Research Questions

1. What happens to vocabulary and reading comprehension of students in the third-grade

classroom when implemented explicitly?
2. What is the effect of daily explicit and implicit vocabulary instruction on third grade
students’ reading comprehension?

Intervention/Innovation

In Round 1, I started off my intervention and innovations by presenting a student survey

for my students to take on their thoughts and ideas on Vocabulary Instruction and Reading. I had
read the question to them, paraphrased the question by using short, student friendly terms, and
again explained to be honest and write as much as you can. This allowed my students take
control of their own response and reflect back on their learning. At the beginning of the week, I
introduced the Unit for ELA (English Language arts). Unit 7 was all about Communities Then
and Now. The Essential Question, which is the focus and what students should be able to answer
and address by the end of the unit is: What is a community? Overall, in this unit, students read
and compare selections about different types of communities to understand what a community is.
During the next few days students focused on tasks and activities focusing on the essential
question.
Day 1: Students received instruction on targeted vocabulary words this week. The
Vocabulary Recognition Task (VRT) is a teacher constructed task that measures students’
vocabulary recognition in content areas (Stahl & Bravo, 2010). To get a better understand of my
classes background knowledge, I had them take the pre-VRT (Vocabulary Recognition Task) to
assess which vocabulary terms are known and unknown. Laster that day, once the above activity
was completed. I started off introducing the words by choral reciting them. Then students read
them aloud (random selection). Lastly, students repeated the words back to their partners (think-
pair-share). The reason why I implemented the pre-VRT was to see student background
knowledge and to see where to take this lesson based on what students already know and don’t
know. In addition, having the students take the survey allowed me to see individual responses on
student interest in ready and vocabulary instruction, but also see the survey data as a whole class.
This form of feedback would allow me as their teacher to reflect and better understand my
students needs and interests.
Day 2: On the second day, we reviewed the words again by reciting them. Next, we read
the story titled, “All Kinds of Communities”. In this story, students learn about other children
living in different parts of the United States. After reading the text, I had students do a reading
scavenger hunt, where they were to find the vocabulary words we are focusing on. Once students
were able to locate the words, we dug deeper into the text and read the context clues and the
sentences to guess what these words may mean. This was a time for classroom discourse
will write the vocabulary words and definitions. Students will be provided paper to write their
vocabulary words and its definition. Each word will be defined one at a time. Afterwards, we
will review reciting the vocabulary words and what they mean. Students will receive the
opportunity to share with their partner (pair-share). The reason why there was an extension this
day is because it is very important to have classroom discussion. This allows for not only my
English Language Learners (ELL), but also the rest of my class to be engaged in their thinking.
Research shows that classroom discussion not only foster engagement and motivation, but also
builds vocabulary and academic language. Lastly, as a class we defined each word, along with
making an illustration. This allowed my students numerous ways to see experience and be able to
hear, speak, read, and write the vocabulary words.
Day 3: On the third day, due to minimum day schedule. Students had the opportunity to
review the vocabulary word definitions and illustrations and share with their partners. This
allowed students to review and students were able to conversate and see different illustrations
made by peers.
Day 4: On the fourth day, as a class we had a mini-lesson referring back to the purpose of
this week essential question, “What is a community?” As a class we dug deeper in understanding
community is not just limited to just where you live. So, I modeled how we all can belong to
different types of communities. This included churches, sports teams, and other community
groups. This allowed students to see community ideas in different ways. Lastly, students took the
post-VRT (Vocabulary Recognition Task). this was to see if there were any changes or growth in
knowledge from the pre-test taken on Monday.
Day 5: On the fifth day, students took the Vocabulary assessment. The assessment
displaced an information text paragraph. This paragraph consisted on blanks with a vocabulary
word bank. The students had to read the short text and decide which vocabulary word best fit in
the sentence. This form of assessment allowed students to have the consistency of the use of
words and understand the text to make inference by reading the paragraph and using context
clues to understand and comprehend the paragraph.

Data Collected
The data that was collected in Round 1 included: Student survey (Google Form), Notes
from one-on-one interviews, Student work samples, pre/post VRT (Vocabulary Recognition
Task), and the Vocabulary Summative Assessment. Each task and activity were done by my
whole class; however, my focal students are the ones who I was most focused on. Within the
weeks there were some students who were absent, therefore some data on certain tasks and
activities vary.

Data Analysis
Qualitative Data Analysis Strategies:
First, I began taking a look at the class survey as well as student reflection notes using
open coding qualitative methodology. While reviewing my notes on the focal student one-on-one
interviews, I used a highlighter to highlight student’s feeling towards reading and the way it is
instructed in the classroom (Vocabulary being imbedded). I also went through my own
observations notes I had noticed during the week on my focal students. After looking through
and organizing student responses, I found how similar some student responses were and how
some were quite interesting that I was not aware of. Using a highlighter again, I went through
notes and marked students’ feelings on reading and vocabulary instruction. The following chart
will give a better description on student responses.

