This project addresses the issue of Spanish Speaking English Language Learners having difficulty acquiring the academic vocabulary necessary to becoming successful in reading comprehension. Although schools have utilized vocabulary systems in the past, the new Common Core standards have left teachers without tangible supplemental materials or resources specifically targeted for 7th grade academic vocabulary while incorporating the rigor of the Common Core standards. This handbook provides a miniature curriculum for teaching 7th grade academic vocabulary with specialized instructions for English Language Learners embedded within the curriculum. My research documents our nation's academic challenges in meeting the needs of our Latino/Hispanic population. I found a large array of explanations as to why these challenges have not been met. It also exposes the ravaging cycle of effects visited upon students when the problem have not been properly addressed. Moreover, my research sheds light on productive solutions to aid in resolving the nation's conundrum of supporting our Spanish English Language Learners. This project adds to literature of the educational community of literature a handbook that is practical and ready to use in a 7th grade English Language Arts class that has Spanish speakers within it. It serves as a supplemental resource utilizing best practices and addresses the vocabulary acquisition of all students, including Spanish speakers. It delivers fun and interactive activities that promote academic language discourse as well as worksheets that can be copied and distributed for use.
This handbook provides a miniature curriculum for teaching 7th grade academic vocabulary with specialized instructions for English Language Learners embedded within the curriculum.
This study investigated the change in sophomore reading scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test after the implementation of an academic vocabulary program and the change in teacher knowledge and professional practice after a program of staff development in academic vocabulary. The purpose was to determine the impact of the professional development on student reading performance. The study analyzed student data from 2008 and 2009 gathered from the Florida Department of Education, and teacher data collected from a survey used as a pretest/posttest. Variables used in the analysis of student data included demographic subgroups of white, African-American, and Hispanic students and students with disabilities, English language learners, and economically disadvantaged students. Teacher variables used were years of teaching experience and curriculum area. Both an ANCOVA and a multiple logistical regression were used to analyze change in student reading performance. Student reading score performance dropped for subgroups and overall. Several intervening variables could explain the downward change: budget cuts resulting in a change in instructional day from six to seven-period day with loss of instructional time, reduction in number of teachers, increase in student population, and change in start time for school day (from 7:15 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.). An ANOVA and independent t-test were used to analyze teacher pretest/posttest data. The data indicated a positive change in teacher knowledge and instructional practice, though not statistically significant. It should not be concluded from the reading scores that the program of academic vocabulary was not successful, but rather that vocabulary instruction is only one of the essential components of any plan to improve secondary student reading performance. Further research should be conducted to replicate this study during a time period without intervening variables experienced during the span of this study. Additionally, students should be matched to their teachers to examine the relationship between individual teacher and student performance. This study should be replicated in a high school with different demographics and different level of student achievement.
This study investigated the change in sophomore reading scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test after the implementation of an academic vocabulary program and the change in teacher knowledge and professional practice after a ...
The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore and identify the word consciousness and individual application of academic vocabulary through the use of vocabulary reader response journals, authentic discussions, and multigenre response projects from a thematic social studies unit using historical fiction and nonfiction literature that was integrated in the fifth-grade curriculum. This qualitative research study took place in a third-fifth grade school in a Midwest setting with 23 fifth-grade students over the course of 14 weeks. Data were analyzed from eight of the 23 students. Multiple data sources for each literature selection were analyzed to reveal how fifth-grade students' written, oral, and visual response to historical fiction and nonfiction literature demonstrate word consciousness and individual application of academic vocabulary. Conclusions indicate that student participants prefer the opportunity to create a visual image or write a statement to confirm the meaning of an academic vocabulary word in their vocabulary reader response journals. While orally discussing the academic words, the participants chose the evaluation approach. This authentic discussion response option allowed the students the opportunity to share their personal understanding, opinion, or inference for each word. Written and visual response was also afforded through the multigenre response projects. These projects revealed the individual application through conventional and nonconventional usage of the academic terms from each literature selection.
The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore and identify the word consciousness and individual application of academic vocabulary through the use of vocabulary reader response journals, authentic discussions, and multigenre ...
