Vocabulary Unplugged: 30 Lessons That Will Revolutionize How You Teach Vocabulary K-12

VOCABULARY UNPLUGGED'S goal as a book is to share neurocentric ways to unplug vocabulary and spelling instruction so that words are not merely memorized in the name of the most current curriculum, but rather truly learned and owned by students. The goal is to have words actually permeate students speech as well as their writing.

The strategies proffered in Vocabulary Unplugged are not bound to a specific age or grade level, as they draw on accepted knowledge of the brain, memory and learning, whether the learner is five, fifteen, or seventy-nine.

So, slip inside these pages and unplug the lists, the passivity, and the overhead. Get out of the dark classroom, and discover the energy that emerges from the thirty activities and variations herein as we plug in color, movement, poetry, history, music, and numerous other ways of exploring words within meaningful contexts. The 30 brain-appropriate activities will revitalize your hope that ALL students can improve their vocabulary, reminding everyone that learning doesn't have to be banal, dull or without energy.

You will discover information and lessons on:

Helping students remember the words they learn

Using music to explore words

Guiding students success through meaningful instruction

Playing with Words to engage learning

Using movement to enhance vocabulary

Improving memory and vocabulary acquisition through color

Understanding the importance of history in vocabulary development

Harnessing the power of poetry to build word knowledge

Exploring patterns to create dynamic vocabulary lessons

Including context for assuring success in word study

And much more...

Steven Pinker (1994), cognitive psychologist and leading expert on language, says we begin using words around twelve months of age. Therefore, high school graduates, who have been at it for about seventeen years, must have been learning an average of ten new words a day continuously since their first birthdays, or about a new word every ninety waking minutes. He goes on to explain that preliterate children are lexical vacuum cleaners, learning a new word every two waking hours.

This means our student are already plugged in having learned numerous words before they ever set foot in our classrooms.