Most investigations of literacy programs are relatively short-term endeavors. Here, we reflect on what we have learned in 7 years of studying a program to teach word-learning strategies. The program was developed with a 3-year Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant and is currently being studied in a 4-year IES Efficacy grant. Here, we describe our choice of a topic; describe the curriculum, instruction, and teacher preparation in the program; and reflect on positive aspects of the program and aspects of it that could be improved. We believe that much of what we discuss is relevant to various types of instruction.
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