Exemplary Practices in Vocabulary Instruction
Introduction Background Philosophy Research Project Summary of the Findings Results Additional Resources References Site Map
Overall Method
of Assessment
Student
Self- Reflection
Teacher- Made
Tests
Student Vocabulary Surveys
Writing Samples Discussion
The Student self-reflections given prior to the word wall and word map interventions were multi-purpose: to establish a baseline of the three students' understanding of word learning importance and to learn how they had previously been instructed in vocabulary acquisition.
The teacher-made tests given during the baseline and word wall and word map interventions were given to measure student progress during each session. A visual graph was developed to compare the results of each session.
The student surveys presented following the word wall and word map interventions were given to compare the students' previous beliefs about word learning (taken from the student reflection) to their existing beliefs after both interventions have occurred. Students' opinions and suggestions for the interventions were also investigated. Students were also asked to write all the words that they remembered from the interventions.
Three writing samples from each of the three students' district testing were examined for the use of the taught vocabulary words in their writing.
Student
Self-Reflections
(see sample)
The three students required clarification on what vocabulary/ word learning was and needed prompting to help them retrieve memories of previous vocabulary instruction. Within their reflections they all felt that word learning was important for school. Josh said, “It is important to learn words because we need to go to college.”. Jeremy said, “It is important so you will do well on tests.” Damian said, “So you can do well on MCAS.”
Jeremy recalled his teacher teaching him vocabulary words through writing words on the board and having to write them into his notebook. After he wrote the words he had to look up and write the definition from the dictionary in his notebook. Josh and Damian, who had the same teacher, remembered their teacher putting them into groups with a list of words to look up in the dictionary. Once they discovered the definition of the words they had to put the words into categories.
None of the students could remember any of the words or where the vocabulary words came from.
Teacher-Made Tests (see
sample):
A pre-test was given to the students to reassure this researcher/teacher that the students did not already know the given vocabulary words. Each student received zeros on all the pre-tests given during the baselines, word wall and word map interventions.
The teacher-made tests demonstrated improvement for all three students with each intervention (see graphs). All the boys received zeros on their three baseline tests prior to the word wall intervention. During the word wall intervention Josh received 2 out of 7 correct, 3 out of 7 correct and 3 out of 7 correct. Jeremy received 1 out of 7 correct, 2 out of 7 correct and 1 out of 7 correct. Damian scored 3 out of 7 correct, 2 out of 7 correct and 2 out of 7 correct. On baseline teacher-made tests taken before the word map intervention Josh received 0 out of 7 correct, 1 out of 7 correct and 1 out of 7 correct. Jeremy scored all zeros on his tests and Damian received all 1 out of 7 correct on his tests. During the word map intervention Josh attained 5 out of 7 correct, 6 out of 7 correct and 7 out of 7 correct. Jeremy received 3 out of 7 correct, 4 out of 7 correct and 4 out of 7 correct. Damian scored 3 out of 7 correct and two 5 out of 7 correct.
Student Vocabulary
Surveys (see sample):
Nine questions pertaining to the interventions and word awareness were given to the three students after the interventions were completed. The first question asked why they thought word learning was important . Josh responded, “When people talk to you , you will understand them better.” Jeremy said, “You can use the new words in sentences to make it sound better.” Damian replied, “It will help you have excellent conversations”. The second question asked what their favorite part of the word map was and why. Josh stated, “visual because you can draw”, Jeremy said, “writing your own sentences because it brings back funny memories” and Damian said “ I liked getting to write on the overhead” . The third question asked what they liked the least about the word map and why. Josh said, “Writing sentences because you have to write a lot.”, Jeremy replied, “The visual because I don't like to draw” and Damian said, “Writing the sentences because I don't like to write” The fourth question asked what their favorite part of the word wall was and why. Josh responded, “ I liked charades because you got to move around.”, Jeremy said, “I liked playing Bingo because you won a prize.”, and Damian replied, “I liked putting the words into categories.” . The fifth question asked what their least favorite part of the word wall was and why. Josh and Damian said, “I liked all of the word wall.”, Jeremy stated, “Writing the words down” . The sixth question asked which method they preferred the word map, word wall or just writing the word in their notebook. Josh and Damian both said that they preferred the word wall and Jeremy choose the word map. The seventh question asked if they felt that the interventions had helped them learn new words and to write all the words they could remember that they learned. All of the boys felt that they had benefited from the interventions. Most of the words that the boys recalled were from the word map intervention. Jeremy was able to write five words that he remembered (two were from the word wall and three were from the word map) from the interventions. Josh wrote ten words that he remembered (four from the word wall and six from the word map) form the interventions. Damian recalled six word from the interventions (one from the word wall and five from the word map). The eighth question asked for suggestions to improve the interventions. Jeremy suggested putting the meanings of the words that were in the miscellaneous category somewhere near them. Josh wanted a copy of the word wall for his notebook and Damian wanted the association box on the word map eliminated. The last questions asked where they could learn new words. Josh said, “store, street, dictionary, computers, atlas, thesaurus, word map, school, office, books, word wall”, Damian said, “books, TV., people, and video games” and Jeremy said, “movies, TV., and books”.
