An introduction to Word Generation

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Word Generation is a program designed by a SERP-BPS team led by Harvard Professor Catherine Snow. The program is responsive to the District leadership’s request that the partnership work to improve the ability of students to read their high school texts by targeting their preparation in the middle school years. When surveyed, BPS teachers in the content area indicated that they see it as their job to help students comprehend text in their subject area, but they have no training or tools to go about it. Nowhere in the curriculum was the academic language used commonly in textbooks (like analyze, system, extrapolate, integrate, deduce) being systematically taught.

The SERP design team took on this challenge with several constraints in mind:

• The number of words students need to know in order to successfully read textbooks could not be taught by the English language arts (ELA) teacher alone.
• Teachers in other subject areas are unlikely to be willing to give up very much of their class time for something that does not seem directly relevant to their subject.
• Research suggests that students need multiple exposures to words in different context if they are to achieve mastery.
• Studying lists of words with definitions is ineffective. Students need to read the words in context, hear them, write them, and speak them.
• “Reading” textbooks requires more than just reading words. Students need to be able to comprehend graphs, charts, diagrams, and maps as well.

The design of the word generation program addresses all of these constraints. Subject area teachers are all asked to teach the program, but each teacher takes responsibility for only one day a week for 15 minutes. Materials are designed so that the words are used in the context of math, science, and social studies content (often incorporating a graph or chart) so those teachers do not have a sense that they are doing the ELA teacher’s job. On Monday, the words are first introduced in the context of a high-interest paragraph about a controversial issue that the teacher reads aloud. Students are asked to consider both sides of the argument, and later in the week they debate the issue and write a persuasive essay.

Three years of materials have been developed so that the program can be used school wide across all three middle school grades. Words can then be displayed in halls and used in announcement. All students and teachers have a common thread that runs through their week, supporting greater coherence and collegiality inside the school. In the BPS pilot schools, both teachers and students have embraced the program enthusiastically, with many students reporting that it is the most interesting part of their day. Students show significant gains in the pilot schools (compared to control schools); a proposal has been submitted for a large scale efficacy trial.

See the website at www.wordgeneration.org.