers could easily use this resource as a background on why, what Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2002) call “robust vocabulary instruction,” is needed within every classroom. The researchers claim that vocabulary is linked directly to reading comprehension, which makes proper instruction crucial.

Beck, McKewon and Kucan (2002) show researched based evidence on the importance of not soley relying on context clues as a way to teach vocabulary considering. All unfamiliar words in the text can not be learned at one time, nor are all the words put into a context that allows for the meaning to be easily decoded. Furthermore, a child’s understanding of a word can fall along a continuum, from any where between not knowing the word at all, to having great understanding of the word. Some students may in fact believe they know a word’s meaning, and how to use it appropriately; however, their knowledge could be a complete misnomer, especially if they were using context clues to decipher meanings.

This book is extremely powerful in the way that it addresses the research behind vocabulary instruction, while linking it to best-practices. The research that Beck, McKeown and Kucah have performed over the years makes this a must read in order to gain background knowledge on the very intriguing subject of vocabulary instruction.