Vocabulary Acquisition

1. Vocabulary Acquisition An Action Research Project By Jolene Gensheimer Seattle Pacific University EDU 6975 March 2017

2. Focus: Vocabulary Acquisition Purpose: to study research-based vocabulary instruction strategies and implement them with students. Ultimately, student vocabulary knowledge will increase and I will see which strategies are most effective for struggling students. • Who: My 10th grade Improving Literacy Skills (ILS) students • 15 students • The achievement target is two-fold: • Students will learn new words which will improve their vocabulary base and improve reading comprehension • I will gain new strategies to use in my classroom on a regular basis

3. Rationale • Reading skills are foundational • Reading skills are not taught in high school (focus on analysis) • Reading assignments get harder in high school • Students who are behind continue to fall further behind • Word gap • 4,500 - 5,400 word gap exists for low vs. high achieving students (Marzano, 2012) • Some factors that lead to this struggle (Kelley, Lesaux, Kieffer, Faller, 2010) • English is not the primary language at home • Limited word exposure • Economics • Families who do not read to their kids

4. The research shows… • we should use “high utility” words, • “spending precious instructional time on the deep learning of general-purpose academic words (e.g., analyze, frequent, abstract)...is more valuable than targeting the low-frequency and relatively unimportant words (e.g., refuge, burrow) highlighted in bold in many textbooks (Hiebert, 2005)” (Kelley, Lesaux, Kieffer, Faller, 2010). • Coxhead and Marzano have high utility lists of words (also called tier 2 words) • We should spend twice the time and use half the words than most teachers normally do • Students should read the words in a text • The text should be interesting – “topics salient to adolescent youth culture” (Kelley, Lesaux, Kieffer, Faller, 2010)

5. Process: Triangulation Matrix for the vocabulary acquisition data cycle

6. Vocabulary Pre-Test Results (four words on each test)

7. Pretests helped me choose words and helped me understand my students better

8. Strategy 1 – Word Map

9. Strategy 2 – Marzano’s Six Steps*Students favored this strategy

10. Strategy 3 – WIN decoding

11. Triangulation of Data Process

12. Vocabulary Game

13. Words in Writing

14. Test Results – they learned new words with all strategies!Blue = pretestsRed = post tests

16. Final Results • Students learned with all of the strategies • Highest gains were with Marzano • not a tremendous difference • Students preferred the Marzano method because the form was simpler • Marzano’s strategy is more work for the teacher • E.g., need to have a story to go with each word • Practiced in my regular 10th grade classes • students said they liked writing the definitions in their own words and drawing pictures • As Marzano says regarding strategies, “You have to see how it works in your particular setting” (Marzano, 2009) • I loved learning new strategies and am using them regularly in my classes

17. Next Steps • Using elements of research regularly in my classes • Theory research has improved my vocabulary instruction strategies • More time + less words = success • Students write down the definitions • Students draw a picture with each word • Reinforcing my reward system for using vocabulary words in class discussions and in writing • Reminded me of the value of research for my professional growth