Teachers’ Support of Students’ Vocabulary Learning During Literacy Instruction in High Poverty Elementary Schools

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine third-grade teachers’ support for students’ vocabulary learning in high poverty schools characterized by underachievement in reading. We examined the prevalence and nature of discourse actions teachers used to support vocabulary learning in different literacy lessons (e.g., phonics); these actions varied in the cognitive demands placed on the students. Results showed that teachers rarely engaged students in cognitively challenging work on word meanings. Various lesson features and student and teacher characteristics were associated with teachers’ support for students’ vocabulary learning (e.g., teachers’ knowledge about reading). A major finding was that the extent of teachers’ support of their students’ vocabulary learning was significantly related to gains in reading comprehension across the year.

Keywords

vocabulary knowledge literacy observation of instruction early elementary

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson

R. C.

Freebody

(1981). Vocabulary knowledge. In Guthrie

J. T.

(Ed.), Comprehension and teaching: Research reviews (pp. 77–117). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Bates

DebRoy

(2004). Linear mixed models and penalized least squares. Journal of Multivariate Analysis, 91, 1–17.

Beck

I. L.

McKeown

M. G.

(2001). Text Talk: Capturing the benefits of read-aloud experiences for young children. The Reading Teacher, 55(1), 10–20.

Beck

I. Y.

McKeown

M. G.

(2007). Increasing young low-income children’s oral vocabulary repertoires through rich and focused instruction. Elementary School Journal, 107, 251–271.

Biemiller

(2003). Vocabulary: Needed if more children are to read well. Reading Psychology, 24, 323–335.

Biemiller

Boote

(2006). An effective method for building meaning vocabulary in primary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 44–62.

Briggs

(2008). Using explanatory item response models to analyze group differences in science achievement. Applied Measurement in Education, 21, 89–118.

Carlisle

J. F.

Fleming

Gudbrandsen

(2000). Incidental word learning in science classes. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 184–211.

Carlisle

J. F.

Johnson

D. J.

Phelps

Rowan

(2008). Teachers’ knowledge about reading and reading practices (Technical report No. 08-02. Assessment of Teachers’ Knowledge About Reading). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan.

10.

Carlisle

J. F.

Kelcey

Berebitsky

Phelps

(2011). Embracing the complexity of instruction: A study of effects of teachers’ instruction on students’ reading comprehension. Scientific Studies of Reading, 15, 409–439.

11.

Carlisle

J. F.

Kelcey

Rowan

Phelps

(2011). Teachers’ knowledge about early reading: Effects on students’ gains in reading achievement. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 4, 289–321.

12.

Carlo

M. S.

August

Snow

C. E.

Lively

T. J.

White

C. E.

(2004). Closing the gap: Addressing the vocabulary needs of English-language learners in bilingual and mainstream classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 39, 188–215.

13.

Connor

C. M.

Morrison

F. J.

Underwood

P. S.

(2007). A second chance in second grade: The independent and cumulative impact of first-and second-grade reading instruction and students’ letter-word reading skill growth. Scientific Studies of Reading, 11, 199–233.

14.

Coyne

M. D.

McCoach

D. B.

Kapp

(2007). Vocabulary intervention for kindergarten students: Comparing extended instruction to embedded instruction and incidental exposure. Learning Disability Quarterly, 30, 74–88.

15.

Crowe

E. C.

Connor

C. M.

Pretscher

(2009). Examining the core: Relations among reading curricula, poverty, and first through third grade reading achievement. Journal of School Psychology, 47, 187–214.

16.

Cunningham

A. E.

(2005). Vocabulary growth through independent reading and reading aloud to children. In Hiebert

E. H.

Kamil

M. L.

(Eds.), Teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing research to practice (pp. 45–68). New York, NY: Routledge.

17.

De Boeck

Wilson

(2004). Explanatory item response models. New York, NY: Springer.

18.

Dickinson

D. K.

(2011). Teachers’ language practices and academic outcomes of preschool children. Science, 333, 964–967.

19.

Graves

M. F.

(2006). The vocabulary book: Learning and instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

20.

Hart

Risley

T. R.

(1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experiences of young American children. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.

21.

Hill

Charlambous

Kraft

(2012). When rater reliability is not enough: Teacher observation systems and a case for the generalizability study. Educational Researcher, 41(2), 56–64.

22.

Hoover

H. D.

Dunbar

S. B.

Frisbee

D. A.

(2003). Iowa Test of Basic Skills: Guide to research and development. Ithaca, IL: Riverside Publishing.

23.

Huttenlocher

Haight

Bryk

Seltzer

Lyons

(1991). Early vocabulary growth: Relation to language input and gender. Developmental Psychology, 27, 236–248.

24.

Kennedy

M. M.

(2010). Attribution error and the quest for teaching quality. Educational Researcher, 39, 591–598.

25.

