Bolstering Vocabulary with Teacher Talk in the Classroom

This practical guide introduces "Teacher Talk," an easy-to-use tool for teachers to help improve elementary students' vocabulary. When students are exposed to extensive vocabularies, they are better prepared to build their receptive and productive language and succeed academically. Through many inviting examples and real-world guidance, Rowe and Haase explain how to be reflective and intentional about the language you use and how to use elevated or substitutionary language to model different registers of speech for elementary students.
The various "Teacher Talk" strategies in this book cover key topics, including disciplinary vocabulary, modelling academic discourse, addressing state and national standards, and meeting individual student needs across grades K-6. With many charts, activities, and tools that are ready for use, this book equips teachers with many methods for bolstering students' academic language in the classroom and beyond.

Kristen Haase is an elementary ESL teacher in Pennsylvania, where she also serves as the ELD team leader and is a member of the school's leadership team. Carmen Shahadi Rowe is an ESL instructional coach for an urban school district in Pennsylvania. She has served as a Spanish and K-12 ESL teacher and administrator at the district level and is the founder of Accelerating Language, LLC.

Introduction 1. Prepared for Life 2. The Principle of Substitutionary Language 3. The Importance of Oral Language Inside and Outside the Classroom 4. Strategies for Implementing Substitutionary Language: Where do I start? Strategy #1: Ridding Ourselves of Informal Language Strategy #2: Using Substitutionary Language While Giving Directions Strategy #3: Substituting More Nuanced Words and Phrases for Common Ones Strategy #4: Using Content Vocabulary Across the Curriculum Strategy #5: Getting Your Morning Started Right Strategy #6: Using Multiple Meaning Words Across Content Areas Strategy #7: Exposing Students to a Full Range of Signal Words at the Sentence Level Strategy #8: Bolstering Our Speech with Literary Devices Strategy #9: Capitalizing on Root Words and Their Family Members Strategy #10: Modeling Elevated Language at the Discourse Level Strategy #11: Modeling Discourse to Address the Common Core Standards Strategy #12: Emphasizing Character Traits and Theme 5. Building a Schoolwide Culture of Substitutionary Language: How can we enlist the help of all school staff? 6. Engaging Caregivers to Use Elevated Language