Teaching Inquiry (A&B)

September 13, 2016

Issue to explore: Improving vocabulary grades
A. Context:
I am student teaching with three levels of English 11. Our school is rural and around 80
percent white. They have pretty good SOL-passing rates (excluding the SPED subgroup), but, I would say, the SOLs induce a lot of anxiety at this school.
This year, XHS purchased new vocabulary books grades for 8-11. They seemed to me
to be thrown off by having new books. Today, our SPED teacher suggested that they
should have phased them in starting with the 8th graders. They previously used the
Sadlier-Oxford little orange books, which I used throughout middle and high school as
well. These new vocabulary books focus instead on students learning roots of words.
The words are organized into semi-thematic units and then separated into their
respective roots. The students are often confused when words look similar, come from
the same root but are a different part of speech. XHS purchased these new books in the
hopes of improving SOL scores and vocabulary knowledge since learning roots of
words is a more transferable skill. I took Latin in high school, so I love this idea, but, in
my opinion, the students are not doing as well on the quizzes as they could or should
be. I admittedly took honors and AP English throughout high school. The honors
students are not all struggling as much as other two bells: academic (with a SPED
teacher) and general.
The students DO NOT learn the words in context, i.e. while organically reading. In a
typical week, we present the new units (2 a week) on Monday. I make a presentation
ahead of time with the roots, the words, and images or hints to learn the words. The
students fill out a chart as I present the words. They also receive two homework sheets
for each unit. The homework is in the book, but they cannot write in the books. The
vocabulary quizzes take place on Friday. During the week, we often review the words in
different ways and play sorting games. Despite the addition of the presentation on
Monday and the games, many students have continued to fail the quizzes. I have
attached an example of a student earning a 28! I have also attached an example of
our differentiated quiz for the students working with the SPED teacher. They learn
less words, as well. Many of them still fail the quizzes.
My most recent suggestion for my MT was that their homework be due on Thursdays so
that we can correct their answers in class, and they can study their homework for their
quizzes. She was not completely sold on this idea. She told me, They will not study
their homework. She said she was open to try, but we did not tell them on Monday. So I
will press her about that this upcoming Monday. One of my students suggested that we

do one unit Monday-Wednesday, take a short quiz, and then work on the second unit
Wednesday-Friday. She confessed to me that she feels overwhelmed by how many
words we have (check out the word bank in my artifacts). I know I cannot change a
lot about the way that vocabulary is run. I cannot get rid of the quizzes. I cannot get rid
of the vocabulary books.
Framing questions to spark a discussion:
1.

What study tips could I provide them with (other than flashcards) to help them
improve their quiz grades?

2.

Any suggestions for how I could get student feedback on how to improve
learning vocabulary?

3.

How did you learn vocabulary in secondary grades?

4.

How can I convince my teacher to try something new

Teaching Inquiry Part II

October 11, 2016
What have you tried?

Last week, I retyped the vocabulary quizzes so that the students had
fewer choices to overwhelm them. It seemed to help some (see the 90s above), but one
of our concern students still earned a 45. This week, we made homework a completion
grade (0 or 100) and due Thursday. On Thursday, we will check answers. Hopefully, the
students will use their corrected vocabulary homework to study and improve their test
grades. I think the student who earned at 45 above has not been completing the
homework. I will try to instill in them the desire to at least complete the homework. I also
made a parts of speech review chart for them that divided up our words by part of
speech. We completed part of the homework (fill-in-the-blank) using our understanding
of parts of speech.
What were the results of your actions?
See above attached documents. Seemed to help some.
Has anything changed?
Not enough. Need to help 4th block (Honors) do better now
Do you need to adjust your focusing questions?

No

Teaching Inquiry: Part 3

October 11, 20162 CommentsEdit
Topic: Vocabulary
Class: 11th grade, 3 levels: academic, general, honors.
The focus of your post should be on what you have tried and why it may have worked or
may not have
What have you tried?

Vocabulary for a completion grade, given answers to study with

Changed format of vocabulary quiz for general kids

Integrated vocabulary into two grammar activities

Showed how to use sheet to study with

More review in class

Had honors reflect on ideas for improving vocab grades

Going to try:

Giving handful of focus students less words (the words the SPED kids receive)
so that they learn the skill but are less overwhelmed.
Practicing answering the passage (back of the quiz) together
How the student/class responded to your actions?

Many have enjoyed turning in vocabulary for a completion grade. In honors,

almost every student does it. However, many students who didnt do it before still
dont do the homework thus defeating the purpose. But they still receive the correct
answers to study with.

They loved having a simpler quiz. I think it has helped most, but the focus group
still struggles. They earned grades 61-34 this past week.
What were the results of your actions?

They loved having a simpler quiz. I think it has helped most, but the focus group
still struggles. They earned grades 61-34 this past week.

Some students who previously wouldve earned partial credit now earn 0s for
turning it in late. Not what I intended.
Has anything changed?

We dont have vocab for the next two weeks because of the Writing SOL
Do you need to adjust your focusing questions? No

Teaching Inquiry Update

October 25, 2016
I honestly do not have much to update you all on. We took off from vocabulary for two
weeks because of the Writing SOL.
However, this week, as we return to normal, we did make one major change. For our
struggling students in our general class, we gave them the modified vocabulary list that
the students in our collaborative class receives. I hope this will help them this week.
Other third block students will continue to receive the modified quiz. Over half of
the students in first block and the handful in third will take the quiz on the modified list.
I will see the results on Friday when they take the quiz.
We are now gearing up for the Reading SOL in December.
How can I make vocabulary instruction intrinsically rewarding?

TI Part 5: Almost Finished with Vocab

November 8, 2016
What have you tried?

5 of our students in the general classes focus on 10 words instead of 20-21.

They are mostly doing better. Their grades are around 70, which is an improvement
from the 40s.

One of our students in honors we let take the modified quiz for general (still 2021) words. On those two quizzes, she got about 40 and 60, so no change. We have
talked about giving her the shorter list and easier quiz but have not decided yet.

Collecting homework for completion instead of grading. MT says I have to give

zeros to kids who do not turn it in.
Has anything changed?

The students have seemed a little less anxious because they have less words.
They are upset that we have a quiz this week since we dont have class on
Friday (short week)
Do you need to adjust your focusing questions? (+ some frustrations)

Still struggling with how to differentiate without being obvious. For example, we
do activities in class with vocabulary. Some students only learn 10 words instead of the
20 or 21. So we were doing a crossword puzzle. I passed out stacks of the crossword
puzzle for most of the students. The five who get less words had a different puzzle.
They noticeably finished before everyone else and went and bugged others who were
still working.

Do the creators of these books not consider how difficult assessment will be?
Since the words are grouped by root and semi-semantically, there are words that look
the same and mean similar things. Students get frustrated over that, but it also due to
the nature of how WE assess them (quizzes).