What Really Matters in Vocabulary: Research-based Practices across the Curriculum - Softcover

Cunningham, Patricia M.

4.27

15 ratings by Goodreads

9780205570416: What Really Matters in Vocabulary: Research-based Practices across the Curriculum

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0205570410 ISBN 13: 9780205570416

Publisher: Pearson, 2008

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

To Pat Cunningham vocabulary isn't just a predictor for comprehension it is a reminder of how much meaning vocabulary matters and how complex it is to teach children meanings for words.

In many ways, things are better in our schools for children who we used to call “underprivileged” and “disadvantaged.”

Every state now has public kindergarten and pre K is available for our most needy children. The Internet and other technologies make “bringing words to life” a richer and more do-able goal. However, we still have many children coming to school with impoverished vocabularies. Many of these children come from underpriviledged families and many do not come with much English. Drawing on her experience as a classroom teacher, researcher, scholar, author, and co-founder of the Four-Blocks Literacy Framework Pat Cunningham offers elementary teachers a practical model and friendly strategies for helping ALL students develop their vocabularies. Guiding teachers to use all available resources to build rich meaning vocabularies, she helps to ensure every student's success in school and beyond. There is no way to overstate the importance of meaning vocabulary to comprehension. The size of a child's vocabulary is one of the best predictors of how well he or she will comprehend while listening or reading. Simply stated, what really matters is building bigger vocabulary to make all students better readers.

Features:

Practical strategies teachers can use to build meaning vocabulary throughout the school day.

Separate chapters for building vocabulary during math, science, social studies and the arts and physical education.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Back Cover:

Patricia M. Cunningham

What Really Matters in Vocabulary, 1/e

By clearly explaining that vocabulary isn't just a predictor for comprehension, Pat reminds teachers how much meaning vocabulary matters, how complex teaching meaning is, and how critical reading is to building word banks. Her experience as a classroom teacher, researcher, scholar, and innovator gives readers a unique opportunity to learn from the best as Pat provides a practical classroom model to help all students–including English language learners and diverse readers–develop broad, nuanced vocabularies. Her strategies directly address learning words in the content areas as well as teaching vocabulary at all stages of a reading lesson. It’s vocabulary brought to life!

In their well-known and much welcomed thought-provoking style, Pat Cunningham and Dick Allington bring you the best research-based instructional advice available. Each of the brief and inexpensive books in the What Really Matters series features what Pat and Dick know about one aspect of teaching and learning to read independently with understanding. To learn more about the series see the inside front cover.

“The material is excellent and the research is evident. Teachers can feel [Pat’s] enthusiasm for words!” –Tensil Clayton, retired curriculum supervisor, North Carolina

“This latest work by Pat Cunningham will fill a gap in the current spate of vocabulary books on the market. She speaks to teachers in a way they understand and appreciate.” –Sharon Arthur Moore, staff developer, Arizona

“[Pat’s] knowledge of words and classroom practice make a powerful combination and teachers will readily jump in and try the strategies she has proposed in this text. Any practicing teacher will appreciate the thoroughness of explanation and the variety of strategies offered.” –Amanda Arens, literacy consultant, Missouri

Patricia M. Cunningham is the author of Beyond Retelling, Classrooms That Work, Schools That Work, Phonics They Use, and the Making Words Series. She is a professor of education at Wake Forest University with over 30 years of experience in various elementary grades as well as in remedial reading. Pat promotes literacy for all children through her Four Blocks� workshops and staff development sessions with educators.

About the Author:

Pat Cunningham grew up in Rhode Island. For seven years, after graduating from The University of Rhode Island, she taught a variety of elementary grades in Florida and Indiana. She received her Ph. D in Reading Education from the University Of Georgia in 1974. After teaching at Ohio University and serving as Director of Reading for Alamance Co., North Carolina Schools, she came to Wake Forest University to direct the Elementary Education program in 1978.

Pat’s particular interest has always been in finding alternative ways to teach children for whom learning to read is difficult. Reading and Writing in Elementary Classrooms, first published in 1978, is currently in its fourth edition. In 1991, She published Phonics they Use: Words for Reading and Writing, which is currently available in its fourth edition. Along with Richard Allington, She published Classrooms that Work and Schools that Work. Along with Dorothy Hall, she developed the Four Blocks Literacy framework, which is currently used as the balanced literacy framework in thousand of classrooms throughout the country. She and Dorothy Hall are co-directors of the Four Blocks Literacy Center, which is housed at Wake Forest University.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.