The purpose of my study was to determine if the use of children’s literature would increase student retention of high-frequency vocabulary words in sixth grade Spanish.
I taught in a suburban middle school serving approximately 1,000 students in grades 6, 7, and 8. Of my 1,000 students, about 88% were Caucasian and 12% were races that include Hispanic, African American, and Asian. In the 2017/2018 school year, 10.05% of students received Free and Reduced Price School Meals. Additionally, approximately 5% of the student population had an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). As a Spanish educator, I taught approximately 250 students three levels of Spanish: A (6th grade), B (7th grade), and C (8th grade). Each course was taught for the entire academic year, with students attending Spanish class every other day. In addition, my class sizes ranged from 9-27 students, providing a wealth of instructional implications. Because Spanish was not a required class, nor a state-assessed class, student behavior and engagement were not necessarily driven by grades or academic achievement.
On initial assessments in Spanish A, my sixth grade students had a wide range of scores. They were being evaluated on the letters of the alphabet. Scores ranged from 60% to 100%. I noticed that students who were engaged with the song during class and practiced the song at home, did significantly better on the quiz. Some students even sang the song in their heads during the quiz to help them recall the sounds of each letter of the alphabet. These students scored in the 90%-100% range. After the alphabet, we learned greetings. I did not introduce the terms for greetings with an authentic context. As the year continued, I gave "cold quizzes" to use as data for vocabulary retention. I compared data from quizzes for vocabulary words introduced without using children’s literature with quiz scores for vocabulary words that were introduced and practiced with children’s literature.
Student retention of high-frequency Spanish vocabulary is critical to their success across each level of middle school Spanish classes and future coursework. Automatic recall allowed for more complex language instruction (e.g. verb forms, reading passages). To support meaningful exposures to high-frequency words and higher retention of these words, children’s literature offered a familiar context. This instructional strategy also offered opportunities for higher student engagement leading to greater learning.