Six pre-service teacher candidates TCs, each engaged in field experiences in Kindergarten or First Grade classrooms at an urban based elementary school compared the impact of interactive read alouds and simple read alouds on children's Tier two vocabulary meaning acquisition and usage. Each TC read a different trade book that contained at least 8 tier two words to 4 children from the classroom in which they had been assigned for field work. For two of the children, the selected text was read using 5 elaborations for each of the target words as it occurred in the text. For the other two children the same text was read without any elaborations on any of the words. Each child was then asked to retell what had been read. Each child's usage of the target words during the retelling was noted for occurrence and accuracy of usage. Findings revealed the superiority of the interactive approach in promoting vocabulary growth as well as comprehension.