The Four Es (Explain, Engage, Extend, Examine) is a concrete approach to incorporating research-based practice into daily vocabulary instruction by focusing on the pivotal role of teacher and student talk in word learning. Specifically, teachers use language that is understandable to students, identify misunderstandings and correct them within a meaningful context, point out relationships among words, and reflect on evidence of student learning to determine next instructional steps. Students move vocabulary from the receptive to the expressive, add to and draw from the collective prior knowledge that develops through the sharing of information and experiences, and take risks with word learning. The article includes a summary of related research, two extended classroom examples, a discussion of how to select words for instruction, and approaches to assessing student word learning.