Generating Knowledge of Academic Language Among Urban Middle School Students

By Catherine E. Snow, J. Lawrence, Claire White. 2009

300 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract A quasi-experimental study of a novel, cross-content area vocabulary intervention program called Word Generation showed significantly greater growth among 6th- to 8th-grade students in schools implementing the program than in comparison schools, on a curriculum-specific test. Furthermore, the language-minority students in the treatment, but not the comparison, schools showed greater growth than the English-only students. Improvement on the curriculum-specific test predicted performance on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) English language arts assessment, again only for students in the treatment schools. Recognizing the need to implement a more rigorous experimental study of this program, nonetheless we conclude that participation in the intervention, with its focus on deep reading, comprehension of current-events topics, productive classroom discussion, developing arguments, and producing persuasive essays, was a plausible contributor to student performance on the MCAS.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Language and Linguistics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/56c1f2aedc0fe71c6605cf5ee402d51f0a412f08

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In Developmental and Educational Psychology

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Citations in the corpus

Words as Tools: Learning Academic Vocabulary as Language Acquisition (2012, background): “Word Generation (Snow et al., 2009) is organized so students receive multiple exposures to the target words across content areas and employs reading, writing, and speaking practice opportunities.”
Evidence for the Importance of Academic Word Knowledge for the Academic Achievement of Diverse Middle School Students (2012, background): “…have proved successful with EO students (Blachowicz & Fisher, 2000) have been proven successful with diverse students as well (Lesaux et al., 2010; Snow et al., 2009; Townsend & Collins, 2009), so teachers would do well to keep these approaches in mind as they organize their vocabulary…”
Experimental Effects of Word Generation on Vocabulary, Academic Language, Perspective Taking, and Reading Comprehension in High-Poverty Schools (2019, background): “The program showed positive impacts on vocabulary for all students (Snow et al., 2009, effect sizes per school ranged from .33–.65); subgroup and follow-up analyses showed positive impacts on students with special education classifications (Lawrence, Rolland, Branum-Martin, & Snow, 2014; note,…”
Vocabulary Instruction in Fifth Grade and Beyond (2015, background): “…and classroom discussion provide students with opportunities to hear and use target words in appropriate and authentic contexts (Dixon-Krauss, 2002; Snow et al., 2009), and students’ interactions with each other during discussions seem to facilitate word learning and conceptual understanding…”