Three writing samples per student, taken from district testing, were examined for the purpose of finding the use of taught vocabulary words. Josh's first writing sample showed no evidence of vocabulary words used. The second sample had one vocabulary word that was from the word wall and the third sample had two vocabulary words that were from the word wall. None of Jeremy's writing samples showed any vocabulary words used. Damian's third sample was the only one of his that contained vocabulary words (2 from the word wall).
The student self-reflection activity, given prior to the interventions, demonstrated how little the students valued vocabulary acquisition. Before the students were able to write their self-reflection they required clarification of what word learning or vocabulary learning was. They also had to be given clues to activate their memory of how their previous teacher taught new words. In their reflections the boys displayed word learning only important for doing well in school (doing well on quizzes, MCAS and going to college) and saw no connection to other areas in their life. Their past vocabulary instruction was the typical look up words in the dictionary and write them down activity. Jeremy and Damian's prior teacher did attempt to have them make connections between the words. However, neither teacher appeared to relate the words to any books that they were reading. The students felt that the teachers just had a list of words that they wanted them to learn. None of the students could remember the words that they had been taught.
The teacher-made tests showed evidence that both interventions assisted the students with improving their vocabulary acquisition. The word wall provided some discussion , repeated exposure and connections to other words which did have a positive effect for all the students. The word mapping appeared to be the most successful. This researcher/teacher believes that the students had more success with the word map because the words were investigated in more depth. The word map promoted lengthier conversations about the words and encouraged students to not only make connections to other words but also encouraged personal connections to be linked to the words. It is believed that some improvement was seen in the second baseline tests for Damian and Josh because they had become more accustomed to taking a test that required them to generate their own answers rather than the multiple choice tests that they were used to.
The student vocabulary survey showed that the students were currently more aware of the importance of word learning and where words are accessed. They no longer connected word learning exclusively to the academic world of testing and college admission. After the interventions they discovered that word learning effects the quality of their conversations and writing. Although Josh and Damian attained better scores with the word map activity they favored the word wall activities. It appears that the word wall was a favorite because of the games that they were able to play. They also did not enjoy all the writing that they had to do for the word map activity. Jeremy enjoyed the word map because of the writing and he had a great time coming up with his own sentences that included funny anecdotes from his life. To improve the interventions this researcher/teacher will consider the suggestions made by Jeremy and Josh of having a copy of the word wall for their notebook and adding the meanings to the miscellaneous categories. The copy of the word wall in their notebook would allow the students to access the word wall for their writing when they are in a different room or unable to see the word wall and adding the meanings to the miscellaneous category would give reinforcement to learning the meaning of the words. All the students were able to list resources other than books to discover new vocabulary words for their repertoire. This indicates that the students are becoming more aware of all the areas that they may come across new words.
Writing samples showed the word wall words being used more frequently. It is believed that the word wall words were used more often because of the visibility within the room. The students did not utilize vocabulary words as often as they could have . Two factors are thought to have contributed to the lack of vocabulary use were: The topic of the writing prompts and not enough modeling of using the words within their writing assignments.
The results of the study clearly indicate the value of the instructional activities of the word wall and word map interventions.