American short stories are a window into a larger tradition of U.S. literature--and the cultural history they represent. They do not require the same sort of time commitment that reading a novel might. Classic American short stories are widely available on the internet and even accessible through American English Publications. Often in the public domain, many classic American short stories can thus be integrated into a classroom reader or grade-level curriculum without copyright concerns. A challenge for teachers who work with readers in secondary-level English classrooms is to teach vocabulary in the context of shared readings, and in ways that engage students in collaborative, motivated meaning-making. The broad and detailed strategies presented in this article are practice-based and designed to provide teachers with concrete starting points as they look for interactive, multimodal, and student-centered ways to build vocabulary for reading classroom texts. The intent of the article is to provide practitioners and learners with actual examples of dynamic, cooperative strategies for engaging adolescent readers with the new words encountered in a prescribed literature curriculum.