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Making Vocabulary Instruction Practical, Powerful, and Playful, All Across the Day

Tuesday, February 25, 2025 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm EST

Making Vocabulary Instruction Practical, Powerful, and Playful, All Across the Day

Presented by Dr. Lucy Calkins, Robinson Professor of Literacy at Teachers College, Columbia University, Founding Director at The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower, and Senior Author of Units of Study in Writing, Reading, and Phonics; and Katy Wischow, Staff Developer, The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower

Sponsored by The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower

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Vocabulary is the cornerstone of literacy and knowledge building, but integrating robust word learning into daily instruction can be a challenge. In this edWebinar, join experts from The Reading & Writing Project to explore actionable strategies for embedding vocabulary and morphology instruction into your teaching practice.

Learn how to select high-leverage words from shared texts and experiences to maximize students’ vocabulary growth. Discover quick, engaging ways to introduce new words and help students use them repeatedly in meaningful contexts. You’ll experience lively activities and games that make vocabulary practice fun and effective, ensuring students truly “own” their new words.

The edWebinar will also dive into the power of morphology—teaching word parts like roots and affixes—to unlock vocabulary and support reading comprehension. You’ll see how these lessons can fit seamlessly into your existing workshop structures, from read-alouds to writing instruction.

Throughout the session, you’ll gain insights from the latest research and practical examples of how teachers successfully build vocabulary instruction into their classrooms. Walk away with tools to help students grow their vocabulary, deepen their understanding of ideas, and confidently express their own powerful thoughts.

This edWebinar will be of interest to K-12 teachers. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.

Lucy Calkins

About the Presenters

Dr. Lucy Calkins is the Founding Director of The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower. She’s been on the faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University for over four decades, as both the Co-director of the Literacy Specialist Program and as the Richard Robinson Professor of Children’s Literature. Dr. Calkins has written 50+ books, including the widely adopted Units of Study curriculum. Dr. Calkins began her career as a teacher for elementary, middle, and high school students, then joined Don Graves as a researcher on the National Institute of Education’s first major study of children as writers. That research has been credited with transforming the teaching of writing, bringing writing workshops, which were once the province of college classrooms, into K-8 classrooms. For decades since then, Dr. Calkins has devoted most of her time to leading organizations that aim to support best practices in the teaching of reading and writing.

Katy Wishow

Katy Wischow is a Staff Developer with The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower. More than a decade ago, Katy found her own way to her very first Reading & Writing Project Summer Institute, where she decided she absolutely had to have the Units of Study curriculum. Soon, she’d transformed her Newark, NJ middle school classroom into a flourishing writing workshop; her students’ passionate response led Katy to enroll in the Literacy Specialist Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Katy has co-authored the book Unlocking the Power of Classroom Talk, co-written several Units of Study, and authored the Ida and Jake series in the Jump Rope Readers. Katy is deeply interested in grammar, writing professionally, supporting teachers’ writing lives, and building strong learning cultures in schools and classrooms.

Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.

Join the Teaching Reading and Writing community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, and view recordings of previous programs to earn CE certificates.


The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower was created out of the pioneering work that Lucy Calkins began over 40 years ago. Inspired by her research, she developed innovative curricula and methods that transformed the way children learned to write. For decades since, she has worked with educators to help students become what she always knew them to be: proficient and enthusiastic writers, readers, and thinkers.

Today, RWP-M remains deeply rooted in this experience, while also holding true to this a spirit of innovation and continuous learning. Lucy Calkins and her team author the Units of Study in Reading, Writing, and Phonics and several series of engaging decodable texts. More than authors of curricula, at its core, RWP-M is a community of practice, a think tank, and a professional development organization dedicated to transforming the way students learn to read, write, and think.


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