Empowering Students Knowledge of Vocabulary: Learning How Language Works, Grades 3-5

This fun and practical book gives teachers of grades 3–5 teachers both the research and the day-to-day practical activities to expand and empower their students’ vocabulary. 

Upper elementary students will develop a deeper understanding of how the English language works, enrich their vocabularies, and improve their reading and writing skills through the information and lessons provided by veteran educators Mary Jo Fresch and David L. Harrison. 

Each chapter presents definitions and playful examples (in poetry and prose) to teach: 

• Antonyms, synonyms, acronyms, (and many more “nyms”)
• Similes and metaphors
• Common idioms
• Shades of meaning and word origins 

Practical lessons and activities for each category will engage students in joyful practice. A final chapter offers insights into language choices by eight well-known children’s poets and authors, including two former US Young People’s Poets Laureate—Kenn Nesbitt and Margarita Engle—and world-renowned Jane Yolen.

Mary Jo Fresch is an academy professor and professor emerita in the School of Teaching and Learning, College of Education and Human Ecology, at The Ohio State University. She has been an educator for more than forty years. She began her teaching career as a third-grade teacher, and then worked with adults with challenging literacy needs at the University of Akron. She has spent the last thirty years teaching literacy courses for preservice and inservice and providing professional learning workshops teachers across the United States. She speaks nationally and internationally about literacy-related topics.

Her research focuses on the developmental aspect of literacy learning. She has over sixty peer-reviewed articles in professional journals such as Language Arts, Journal of Literacy Research, The Reading Teacher, Reading and Writing Quarterly, and Reading Psychology. Her professional books include Strategies for Effective Balanced Literacy (2016), The Power of Picture Books: Using Content Area Literature in Middle School (2009), Engaging Minds in English Language Arts Classrooms: The Surprising Power of Joy (2014), and An Essential History of Current Reading Practices (editor; 2008). She coauthored Learning through Poetry (2013), a five-book phonemic and phonological awareness series, and 7 Keys to Research for Writing Success (2018) with David L. Harrison. She is married to her college sweetheart (Hank), has two married children, and five grandchildren.

David L. Harrison has published more than 100 books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for young readers and teachers, and has been anthologized in 185 others. His work has been translated into twelve languages and presented on television, radio, podcast, video stream, on stage, and in musical groups.

Harrison's professional books include Easy Poetry Lessons That Dazzle and Delight (1999), with Bernice Cullinan; "Yes, Poetry Can," the poetry chapter for Children's Literature in the Reading Program (edited by Deborah Wooten, Lauren Almonette Liang, and Bernice Cullinan, third [2009], fourth [2015], and fifth [2018] editions); Learning through Poetry (2013), with Mary Jo Fresch, a five-volume set to build phonemic awareness and phonics skills; and Partner Poems for Building Fluency: 40 Engaging Poems for Two Voices with Motivating Activities That Help Students Improve Their Fluency and Comprehension (2009), with Tim Rasinski and Gay Fawcett. Let's Write This Week with David Harrison (2012), with Lauren Edmondson, is a 20-episode video program that brings writing tips into the elementary classroom.

Harrison holds degrees from Drury and Emory Universities and honorary doctorates of letters from Missouri State University and Drury University. David Harrison Elementary School is named in his honor. He is poet laureate of Drury University. In 2020 he became the first recipient of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Children's Literature Medal.