Word Work Summer School Lessons from the Trenches Presented at the American Educational Researcher Association Annual Meeting New Orleans 2000

Over-arching goal To provide instruction in the decoding and spelling of English words in an effective and efficient manner.

Word Work Hypotheses A n explicit, vowel-centered curriculum ensures that all students become fluent decoders and spellers; D ecoding and spelling are more easily acquired by transferable understanding than through rote or discovery learning; A rticulatory phonemic awareness is the most effective means to assist students to grasp the alphabetic principle; C ombining teacher-led direct instruction with small-group social- cognitive activities enhances both understanding and attitudes about decoding-spelling skills.

Participants 104 Kindergarten Students (male=62) All ethnic groups and both gender were similar in achievement. All students performed significantly lower than mean results for the district

Pre-Test score Tile test- Letter and sound identification, reading and building CVCs, sight word reading, reading and building sentences. IRAS- Interactive Reading Assessment- sentence reading task. Both tests were used to assess baseline ability- (range 0-80).

Tile test results

Writing sample results

Writing assessment results

Tile test results for meta-cognition Mean 100 SD=25

Program effects - Growth Tile test results

Grade 1 reading scores (Scholastic) Differences between groups are non significant

Grade 1 writing scores (Scholastic) Differences between groups are non significant

Grade 1 running record scores Differences between groups are non significant Up -down bars represent standard error

Students identified as at-risk for reading failure at the end of kindergarten- scored within normal range throughout first grade Teacher level of implementation directly effected results Word Work generalizes into writing in the areas of spelling length and coherence Lessons from the Word Work Summer School Experiment- 1998

Word Work Goals Replicating year one results with first grade classrooms Design and implementation in K classrooms Following up on year one low decoders, assessment, motivation and individualized intervention.