Effect of Spiral Vocabulary Review on Test Scores at a Western Washington Middle School

Abstract

The purpose of this research project was to study how spiral review tasks effect student performance on end of unit vocabulary tests. Every Wednesday a vocabulary test is given during the humanities block periods. The vocabulary test is a compilation of all of the words learned from the prior week. One new vocabulary word is given each day and no review is conducted. This study was conducted to see if spiral review of the vocabulary words learned would increase test scores. Data was collected in the form of three pre spiral review intervention tests and three tests during the spiral review. Over the course of four months, the students completed three tests before the spiral review intervention and three tests during the spiral review intervention. During both the pre and post intervention, new vocabulary words were given to students using the same method they have been using all year. The method is to show the students the word, a picture, and a short sentence to describe the word. Students are then to conclude the part of speech and the definition of the word. After students have guessed the correct part of speech and definition, students use the vocabulary word in a sentence. All vocabulary work is kept in student’s individual vocabulary notebook. The difference of how the information was given to students during the intervention is during pre intervention I only gave a new vocabulary word each day (no review was conducted), and during the intervention I reviewed all of the prior weeks vocabulary words out loud using sentences, stories, and real life connections for the students. The results of this research show that 93% of the students improved their average test scores during the spiral review intervention.