Word Learning Strategies

Where have we been?

In 2009, Seward completed Phase 1 of the Word Learning Strategies Program. Results showed that students moved from an average of 35% on the pretest to an average of 85% on the post-test.

Phase 1

During Phase 1, Seward produced and field tested two components of the Word Learning Strategies program:

Online Teacher Training
Before teaching the unit, teachers completed a 30-minute interactive online training, which included an overview of the strategy, its importance, the instructional resources, and the instructional approach to be used in the classroom, along with videos of model specific teaching behaviors. See screen examples.

Unit on Prefixes and the Prefix Strategy
Teachers presented four 30-minute lessons to their classes on Prefixes and the Prefix Strategy. Instructional materials included a teacher's guide, 3 full-color posters, camera documents, student activity sheets, and group discussion cards. To determine the effectiveness of the materials, pre- and post-tests were used to gauge students' understanding, as well as teachers' knowledge about strategy instruction. Read more.

Phase 2: Where are we going?

Now in Phase 2, Seward is developing the complete product. It will consist of online teacher training with demonstration videos; a 15-week core curriculum complete with Teacher Guides and student materials; and three kinds of online student instruction: remediation for students requiring more time to learn specific strategies, idiom instruction for ELL students, and instruction on Spanish cognates for Spanish speaking ELL students.

Click the links below to learn about the progress made so far.

Theme
Core Curriculum
Online Student Instruction