The present study aims to advance the extant research base by evaluating the implementation and effectiveness of an academic vocabulary program designed for use in mainstream middle school classrooms with high proportions of language minority learners. The quasi‐experimental, mixed‐methods study was conducted in 21 classes (13 treatment matched to 8 control) in seven middle schools in a large district, with 476 sixth‐grade students (346 language minority learners, 130 native English speakers). Classroom observations and teacher logs indicated the 18‐week program was implemented with good fidelity and that the approach contrasted sharply with the standard district English language arts (ELA) curriculum. Multilevel modeling indicated that the program resulted in significant effects on several aspects of vocabulary knowledge, including meanings of taught words (d = 0.39; p < .0001), morphological awareness (d = 0.20; p = .0003), and the word meanings as presented in expository text (d = 0.20; p = .0227). The program also yielded marginally significant, but promising effects on a depth of word knowledge measure (d = 0.15; p =0.0830) and a norm‐referenced measure of reading comprehension (d = 0.15; p = .0568). No effects were found on a norm‐referenced vocabulary measure. These effects were comparable for language minority learners and their native‐English‐speaking classmates. Data from teachers shed light on the challenges of meeting students' diverse instructional needs and the roles of curriculum and professional networks in building instructional capacity. The findings show promise in developing effective multifaceted vocabulary instruction for implementation by ELA teachers in middle school classrooms with high numbers of language minority learners. [Note: Nonie Lesaux discusses the research presented in this article in a podcast from the “Voice of Literacy”: http://www.voiceofliteracy.org/posts/40678.] تهدف الدراسة الجارية لتقديم قاعدة الأبحاث العلمية القائمة الآن بواسطة تقييم تنفيذ برنامج المفردات الدراسي وفعاليته المصمم للاستخدام في غرف صفوف المدراس الإعدادية الخاصة بعامة الناس التي يوجد فيها نسبة عالية من متعلمي اللغة من الأقليات. لقد أجريت دراسة متعددة الطرق شبه الاختبارية في 21 غرفة صف (13في المجموعة المعالجة مقابل 8 في المجموعة الضابطة) في سبع مدارس إعادادية في محافظة كبيرة يشمل فيها 476 طالب في الصف السادس (346 متعلم لغة من الأقليات و130 ناطق بالإنكليزية). وقد أشارت مراقبات غرف الصفوف ومدونات المعلمين إلى أن البرنامج الذي استغرق 18أسبوعاً تم تنفيذه بجودة عالية وأن هذا المدخل في متناهية التفاوت تجاه منهاج الفنون اللغوية الإنكليزية المعيارية. وقد أشار التقليد المتعدد المستويات إلى أن البرنامج أنتج تأثيرات ذي شأن في عدة أوجهة من معرفة المفردات بما فيها معاني الكلمات المتعلمة (درجات الحرية = 0.15 والقيمة الاحتمالية < 0.0001) والوعي الصوتي (درجات الحرية = 0.20 والقيمة الاحتمالية = 0.0003) ومعاني الكلام كما وردت في النصوص الشرحية (درجات الحرية = 0.20 والقيمة الاحتمالية =0.0227). وأنتج البرنامج أيضاً تأثيرات لها ضربة من الأهمية ولكنها مشجعة بالنسبة لمقياس عمق فهم الكلمة (درجة الحرية = 0.15 والقيمة الاحت...

In urban middle schools, educators find it challenging to meet the literacy needs of the many struggling readers in their classrooms, including language‐minority (LM) learners and students from low‐income backgrounds. One strategy for improving these students' reading comprehension is to teach essential academic vocabulary in a meaningful, engaging, and systematic way. This article describes the development and evaluation of an academic vocabulary curriculum for sixth‐grade mainstream classrooms with large numbers of LM learners who struggle with comprehension. In a study conducted in 21 sixth‐grade classrooms, the curriculum was found to be effective both in improving students' vocabulary and reading comprehension and in supporting teachers' learning about how to teach academic vocabulary. Seven universal learnings for all classrooms are described and illustrated with specific examples of activities, perspectives from teachers, and insights from students, drawn from the study.

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The current study examined high school students’ perceptions of healthy eating and exercise lessons in an obesity prevention curriculum being delivered to children in an urban area. Evaluators assessed high school student perceptions of their service learning. Forty-seven high school students participated and coached 65 children. The high school students recorded their perceptions of their experience by answering a series of questions in their journals after each teaching session. The high school students also recorded the children’s daily eating and exercise goals, roadblocks to reaching goals, and ideas for overcoming roadblocks. Results indicated that the majority of high school students (n = 45) wanted to participate in service learning in the future and that they were learning about teaching, setting goals with children, and learning about themselves as leaders. Future research should examine the long-term impact of the service experience for the high school students.

Science teachers are often charged with providing discipline‐specific literacy instruction. However, little is known about the reading and writing genres, or text types, typically found in these classrooms. In particular, there is a lack of knowledge about what opportunities adolescents have to engage with the genres privileged in science to learn the discipline's specialized ways of making meaning and communicating knowledge. This article reports on a case study of the reading and writing genres found within four middle‐grade science classrooms in one small all‐female school. Results suggest that although a variety of text genres were present, there was little discussion of how and why science content was presented in particular ways. Notably, students also had far more opportunities to read than write extended nonfiction. Teachers can cultivate a more reciprocal relation between reading and writing in science by using genres that students read as models for their writing.