it hard to comprehend text and, as a result, they are less motivated to read. Limited time spent reading results in less practice with vocabulary words, which causes these students to fall behind their peers. These vocabulary limitations are an important factor in the achievement gap, particularly for children at risk. Based on their experience in the classroom and reviews of recent research, the authors have developed this book as a guide for elementary and middle school teachers who want to improve the vocabulary of their students. Traditional vocabulary instruction, such as instructing children to look up words in a dictionary, memorize word lists, or use words in sentences, is not effective for many students. Instead, the activities in the book are designed to improve students' independent word learning skills, rather than simply learning teacher-selected sets of vocabulary. The book is divided into six parts: introduction to the authors' model, teaching students word learning strategies, developing students' intentional word learning skills, building children's word knowledge, teaching vocabulary to young children and second language learners, and managing a classroom vocabulary development program. The book is full of anecdotal examples and vignettes and includes photocopiable worksheets to hand out to students.

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