Teaching word meanings /

Stahl and Nagy, authorities in the field of vocabulary development, synthesize the research and describe a comprehensive approach to promoting students' vocabulary growth. Although many effective strategies for teaching word meanings explicitly are included, the book focuses on what teachers can do to increase students' word knowledge in a variety of instructional settings. In terms of explicit instruction, the book offers guidelines for choosing words to study and different word learning strategies. The authors include specific activities for learning high-frequency words, high-utility words, and new concepts. Perhaps even more helpful are guidelines for making the entire curriculum more effective in promoting vocabulary growth. The volume provides valuable insights into how to help students develop a sense of word consciousness, an independent interest in words, and a motivation to learn them. This is an important addition to every classroom teacher's bookshelf. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through practitioners. I. Rosenthal The College of St. Rose