Quantitative Data Analysis Strategies:

There were two forms of assessment taken by students during Round 1. One was the
pre/post test VRT (Vocabulary Recognition Task). I had my whole class take the pre and post
test. This assessment had twenty-one vocabulary words from previous units, however from those
twenty-one, five were related to the current unit on Communities. Even though this research
proposal is focused specifically on my focal students, for curiosity reason I still decided to give
my whole call the post test as well. The reason behind that is I wanted to see if there were any
changes and possible growths in all of my students. The following graph shows a better visual of
how my class did overall.
The Vocabulary Assessment was also administered. This measure uses a five-point scale
within a paragraph. I had all my students take this assessment, however I was most focused on.
Both charts are displayed one, with my whole class, and one specifically just my five focal
students. From my 23 students, 2 were absent, one including my focal students, therefore 2
assessments scores were not present.

Findings

Based on all the activities, tasks, and assessments that were done in Round 1, I found that
most specifically my focal students did an amazing job comprehending the text through explicit
vocabulary instruction.
Beginning with the student’s survey that was presented before the instruction, the
following are the questions and responses students stated. The day this was delivered, only
nineteen students were present, yet from the nineteen, all my focal students were present.
 The above are snips of the student’s survey done on a Google Form. After looking at
students’ responses I decided to look to narrow it down in the chart below.

Theme Percentages Sample Responses

Students enjoying ELA  Alright
instruction. 95%  Sometimes I enjoy it
Students liking to read 74%  I love to read
Types of books Open-ended questions  Dogman
 Catkid
 Captain Underpants
 Goosebumps
 Chapter books
 Picture books
Reading preference Open-ended questions  Silently to myself
 My mom reading to
me

What ways do they better  Pictures/visuals

understand ELA instruction, Open-ended questions  Meeting at the carpet
specially vocabulary  Referencing book
 Examples
What do the qualitative data tell you?

The qualitative data allowed me to see that overall students enjoy ELA instruction.
Interestingly though, majority do like to read. I found it exciting how most of my third grade
students are transition from picture books to chapter books as they stated many chapter book
titles. In addition, majority of my students enjoy reading by themselves silently. A few still have
their parents/guardians. The most important question of all was how does Mrs. Kaur help you
better understand ELA instruction, specifically vocabulary. Most of my students write lengthy
sentences describing how pictures, anchor charts, examples, carpet time, and the textbook has
helped them better understand. Through observations I noticed more classroom participation,
discussion talk, and partner work among my focal students. Most of them not only started
understanding the vocabulary words, but also make real-life connections and made it personal,
along with an increase of motivation and engagement.

What do the quantitative data tell you?

The quantitative data allowed me to growth in student from the pre-test to the post-test. I
had my whole class take this assessment, however the focus in the post-test was strictly focus on
my focal students. Overall as a class my students did a tremendous job. At the beginning (pre-
test) majority of my students could not identify what words were related to the community unit,
even my English Only students. Some did get confused on possible related words to community,
for example Earth, however that vocabulary words were back from the Unit on Animals. Others
were very careful in reading the directions on not guess as that could effect their score. The
results of the pre/post test are below.
 As I compared the pre/post test, I did see an improvement on not only my focal students,
but also my whole class as well. At the beginning of the pre-test I was expected that some of my
EL students may not know the vocabulary words associated with the new unit we were going to
start. For the pre-test all my five focal students and the remainder of my class conducted. What
was surprising, yet amazing to see was the growth in acknowledging the vocabulary words in the
post test. For the post-test, only 4 out of my focal students took the test (one was absent and was
not able to take it and the remainder of my whole class took it. Overall, on average my focal
students were able to identify 3 vocabulary words out of the 5 words.
Lastly, the whole class took the Vocabulary Assessment, where students were to read a
paragraph on a description on the Los Angles community and fill in the blanks with the correct
vocabulary words as best as they can. Again, my focus was to see how my focal students did.
Out of my 5 focal students, only 4 took this assessment, as one was absent. On average from
these 4, my focal students were able to correctly identify 2 correct vocabulary words in the
correct part of the sentence.
Overall, I am happy and quite amazed on how this first round of instruction, data
collection/analyzation, and reflection went.
Planning Next Round