The Academic Vocabulary Practice Workbook for first grade offers teachers 128 pages of practical ways to help students master essential academic vocabulary. It is aligned with Common Core State Standards and includes word lists of more than 200 domain-specific words, reproducible practice pages, game templates, a student dictionary, and an answer key. Additionally, a full set of vocabulary flash cards is available online. --The Academic Vocabulary Practice series for kindergarten through grade 5 supports literacy in the content areas of language arts, math, science, social studies, geography, civics and economics, art, and technology. Each book offers systematic practice and usage of many of the academic and domain-specific words and phrases that students need to know to successfully complete work at grade level. There is also a Games and Suggestions section and game templates for small or whole group activities! The Student Dictionary pages are organized by content area and support the activity pages in each section.
The Academic Vocabulary Practice Workbook for first grade offers teachers 128 pages of practical ways to help students master essential academic vocabulary.
Developed by renowned author Ellin Keene, Assessing Comprehension Thinking Strategies is an ideal tool for assessing students' reading comprehension. This book offers a unique way of assessing how students use thinking strategies to comprehend text. The book contains four reading passages for each grade level (1-8) that offer high-interest fiction and nonfiction text. Each assessment is accompanied by a rubric that allows you to document students' thinking and then score and monitor their growth. Strategies assessed include thinking aloud, using schema, inferring, asking questions, determining importance in text, setting a purpose for reading, monitoring comprehension, visualizing, synthesizing and retelling, and story structure/structural patterns. The assessments can be used in various ways to inform instruction and to assess learning. All passages, assessments, and rubrics are provided on the Teacher Resource CD and the assessments and rubrics can be customized.
Because much of students' exposure to new words occurs as they read, making
use of the context to understand unknown words is an essential word-learning
strategy. Furthermore, the use of context will be helpful to students who look at ...
This dissertation, "Identifying Core Academic Vocabulary in IGCSE Science Textbooks and Exploring Ways of Teaching Them in a Senior Secondary LAC Class" by Lijiao, Zhang, 張麗嬌, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: This study identifies the academic vocabulary from the IGCSE science textbooks by using online software. Then compare the words identified with the new Academic Vocabulary List (AVL) (Gardner & Davies, 2013a) to generate 139 academic core vocabulary (ACV) from Chapter 1 of the science textbooks. A trial lesson is conducted to explore ways of teaching those ACV to a group of ESL/EFL students in an international high school programme in Mainland China, where English is the medium of instruction. The researcher utilizes an inductive, inquiry-based approach to teach the lesson, with visuals as the main teaching aids. The measurement instruments include a pre-test, an immediate post-test and a one-week delayed post-test. A questionnaire is employed after students' participation of the trial lesson unit, in order to get students' perspectives on and perceptions of such an academic vocabulary learning LAC programme. The results suggest that learning the meaning of ACV through pictures is effective to students. The majority of students (93.3%) believe that the learning of ACV will benefit them in academic study, although almost half of them (40%) think that participation of such an academic vocabulary learning programme is not necessary. Although students have shown improvement in the tests, the research result is very likely to be only applicable to this particular group of students at this specific time of the academic year. This is because these students are generally positive about learning and have very good interaction with the teacher and classmates in the classroom. They are from Class A, which consists of students of relatively higher English ability. Another important factor is that this study is taken at the end of an academic year for Year 10 students. One implication of the findings is that for future study of this type, it is important to test students' vocabulary size with reference to the new AVL so that the research can be more focused on students' real needs. The study implies that the time of the study (at the beginning of a new semester or at the end of an academic year), the students' English proficiency level and the instructor of the lesson are crucial factors that might affect the study. The current study also indicates that the students' own content teacher plays a vital role in their science key academic vocabulary learning, i.e., the content teacher seems to be in the best position to teach content vocabulary, as the study finds that students are more likely to learn academic vocabulary during class time, rather than spending extra time on vocabulary learning after class. DOI: 10.5353/th_b5396603 Subjects: English language - Study and teaching (Secondary) - China
This is because these students are generally positive about learning and have very good interaction with the teacher and classmates in the classroom. They are from Class A, which consists of students of relatively higher English ability.
