No More "Look Up the List" Vocabulary Instruction

“Just as word learning is incremental, so is learning about vocabulary instruction. Teachers need exposure to research, best-practice strategies, and fellow practitioners.”
—Charlene Cobb and Camille Blachowicz

The way we’ve learned influences the way we teach, but the vocabulary instruction many of us received—looking up words and writing sentences or completing worksheets— just doesn’t work. So what can we do instead?

No More “Look Up the List” Vocabulary Instruction is your guide to engaging, research-proven practices for teaching words effectively. Practitioner Charlene Cobb and researcher Camille Blachowicz share why old-fashioned methods don’t work, what the research shows does work, and how to put the research into action.

Charlene and Camille answer teachers’ most commonly asked questions about vocabulary instruction, including:

• How many words, and how do I select them?
• How can I foster student independence using dictionaries and glossaries?
• How do I find time for meaningful vocabulary instruction?
• How can I assess and hold students accountable?

“Without practice in the full range of ways we use a word,” write Charlene and Camille, “our word knowledge is limited and falls from our grasp as the next cycle of words enters.” No More “Look Up the List” Vocabulary Instruction offers a solution—deepen students’ engagement with words, increase their exposure to them, and expand their word knowledge.

Charlene Cobb is coauthor of the Heinemann title No More Look Up the List Vocabulary Instruction, part of the Not This, But That series edited by Nell K. Duke and Ellin Oliver Keene. She is Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning in East Maine School District 63, in Des Plaines, Illinois. She has worked in the area of literacy for over twenty years as a teacher, reading specialist, professor, and consultant. Charlene has worked nationally with schools and districts to support literacy programs and is particularly interested in the literacy development of linguistically diverse learners and struggling readers. She has contributed several articles to the International Reading Association journal, The Reading Teacher and has coauthored two books on the topics of literacy and vocabulary.

Nell K. Duke, Ed.D., is a professor in literacy, language, and culture and also in the combined program in education and psychology at the University of Michigan. Duke received her Bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College and her Masters and Doctoral degrees from Harvard University. Duke's work focuses on early literacy development, particularly among children living in economic poverty. Her specific areas of expertise include the development of informational reading and writing in young children, comprehension development and instruction in early schooling, and issues of equity in literacy education. She has served as Co-Principal Investigator of projects funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the George Lucas Educational Foundation, among other organizations. Duke has been named one of the most influential education scholars in the U.S. in EdWeek. In 2014, Duke was awarded the P. David Pearson Scholarly Influence Award from the Literacy Research Association, and in 2018 she received the International Literacy Association's William S. Gray Citation of Merit for outstanding contributions to research, theory, practice, and policy. She has also received the Michigan Reading Association Advocacy Award, the American Educational Research Association Early Career Award, the Literacy Research Association Early Career Achievement Award, the International Reading Association Dina Feitelson Research Award, the National Council of Teachers of English Promising Researcher Award, and the International Reading Association Outstanding Dissertation Award. Duke is author and co-author of numerous journal articles and book chapters. Her most recent book is Inside Information: Developing Powerful Readers and Writers of Informational Text through Project-based Instruction. She is co-author of the books Reading and Writing Informational Text in the Primary Grades: Research-Based Practices; Literacy and the Youngest Learner: Best Practices for Educators of Children from Birth to Five; Beyond Bedtime Stories: A Parent's Guide to Promoting Reading, Writing, and Other Literacy Skills From Birth to 5, now in its second edition; and Reading and Writing Genre with Purpose in K - 8 Classrooms. She is co-editor of the Handbook of Effective Literacy Instruction: Research-based Practice K to 8 and Literacy Research Methodologies. She is also editor of The Research-Informed Classroom book series and co-editor of the Not This, But That book series. Duke has taught preservice, inservice and doctoral courses in literacy education, speaks and consults widely on literacy education, and is an active member of several literacy-related organizations. Among other roles, she currently serves as advisor for the Public Broadcasting Service/Corporation for Public Broadcasting Ready to Learn initiative, an expert for NBC News Learn, and advisor to the Council of Chief State School Officers Early Literacy Networked Improvement Community. She has served as author or consultant on several educational programs, including Connect4Learning: The Pre-K Curriculum; Information in Action: Reading, Writing, and Researching with Informational Text; Engaging Families in Children's Literacy Development: A Complete Workshop Series; Buzz About IT (Informational Text); iOpeners; National Geographic Science K-2; and the DLM Early Childhood Express. Duke also has a strong interest in improving the quality of educational research training in the U.S.

Camille Blachowicz is coauthor of the Heinemann title No More Look Up the List Vocabulary Instruction, part of the Not This, But That series edited by Nell K. Duke and Ellin Oliver Keene. Camille is Professor Emeritus at National Louis University where she is Codirector of The Reading Leadership Institute, a professional learning network of literacy staff developers. She is also Co-Principal investigator of the Multifaceted Comprehensive Vocabulary Instruction Program. She has researched, written, and presented extensively on the topic of vocabulary instruction which is the subject of three of her books. Camille was a Fulbright and Spencer Fellow and editor of the Journal of Reading Behavior. She was named to the roster of Outstanding Teacher Educators in Reading by the International Reading Association and is a member of the Reading Hall of Fame.

Ellin Oliver Keene has been a classroom teacher, staff developer, non-profit director and adjunct professor of reading and writing. For sixteen years she directed staff development initiatives at the Denver-based Public Education & Business Coalition. She served as Deputy Director and Director of Literacy and Staff Development for the Cornerstone Project at the University of Pennsylvania for 4 years. Ellin works with schools and districts throughout the country and abroad. Her emphasis is long-term, school-based professional development and strategic planning for literacy learning. Ellin recently published The Literacy Studio: Redesigning the Workshop for Readers and Writers which is focused on an up-to-date conceptualization of Readers/Writers' workshop. She is the author of Engaging Children: Igniting the Drive for Deeper Learning (2018), is co-editor and co-author of The Teacher You Want to Be: Essays about Children, Learning, and Teaching (Heinemann, 2015); co-editor of the Not This, but That series (Heinemann, 2013 - 2018); author of Talk About Understanding: Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Understanding (Heinemann, 2012), To Understand: New Horizons in Reading Comprehension (Heinemann, 2008), co-author of Comprehension Going Forward (Heinemann, 2011), co-author of Mosaic of Thought: The Power of Comprehension Strategy Instruction, 2nd edition (Heinemann, 2007, 1st edition, 1997) and author of Assessing Comprehension Thinking Strategies (Shell Educational Books, 2006) as well as numerous chapters for professional books and journals on the teaching of reading as well as education policy journals.