No More "Look Up the List" Vocabulary Instruction

“Just as word learning is incremental, so is learning about vocabulary instruction. Teachers need exposure to research, best-practice strategies, and fellow practitioners.”
—Charlene Cobb and Camille Blachowicz

The way we’ve learned influences the way we teach, but the vocabulary instruction many of us received—looking up words and writing sentences or completing worksheets— just doesn’t work. So what can we do instead?

No More “Look Up the List” Vocabulary Instruction is your guide to engaging, research-proven practices for teaching words effectively. Practitioner Charlene Cobb and researcher Camille Blachowicz share why old-fashioned methods don’t work, what the research shows does work, and how to put the research into action.

Charlene and Camille answer teachers’ most commonly asked questions about vocabulary instruction, including:

• How many words, and how do I select them?
• How can I foster student independence using dictionaries and glossaries?
• How do I find time for meaningful vocabulary instruction?
• How can I assess and hold students accountable?

“Without practice in the full range of ways we use a word,” write Charlene and Camille, “our word knowledge is limited and falls from our grasp as the next cycle of words enters.” No More “Look Up the List” Vocabulary Instruction offers a solution—deepen students’ engagement with words, increase their exposure to them, and expand their word knowledge.