Amy C. Crosson

Word Generation Randomized Trial Discussion Mediates the Impact of Program Treatment on Academic Word Learning

Classroom discussion, despite its association with good academic outcomes, is exceedingly rare in U.S. schools. The Word Generation intervention involves the provision of texts and activities to be implemented across content area class, organized around engaging and discussable dilemmas. The program was evaluated with 1,554 middle grade students in 28 schools randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. There were large effects on classroom discussion quality across all content areas, especially in math and science (Cohen’s d  = 0.38-1.13). The program also produced significant, though small, effects on taught vocabulary (effect size = .25, p  < .01) but no effects on a standardized assessment of general vocabulary. Quality of classroom discussion mediated 14% of the treatment effect on vocabulary outcomes.

Middle School Learners' Use of Latin Roots to Infer the Meaning of Unfamiliar Words

ABSTRACT This study investigated how middle school students leverage information about bound Latin roots (e.g., voc in advocate and vociferous) to infer meanings of unfamiliar words, and how instruction may facilitate morphological analysis using roots. A dynamic assessment of morphological analysis was administered to 29 sixth graders (n = 17 intervention students) and 30 seventh graders (n = 18 intervention students). Qualitative analyses of analytic strategies revealed patterns of morphological problem solving that included direct (i.e., direct application of roots to analyze unfamiliar words) and indirect routes (i.e., use of known words that carry the roots to analyze unfamiliar words). Intervention students applied a direct route at higher rates than control students. Correlational analyses revealed a small but significant treatment effect on establishing meaning memory representations for roots and a significant, positive treatment effect for use of roots to infer unfamiliar word meanings. Overall results show promise for use of bound Latin roots for morphological problem solving.

When to Take Up Roots: The Effects of Morphology Instruction for Middle School and High School English Learners

A majority of the challenging words that adolescent readers encounter in school texts are morphologically complex and from the Latinate layer of English. For these words, bound roots carry important meaning, such as the relation between innovative and its bound root, nov, meaning “new.” This study investigated the effects of instruction about bound Latin roots on academic word learning and morphological problem-solving skill with English Learners (EL) at three grade bands: Grades 6–8, 9–10, and 11–12. Employing a within-subjects design, 82 students participated in two counterbalanced intervention conditions: an academic vocabulary without morphology (comparison condition) and a morphology-focused academic vocabulary intervention (treatment condition). The largest treatment effects were observed for oldest students, but positive effects were observed at all grade levels. Results suggest that instruction focused on the major meaning-carrying components of academic words of the Latinate layer in English—bound roots—is especially effective for ELs in the secondary grades.

Word Knowledge and Comprehension Effects of an Academic Vocabulary Intervention for Middle School Students

This article presents findings from an intervention across sixth and seventh grades to teach academic words to middle school students. The goals included investigating a progression of outcomes from word knowledge to comprehension and investigating the processes students use in establishing word meaning. Participants in Year 1 were two sixth-grade reading teachers and 105 students (treatment n = 62; control n = 43) and in Year 2, one seventh-grade reading teacher and 87 students (treatment n = 44; control n = 43) from the same public school. In both years, results favored instructed students in word knowledge, lexical access, and morphological awareness on researcher-designed measures. In Year 2, small advances were also found for comprehension. Transcripts of lessons shed light on processes of developing representations of unfamiliar words.