| Texas. Both sections were heterogeneously | | | | included the vocabulary portion of the Group |
| mixed groups, each containing three special | | | | Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation |
| education students and overall representing a | | | | (GRADE; AGS Group Assessments, 2001) that |
| range of reading abilities. All participants had the | | | | was administered as a pretest to both groups and |
| same teacher for reading. Twenty-three students | | | | the assessment results from six |
| in one section self-selected the words while 21 | | | | teacher-developed weekly tests. The weekly |
| students in the other section continued with the | | | | assessments included writing word definitions and |
| regular vocabulary program. Students who | | | | responding Tag Heuer Carrera Replica Watches to |
| self-selected words engaged in specific word | | | | sentence prompts. For example, one definition |
| learning activities related to the word wall. They | | | | prompt was "Define hospitable" while the |
| participated Replica Tag Heuer in small-group and | | | | meaningful-use sentence prompt directed |
| whole-class activities, including research-based | | | | students to "List one thing that shows someone |
| instructional practices that highlighted multiple | | | | being hospitable." During this six-week time period, |
| exposures to meaningful contexts beyond word | | | | each group worked with different sets of words |
| definitions. Students in the regular vocabulary | | | | except for the last set. |
| instruction section engaged in word learning | | | | |
| activities taken from a commercial vocabulary | | | | To compare the different instructional |
| workbook. | | | | frameworks, for the last round both groups |
| | | | | worked with words selected by the teacher from |
| For six weeks, we collected and analyzed both | | | | the vocabulary workbook. Two weeks after the |
| qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative | | | | six-week intervention ended, the teacher gave |
| sources were (a) preinterviews with both classes | | | | both classes a delayed test over the last set of |
| about word walls using an adaptation of Hoffman | | | | words studied by both groups. The test was in |
| and Sailors's (2004) TEXIN-3 assessment tool for | | | | the same format as previous tests—writing |
| evaluating classroom literacy environments and | | | | definitions and responding to sentence prompts. |
| postinterviews with only the word wall group, (b) | | | | The teacher did not warn the students about the |
| artifacts from activities, and (c) field notes and | | | | delayed test. We used the results of simple main |
| audiotaped interactions between teacher and | | | | effects analysis on the two delayed tests to |
| students and among students in small groups. We | | | | determine if there were differences in what each |
| systematically read and coded the data into | | | | group retained. |
| agreed-upon categories. Quantitative data sources | | | | |