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+ Lifting the Level of Content Area Vocabulary

Action Based Research Capstone Project
In this action research study, my experience of working with English Language Learners and research on the instruction of content area vocabulary informed my work with two students who struggle to accurately use content area vocabulary. Informal and formal student assessments, careful observations, analysis of student work and my experience of working with these students for two years have guided my instruction for this project.

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Introductions & Research

I decided to focus my research on two students from Huntington Elementary School, an elementary school located in an upper-middle class suburban area. The school prides itself on its high academic standards and small class sizes. The English as a Second Language (ESL) program at Huntington utilizes a push-in/pull-out system. This system means that students who qualify for ESL receive both out of classroom (pull-out) and in classroom (push-in) support to assist with their language skills. Marie is a third grade student from Norway. She is I based my cycles off of various research that I collected from books, articles, and journals on content area vocabulary and ELLs. I primarily based each lesson on Isabel Becks Three Tier Modeling from her book, Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction (2002). From her vocabulary method, it outlines to specify tier two vocabulary words the words that are frequently used throughout academic language and are meaningful words. I was also able to find a great list of appropriate vocabulary assessments from Stahl & Bravos article, Classroom Vocabulary Assessment for Content Areas (2011), in order to create informal assessments to monitor my students understanding throughout each cycle. Through these and many more resources I had located, I was able to learn from each and create individualized lessons that were ultimately my own. I felt that I was able to create engaging and effective lessons focused on vocabulary instruction.

currently at an advanced English language level within the ESL program. Her strengths are decoding, reading comprehension, and predictions. Her needs are inferencing, discovering a main idea, writing, and vocabulary. Kevin is a third grade student from Japan. He is also currently at an advanced English language level within the ESL program. His strengths are reading comprehension, spelling, and writing. His needs are vocabulary, inferencing, and predicting.

+ Cycles

Cycle 1
For the first cycle of my capstone project, I chose to focus on introducing the vocabulary methods I would be using throughout this project & administering a pre-test. I chose the words to include for my first cycle by identifying Tier Two words, based off of the Three Tier Vocabulary system After the pre-test, I had my students begin to put words that they were comfortable explaining and could appropriately use in sentences, into a graphic organizer in their Vocabulary Notebook.

Cycle 3
For the third cycle of my capstone project, I continued using the vocabulary notebooks and graphic organizers to teach about the different space bodies in the universe that astronomers study. The words I taught for this lesson were, Asteroid, Comet, Meteor, Meteoroid, & Meteorite. I chose to focus on teaching the vocabulary words for these different space objects because my students thought that they were all the same thing. By analyzing the differences and

Cycle 2
For the second cycle of my capstone project, I added more vocabulary words within an online presentation program, called Prezi, to my group of students. Through this program, I asked questions and gave the students scenarios they must choose from in order to understand the vocabulary word in different meaningful contexts. For this cycle, I had chosen to analyze the words Astronomer and Solar. Each word in the presentation will include a definition, an example, a picture, a possible sentence, and a scenario using that word so that the students may see it in all contexts. I have also collected various readings on space objects, which include the words Astronomer and Solar in order to tie in different vocabulary words into their current work.

charting it on various graphic organizers, I hope to teach my students the differences in these objects and how they can use the newly acquired vocabulary when learning about astronomy in their classroom

Cycle 4
For the fourth cycle of my capstone project, I focused on teaching my students how they can incorporate the vocabulary we have learned so far into a 5 paragraph essay. I began by providing my students with a picture prompt and listed the vocabulary words I had taught in the previous lessons

Cycle 5
For this cycle, I asked my students to independently write a paragraph based off of a photo prompt and include astronomy vocabulary that we have gone over. I read over the directions with them, introduced them to the checklist that was on their paper and on the chart, and asked if they had any unexplained questions. I did this as an informal post-assessment and as preparation for their upcoming state testing and NYSESLAT exam.

Research

Reec\on

Teaching

Outcome
Through this action based research project, I wanted my I found that the outcome of this project to be successful, although I wish I were able to have found more research over a longer period of time. My students were able to accurately define and distinguish between the vocabulary words, as well write and verbally explain in context appropriately with enough examples to distinguish they understood the meaning of the word. I would like to continue this research for the remainder

students to gain a better understanding of the academic language they learn in their main classroom. Since my students are English Language Learners, I thought that placing an extra focus on specific key content area vocabulary words would help them later when using the words in context. In order to instill a better understanding of the meaning and application of these words, I designed many lessons based on using certain vocabulary words in different contexts. By identifying correct sentences, images, and definitions, I hoped to have put the word in enough scenarios that my students would be able to quickly and easily identify the meaning and use it appropriately in writing. In each lesson, I found that my students were getting more

of the school year since unfortunately the NYS testing got in the way of my pull-out days with my students. I think it would be interesting to monitor their success with certain words after spending a significant amount of time analyzing them. I think long- term this would be and effective way to teach vocabulary in the ESL classroom during a pull-out session in order to reinforce the general classrooms lessons for science and social studies.

and more used to using specific academic language about astronomy. They seemed comfortable with the application of these words and using them within the context we were working in. They enjoyed the many interactive lessons I prepared for them to use the words and seemed interested in the engaging readings, videos, and photographs I had chosen.

References

Astronomy for kids - KidsAstronomy.com. (n.d.). Astronomy for kids - KidsAstronomy.com. Retrieved April 11, 2013, from http://www.kidsastronomy.com/ Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing w ords to life: robust vocabulary instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

Dana Di Giansante
danadee22@mac.com

Shrum, J. L., & Glisan, E. W. (2004). Teacher's handbook: contextualized language instruction (3rd ed.). Boston: Heinle. Stahl, K. A., & Bravo, M. A. (2011). Classroom vocabulary assessment for content areas. Reading rockets. Retrieved April 11, 2013, f rom http://www.readingrockets.org/article/415