Lesaux

N. K.

Kieffer

M. J.

Faller

S. E.

Kelley

J. G.

(2010). The effectiveness and ease of implementation of an academic vocabulary intervention for linguistically diverse students in urban middle schools. Reading Research Quarterly, 45, 196–228.

26.

Linacre

J. M.

(1989). Many-facet Rasch measurement. Chicago, IL: MESA Press.

27.

McKeown

M. G.

(1985). The acquisition of word meaning from context by children of high and low ability. Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 482–496.

28.

Mislevy

Johnson

Muraki

(1992). Scaling procedures in NAEP: Special issue: National Assessment of Educational Progress. Journal of Educational Statistics, 17(2), 131–154.

29.

Messick

(1989). Validity. In Linn

R. L.

(Ed.), Educational measurement (3rd ed., pp. 13–104). New York, NY: American Council on Education and Macmillan.

30.

Nagy

W. E.

(2005). Why vocabulary instruction needs to be long-term and comprehensive. In Hiebert

E. H.

Kamil

M. L.

(Eds.). Teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing research to practice (pp. 27–44). New York, NY: Routledge.

31.

Nagy

W. E.

Herman

P. A.

(1987). Breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge: Implications for acquisition and instruction. In McKeown

M. G.

Curtis

M. E.

(Eds.), The nature of vocabulary acquisition (pp. 19–35). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

32.

NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2002). Early child care and children’s development prior to school entry: Results from the NICHD study of early child care. American Educational Research Journal, 39, 133–164.

33.

Raghunathan

T. E.

Lepkowski

J. M.

Van Hoewyk

Solenberger

(2001). A multivariate technique for multiply imputing missing values using a sequence of regression models. Survey Methodology, 27, 85–96.

34.

Raudenbush

S. W.

Bryk

A. S.

(2002). Hierarchical linear models: Application and data analysis methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

35.

Raudenbush

Johnson

Sampson

(2003). A multivariate, multilevel Rasch model with application to self-reported criminal behavior. Sociological Methodology, 33, 169–211.

36.

Rubin

D. B.

(1976). Inference and missing data. Biometrika, 63, 581–592.

37.

Rubin

D. B.

(1987). Multiple imputation for nonresponse in surveys. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

38.

Ryder

R. J.

Graves

M. F.

(1994). Vocabulary instruction presented prior to reading in two basal readers. Elementary School Journal, 95, 139–153.

39.

Scott

J. A.

Jamieson-Noel

Asselin

(2003). Vocabulary instruction throughout the day in twenty-three Canadian upper elementary classrooms. Elementary School Journal, 103, 269–286.

40.

Scott

J. A.

Nagy

W. E.

(2004). Developing word consciousness. In Baumann

J. F.

Kame’enui

E. J.

(Eds.), Vocabulary instruction: Research to practice (pp. 201–217). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

41.

Smith

E. V.

Jr. (2001). Evidence for the reliability of measures and the validity of measure interpretation: A Rasch measurement perspective. Journal of Applied Measurement, 2, 281–311.

42.

Snow

C. E.

Griffin

Burns

M. S.

(2005). Knowledge to support the teaching of reading: Preparing teachers for a changing world. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

43.

Stahl

S. A.

(2005). Four problems with teaching word meanings (and what to do to make vocabulary an integral part of instruction). In Hiebert

E. H.

Kamil

M. L.

(Eds.), Teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing research to practice (pp. 95–114). New York, NY: Routledge.

44.

Stahl

S. A.

Fairbanks

M. M.

(1986). The effects of vocabulary instruction: A model-based meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 56, 72–110.

45.

Stahl

S. A.

Nagy

W. E.

(2006). Teaching word meanings. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

46.

Stanovich

K. E.

(1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences in individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 360–407.

47.

Tannenbaum

K. R.

Torgesen

J. K.

Wagner

R. K.

(2006). Relationships between word knowledge and reading comprehension in third-grade children. Scientific Studies of Reading, 10, 381–398.

48.

U.S. Department of Education. (2002). Guidance for the Reading First program. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/programs/readingfirst/guidance.pdf.

49.

Wang

Liu

(2007). Formulation and application of the generalized multilevel facets model. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 67, 583–605.

50.

Watts

(1995). Vocabulary instruction during reading lessons in six classrooms. Journal of Reading Behavior, 27, 399–424.

51.

Weizman

Z. O.

Snow

C. E.

(2001). Lexical input as related to children’s vocabulary acquisition: Effects of sophisticated exposure and support for meaning. Developmental Psychology, 37, 265–279.

52.

White

T. G.

Graves

M. F.

Slater

W. H.

(1990). Growth of reading vocabulary in diverse elementary schools: Decoding and word meaning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 281–290.

53.

Yen

(1984). Effects of local item dependence on the fit and equating performance of the three-parameter logistic model. Applied Psychological Measurement, 8, 125–145.