<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Kansas Research
 

Vocabulary Strategies to Help Students Remember Definitions

 
 
Sandra Bumpus McGehee
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Wichita State University
 
 

The goal of this study was to determine if a specific strategy designed to teach students vocabulary words would affect long term memory. Students should remember words even after the test. The students were members of a fifth grade reading class. The group, 13 students, was taught vocabulary for 3 weeks using one strategy and then 3 weeks using a different strategy. Long term evaluations were given 2 weeks after each week of initial instruction to evaluate long term memory. The latter strategy used research-based activities incorporating three different modalities. Research was supported because class averages increased by 20%. All students increased individual percentages except 1 student who maintained the same percentage. The graph below shows individual student averages for each strategy.