Here is a text filled with the kinds of strategies no teacher of reading can ever have enough of: time-tested, classroom-proven ideas that really work with elementary, middle, and high school students–including ESL and others students who come to class with limited vocabulary and few literacy skills. Each of the strategies has been used successfully by master teachers who participate in the San Joaquin Valley Writing Project; each is accompanied by authentic student artifacts or instructional figures; and each is bolstered by discussion of where it fits in the overall literacy curriculum and how students have responded to it.

1.  Robust Vocabulary Instruction

2.  You Will Thank Me For This Some Day

3.  Personal Word Walls

4.  Thematic Word Walls

5.  Vocabulary is Building

6.  Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?

7.  Vocabulary Carousel

8.  Sorting for Success

9.  Vocabulary Squares

10.  Parts of Speech Word Wall

11.  Word Expert

12.  Vocabulary Self-Check

13.  Vocabulary Discussions in Literature Circles

14.  Using Computer Software Tools to Expand Vocabulary

15.  Literary Terms

16.  Vocabulary Tea Party

17.  Whatever Floats Your Boat

18.  Using Meaningful Contexts to Understand Science Vocabulary

19.  Word Associations with Literary Characters

20.  Key Word Collection

21.  Word Posters that Link Key Concepts

22.  Vocabulary Development in the Science Classroom

23.  Sensitizing Students to Shades to Meaning

24.  Connotations

25.  Venerable Teaching

26.  Shades of Meaning

27.  Verbal Tone Charades

28.  How a Writer Paints Mood

29.  Learning the ABC's

30.  Nurturing My Students' Romance With Words

31.  Integrating Verbs into Student Writing

32.  Recipe for Vocabulary Short Story Three Layer Cake

33.  The Excitement of Words

34.  Curriculum-Related Word Banks

35.  Monster Sentences

36.  Don't Read This: It's Taboo

37.  Where in the World?

38.  From Slang to Dictionary Entry

39.  Back to Our Word Roots

40.  Start Your Day with Vocabulary

41.  Word Tree Posters

42.  Linking the Past with the Present

43.  Creating Student Lexicologists

44.  Logocreatology

45.  Curing Homophone Madness

46.  Building Vocabulary and Comprehension through Dramatization

47.  Vocabulary Poetry

48.  Word Clusters

49.  Vocabulary Crosswords

50.  Vocabulary Crib Books

51.  Vocabulary Taboo

Vocabulary Development  (Reading & Literacy)
Reading Methods (Supplementary)  [VOCABULARY]   (Reading & Literacy)
Reading/Writing Methods in the Middle School  [SUPPLEMENTS]   (Reading & Literacy)

Cathy Blanchfield is a secondary teacher in the Fresno Unified School District in Fresno, CA. She has taught middle and high school students from predominantly low socioeconomic neighborhoods. She received her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and her M.A. in Education, Reading Emphasis, from California State University, Fresno. Cathy serves the San Joaquin Valley Writing Project as a Teacher Consultant and Associate Director.

Gail Tompkins is a professor at California State University, Fresno where she teaches courses in reading and language arts. She is also Director of the San Joaquin Valley Writing Project at CSU Fresno. She is very interested in the history of English and in etymologies of words.

A lack of vocabulary development affects students' reading comprehension and their writing skills.  This can be particularly damaging as students move through middle and secondary grades, when content area reading requires so much vocabulary learning, influencing future success and career choices.  Vocabulary learning particularly affects the success of English learners; but when vocabulary instruction is done well, it can help close the gap in reading and writing performance. 

    Teaching Vocabulary:  50 Creative Strategies, Grades 6-12 was developed by middle and secondary master teachers involved n the San Joaquin Valley Writing Project, including literacy expert Dr. Gail Tompkins.  This text shares 50 classroom-tested strategies demonstrated to improve vocabulary skills in 6th through 12th graders in classrooms where 92 percent of the school population are English learners.  Clear-cut steps for implementing each strategy, specifics on how the strategy fits within the curriculum, and information on how students responded to the instruction offer valuable tools for you as you help your students develop their vocabulary skills and their overall competence in literacy. 

"The volume contains a great many practical, useful, and feasible ideas, which would be a welcome set of additions to the busy teacher's repertoire of practices."  Margot Kinberg, National University

"This is the best book on how to teach vocabulary that I've seen in years.  This book is a smorgasbord of lesson plans with a large and varied menu.  We see a variety of teaching styles and methods, all grounded in solid theoretical underpinnings."  Joseph Geunther, University of Wisconsin, Platteville

"One great strength is that the strategies often accommodate more than one learning style."  Jackie Glasgow, Ohio University

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