For my next round I will continue to do somethings the same and something I will do
differently. I plan on doing another survey, so that I can collect student responses, specially their
choice of vocabulary activity. In addition, I plan on doing similar vocabulary activities, just not
the same ones from Round 1. For example, I plan on doing more games (matching games, recall
games) during the next round. Also, I plan on giving for focus on reading comprehension
assessment, rather than a vocabulary assessment to see how students perform. I feel in round 1 I
heavily focused on vocabulary, which was great, but also did not make much effort in collecting
reading comprehension as I wanted to. This will allow me to collect both quantitative and
qualitative data. Like the first round, I was able to collect such powerful and positive data to
analyze and I plan on doing the same for the next round. Things may change as far as pacing
guide goes as Spring Break will occur soon, so I will keep in mind I plan and teach according to
my student progress. Just like Round 1 data, I feel I could have done a better job creating graphs
so I will make sure I do a better job during the next round.

Literature Connections

In Round 1 I did research many vocabulary strategies and assessments, one happen to be
the on The Vocabulary Recognition Task (VRT). The Vocabulary Recognition Task (VRT) is a
teacher-constructed yes-no task used to estimate vocabulary recognition in a content area. Like
the VKS, it combines self-report with demonstrated knowledge. The purpose was to identify
content-related words that the students could both read and associate with a unit of study. In
addition, I referenced back the curriculum I use for ELA (English Language Arts) to plan my
Unit 7: Communities tasks, activities, and assessments.

Benchmark Education Company. (2017). Benchmark advance. Retrieved from

https://benchmarkeducation.com

Dougherty Stahl, K.A., & Bravo, M.A. (2010, April). Contemporary Classroom Vocabulary
Assessment for Content Areas. The Reading Teacher, 63 (7), 566–578. doi:
10.1598/RT.63.7.4
 ROUND TWO Research Plan

Round 2
Context
Brief info about your The research will be conducted in a public school located within California’s central valley, specifically in a third-grade
school, subject, classroom. The district has fourteen elementary schools, each housing between 600-700 students. The participants in this study
grade, class, students include 23 third grade students taught by the researcher. The class consists of 9 females and 14 males. The demographics of the
class closely mirror the school. 52% of the students are English language learners, with 9 of the students’ native language being
Spanish and 3 student’s native language being Punjabi. In addition, all of my students receive free or reduced-cost breakfast
and lunch at school, as well as additional snack for the after-school program if they stay passed dismissal time. Seven student
has an Individualized Education Plan with speech support services weekly. Their minutes vary between 30-150 minutes
weekly.

Research 1. What happens to vocabulary and reading comprehension of students in the third-grade classroom when implemented
Question(s) explicitly?
2. What is the effect of daily explicit and implicit vocabulary instruction on third grade students’ reading comprehension?
(If you have more
than 1 research
question- highlight
he RQs that are most
relevant to this
round)
Round 2 Planned Intervention: Relevance Statement:
Intervention/ Describe the intervention in general terms Explain the relevance of the intervention to student learning
Innovations Describe the instructional strategies for implementing the Focused on learning outcomes/ Focused on the specific
intervention intervention.
This intervention will be taught during my ELA block. Each The purpose of each vocabulary task and activity is to explicitly
How will you day vocabulary instruction will be taught explicitly. All 23 teach the vocabulary words for better meaning and
organize learning students will be doing the following, however my focus is on understanding of the story content of the week.
experiences for my 5 focal students.
students that address All these activities have a purpose of better understanding the
your research Day 1: Students will receive instruction in 5-7 targeted vocabulary words.
questions(s)? vocabulary words each week. The Vocabulary Recognition
Task (VRT) is a teacher constructed task that measures Day 1: Students will be able to pair-share what vocabulary
Cite sources as students’ vocabulary recognition in content areas (Stahl & words were introduced today verbally.
needed Bravo, 2010). At the beginning of each English Language
Arts unit, the class will take a pre-VRT (Vocabulary Day 2: Students will be able to read and write their vocabulary
 Round 2
Attach additional Recognition Task) to assess which vocabulary terms are words.
lesson artifacts known and unknown. This will allow the me to dedicate less
(optional) instructional time to known words and provide additional Day 3: Students will be able to identify their vocabulary words
instructional time to lesser-known words. At the end of each through visuals (Vocabulary Game).
unit, students will take a post-VRT (Vocabulary Recognition
Task). This post-test will determine students’ vocabulary Day 4: Students will be able to create their own vocabulary
growth over the course of the unit. Later, the vocabulary sentences.
words will be defined, and students will discuss the use of
each word in context. This will be the Unit 8: Weather Day 5: Students will be able to complete the Benchmark Unit 8/
opener. Students will be introduced to the new vocabulary Week 1 test.
words for the week. Student will watch the Unit opener Vocabulary plays an important part in learning to read. It is
video, which address the essential question: “What helps us harder for a beginning reader to figure out words that are not
solve problems?” I will present each word one at a time. We already part of their speaking (oral) vocabulary. Vocabulary is
will coral read the words together. Then students will read key to reading comprehension. Readers cannot understand what
them aloud (random selection). Lastly, students will repeat they are reading without knowing what most of the words
the words back to their partners (pair-share). mean.

