My action research plan consisted of giving students a vocab
list on Monday and a quiz on Friday, where students would have to study on
their own. I did this for three weeks. After those three weeks I continued to
present the students with a vocab list on a Monday and a quiz on a Friday, but
during the week I had included vocabulary strategies. I then repeated those two
steps with a separate set of students and words but used the same strategies.
After combing averages and scores I noticed an improvement in their grades. I
have discovered through my action research project that vocabulary does lead to
student achievement and students become better readers. Concerns I had about
vocabulary was due to the percent of low income families at my school.
Vocabulary is not as rich at home and students are not reading at grade level.
Vocabulary strategies help improve study habits for not just their middle
school career, but for the future. I observed that repetition, which is part of
rigor, shows it can improve scores. If repetition can be done with vocabulary
and it helps improve scores, it can be utilized in other areas of instruction
as well. The terms I used were for
future units. This showed that the strategies truly worked because if the words
were being taught that week I wouldn’t been able to observe if the strategies
helped improve scores or if it was the lessons during the week. Now if these
strategies were being used on terms being taught for the week then score could
really improve because that means more repletion to due to the strategies and
lessons.
