This book provides a research-based framework and practical strategies for vocabulary development with children from the earliest grades through high school. It emphasizes instruction that offers rich information about words and their uses and enhances students' language comprehension and production. The book guides teachers in selecting words for instruction; developing student-friendly explanations of new words; creating meaningful learning activities; and getting students involved in thinking about, using, and noticing new words both within and outside the classroom. Many concrete examples, sample classroom dialogues, and exercises for teachers are included in the book. Chapters are: Rationale for Robust Vocabulary Instruction; Choosing Words To Teach; Introducing Vocabulary; Developing Vocabulary in the Earliest Grades; Developing Vocabulary in the Later Grades; Making the Most of Natural Contexts; and Enriching the Verbal Environment. Appendixes contain: Text Talk Books and Vocabulary Words, which lists 80 books according to grade level and the vocabulary words they introduce; and Books for a Lively Verbal Environment, which suggests books in categories such as language focus, word histories, multiple-meaning words, kinds of words, and fantasies about words. (Contains 69 references.) (PM)