Day 2: On the second day, after a review of the definitions, Writing vocabulary consists of the words we use in writing.
students will write the vocabulary words and definitions. Reader’s cannot understand what they are reading without
Students will be provided paper to write their vocabulary knowing what most of the words mean. As children learn to
words and its definition. Each word will be defined one at a read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new
time. Afterwards, we will review reciting the vocabulary words that are not part of their oral vocabulary.
words and what they mean. Students will receive the
opportunity to share with their partner (pair-share). Having rich vocabularies will make students able to express
more ideas because students can learn and understand
Day 3: On the third day, students will match pictures to the unfamiliar words and the concept of using the words. Students
vocabulary words and will draw an illustration of the word cannot make meaningful sentences in communication without
(Vocabulary Game). I will preselect and find illustrations having good vocabulary.
that are or similarly related to the vocabulary words. Each
word will be shown in an example of illustration. Once
students have been taught the lesson I will have them review
the definitions and provide the opportunity to create their
own version illustrations to the vocabulary words.

Day 4: On the fourth day, students will write a sentence

using the vocabulary words. This lesson I will choose
 Round 2
volunteers and random selection students to recall their
words and what the word means. Then I will have students in
a class discussion come up with a sentence of their own
based on previous days less (recall review). Overall, students
will be creating their own vocabulary sentences. Lastly, I
will have volunteers share what they wrote as a sentence.

Day 5: On the fifth day, students will take a common

formative assessment (Benchmark Unit 8/Week 1) to
measure their knowledge of newly taught vocabulary words.
I will review with them what was the purpose of this week’s
unit and allow students to ask any questions to provide any
clarification.

This assessment is aligned to the Common Core State

Standards and will provide students’ baseline data for
vocabulary and reading comprehension.

The focal group will take a general survey asking open-

ended questions in regards to reading comprehension. The
purpose of this survey is to assess students’ feelings about
the vocabulary activities implemented and their awareness of
using newly learned vocabulary words. Once surveys are
completed, I will conduct student interviews and meet with
each of my focal students one-on-one to get a better
understanding on their concerns.
Round 2 Data to be  Common formative assessment
collected  Student survey (Google Form) (Coding)
 Student work
What are the  Vocabulary Recognition Task (VRT) (pre/post test)
data/artifacts that
you will collect?
Just a list.

e.g.: Student work?

Notes from
observations?
Interviews? Video?
 To analyze the quantitative data collected, I will use a t-test for paired samples to examine growth between the pre- and post-
Data Analysis tests that will be administered. The t-test will help assess if the newly implemented explicit instruction strategies are effective
Plans in strengthening students’ vocabularies and reading comprehension. I will also analyze the significance of this study using
effect size to compare the focal students’ scores to the whole class. The effect size will allow the me to measure the difference
What are your data between the means of the focal students in comparison with the whole class. In addition, I will be giving my while class a
analysis strategies summative assessment, however my focus will be on my five focal students. Lastly, I will be doing a short survey on student
for qualitative data interest in their favorite vocabulary task/activity to see why certain students like certain tasks/activities.
(e.g., coding,
memos) Explain
your analysis plans
specifically for the
data in this round

What are your data

analysis strategies
for quantitative date
(e.g., descriptive
statistics)
Explain your
analysis plans
specifically for the
data in this round
  Elleman, A. M., Lindo, E. J., Morphy, P., & Compton, D. L. (2009). The impact of vocabulary instruction on passage-
Literature level comprehension of school-age children: A meta-analysis. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2(1),
Source(s) cited in 1–44. doi: 10.1080/19345740802539200.
APA  Goodwin, A. P., & Perkins, J. (2015). Word detectives. Reading Teacher, 68(7), 510–523. doi: 10.1002/trtr.1342
 Duff, D., Tomblin. J. B., & Catts, H. (2015). The influence of reading on vocabulary growth: A case for a Matthew
Cite any sources effect. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 58(3), 853–864. doi: 10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-13-0310
here and briefly
describe how the
literature will be
leveraged to inform
your research
questions,
intervention, data
collection and
analysis plans.

Attach Notes or Additional Materials (lesson plans, rubrics, materials you plan to use in teaching, etc. (Optional)