Teacher's Guide to Vocabulary Development Across the Day

You probably know that having young children memorize new words or relegating vocabulary instruction to one time of day is not the way to go, but you may not know what else to do to support students’ vocabulary development. In this guide, Tanya Wright shows you how to make word learning more meaningful and engaging as you incorporate teaching about words across the day.

Young children love to learn and use new words; the key is to tap into their natural curiosity and excitement. Tanya shows you how to create opportunities for children to think about and use words in meaningful contexts during read aloud, content-area learning, reading instruction, and writing instruction―all day long! Classroom videos of teachers and children learning about words bring the ideas to life, and a friendly "What We Know" feature highlights important research that informs the practice.

For many years as the author of bestselling Heinemann books such as About the Authors, Study Driven, Already Ready, and In Pictures and In Words, and as a member of Heinemann’s Professional Development Services, Katie Wood Ray gave teachers resources and PD that transformed writing instruction and helped children discover a lifelong love of writing.

In 2014, Katie “moved to the other side of the desk” and joined the dynamic team of editors at Heinemann where she works closely with authors to craft powerful professional books on a range of literacy topics. Katie is also the series editor for the new Classroom Essentials books from Heinemann. Tasked with bringing foundational, progressive practices to a new generation of teachers, Katie works to ensure that the sharp focus and enhanced design of each book best serve the content. She also teamed up with her longtime collaborator, Lisa Cleaveland, to write one of the first books in the series, A Teacher’s Guide to Getting Started with Beginning Writers. 

You can find her on Twitter at @KatieWoodRay.

Tanya Wright is an Associate Professor of Language and Literacy in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. She is a former kindergarten teacher whose research and teaching focus on curriculum and instruction in language and literacy during the early childhood and elementary years. Tanya’s research examines instructional practices that promote oral language, vocabulary, and knowledge development for young children.