A way with words: Jackson Middle School teacher authors textbook

Chelsea Tornetto didn't set out to write a textbook, even though she's always wanted to be an author. The Jackson Middle School teacher's "Conquering Content Vocabulary" was published by Scholastic, Inc., in January and, Tornetto said, the path to publication was not quite what she'd expected.

"It's very exciting," Tornetto said, especially since she'd submitted the book idea on Scholastic's site over two years before they'd contacted her to ask for a proposal.

She'd basically forgotten about it, she said.

But she knew she had an idea that worked for her, she loved to write, the tone she wanted to strike was humorous yet informative -- it all seemed to her to be reason enough to move forward with the project.

Tornetto teaches seventh grade and, she said, even as far back as when she was in seventh grade herself, she knew she wanted to write. Back then, she thought her arena was young-adult novels.

"Conquering Content Vocabulary" author and Jackson teacher Chelsea Tornetto poses for a photo Wednesday in her classroom at Jackson Middle School.BEN MATTHEWS

"But the more I've learned about myself -- I'm a teacher at heart," she said.

Even so, "I have cabinets of books on teaching I haven't used," Tornetto said.

Those books are dry, she said, full of jargon and not-very-useful information. She wanted a book with activities her students could engage with, and practical applications that she could use.

Besides, "traditional vocabulary strategies I'd been taught were not very effective," Tornetto said, adding she didn't find a lot of success with her students using vocabulary words in a sentence after rote memorization.

Her background is in social studies and language arts teaching, Tornetto said, and she loves to challenge students with cross-curricular applications.

There's overlap between social studies and language arts, she said.

But she found herself struggling to teach vocabulary effectively. "I can't separate content from vocabulary," Tornetto said. "They're too connected."

Taking time out of the lesson to explain vocabulary words was frustrating, she said.

Being able to use "communism" in a sentence is very different from understanding what life in a communist society would be like, for example, she said.

Enter "word sorts," a method for students to find connections between seemingly unrelated words.

For early readers, word sorts are helpful for learning letter sounds, she said. A teacher might group together "ch" words, for example, so students can see what several different words with a similar sound included look like.

Tornetto said there's nothing groundbreaking about the book itself, that thousands of teachers across the nation probably have similar methods they use in the classroom, but this book can serve as a resource, to demonstrate to teachers a method she has found a lot of success with.

"This got the kids to talk," Tornetto said, adding she's seen a lot of deeper learning going on as the students got into complex conversations about connections between words.

It was surprising, she said, and gratifying.

But even more satisfying than the book's content is the book's existence, Tornetto said.

"I've written children's books but never had them published," she said. "I think with any kind of writing, you're putting yourself out there, and having this book published has really given me confidence to do more writing."

It's validating, too, to have this book published, she said. "It's the culmination of a lot of my lesson plans and work over the years."

Another outcome she didn't expect was, she now has students interested in writing who are bringing their work to her.

It's as though they've now seen a real person, their teacher, with a published book, and that makes the idea of publication more accessible to them, she said.

"What I've done here, it inspires them, I hope," Tornetto said.

Chelsea Tornetto teaches her seventh grade world geography students about regional conflicts Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at Jackson Middle School.Ben Matthews ~ Southeast Missourian

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