I implemented a small group vocabulary instruction intervention.  During this intervention I focused on teaching the vocabulary skills that my students lacked according to their pre-assessment data.  The pre-assessment data that I used was Reading Street Baseline scores and post-assessment Reading Street current average scores.  I also incorporated pre and post assessment of base words, prefixes, and suffixes.  I included student interviews about vocabulary.  My students were below on MAP percentile ranks in the vocabulary category.  This is when I decided to implement direct vocabulary instruction.  I did this instead of them attending read aloud because through my research read aloud was proven to be ineffective.

            My instruction was for 15 minutes a day and 4-5 days a week.  I taught the weekly vocabulary words that went along with my district’s reading curriculum, but through my research I learned that teaching only 3-5 words is most successful for struggling learners.  In my intervention I made sure that my instruction related to my students' interests and gave them multiple exposures to the words and skills we were learning.  I learned that they need to know the meaning of the prefixes and suffixes they are learning.  This way they can then connect them to other similar words.  This intervention was implemented over the course of 11 weeks.  I taught explicit vocabulary instruction by doing a pull out lesson with my students that focused specifically on the skills they needed taught.  

            I would start by modeling how to say the word, what other words they knew that were similar to that word, and then how I could create a definition to fit that vocabulary word.  Next, we would look at a word together and the students would walk through the same process as I used and assist me in creating a definition.  Lastly, I would have the students try defining a word on their own using the process we practiced above.  When I taught vocabulary instruction I used my research findings to guide my instruction along with student data and interests.  

            The specific strategies that I implemented were repeated exposures, so my students saw the words many times throughout the week.  I implemented engaging activities that were hands on such as Kahoot or Smart Boards.  Kahoot is a game that allows me to assess my students' knowledge based on questions and answer options that I generate and then they select their answer.  I would use their scores to let me know what skills still needed to be reviewed before the weekly quiz.

              Research also stated that teaching meanings of prefixes and suffixes are vital.  Each week I would teach a prefix and the meaning of that prefix.  Then after about six weeks when my students fully understood what a prefix was I introduced a suffix and the meaning of specific suffixes.  I selected all these activities and research topics based off of my students' interests and what was effective through research.  Research stated that hands on activities help students learn best and knowing my students personally that is how they learned best.  That is why I created activities such as Kahoot, vocabulary fort, QR codes, and Smart Boards that allowed them to be hands on and keep them moving.