Words Worth Using: Supporting Adolescents' Power With Academic Vocabulary

Help adolescents learn and use the academic words that will assist them in school and beyond. The author argues that “words worth using” must matter to adolescents’ authentic work in the disciplines and connect to their lived experiences. Rather than using a model of vocabulary instruction that positions students as passive recipients who must simply memorize definitions, Townsend outlines a metalinguistic approach that shows students how to learn words by using them in ways that are meaningful to their identity, language background, and individual interests. The book provides research-based instructional routines to support adolescents as they learn and use new words in their disciplinary learning. It explores how academic vocabulary can position students as “insiders” or “outsiders,” and how culturally sustaining instruction can welcome all students into discovering and using language. Words Worth Using will be a popular resource for teachers who feel stymied by the sheer volume of words they are expected to teach.

Book Features:

• An engaging exploration of adolescents and the kinds of powerful word learning that endure.
• Metalinguistic awareness as an underleveraged approach to helping adolescents develop word knowledge in engaging ways.
• A culturally sustaining pedagogy framework with specific attention to emergent bilinguals.
• “Words Worth Using” boxes that share the etymology and morphology of many important words throughout the text.
• A careful review and explanation of research accompanied by classroom anecdotes, real-world examples, and templates for teachers and instructional leaders to use in their own contexts.

Dianna Townsend is a professor of literacy studies at the University of Nevada, Reno.