I still remember when my high school teachers would assign the dreaded weekly vocabulary homework. We would painstakingly look up each word in the dictionary, write down what was usually the shortest definition, and then take a wild stab at writing the word in a sentence. I'm not sure how many of those words I actually learned, but I do remember being bored, frustrated and confused. Dictionaries are not necessarily the only tool for deriving meaning of new words.
Thankfully, this book helps educators to realize the importance of meaningful vocabulary instruction. It outlines various techniques for robust instruction in both primary and secondary grade levels. If you teach vocabulary, you should consider this book for your collection.