Considering Building First-Grade Students’ Social Studies Vocabulary Knowledge Through Contextually Responsive Content-Literacy Integration

• In Event: Considering Literacy Learning: Thinking About Texts, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension

Abstract

Content knowledge is a crucial component of literacy instruction (Kim et al., 2021; Knowledge Matters Campaign, n.d.) and can lead to increased reading interest (Guthrie et al., 2004). However, students’ backgrounds and lived experiences are not typically centered in the disciplinary materials used in content-literacy instruction. In fact, at least one knowledge-building curriculum has been critiqued for reproducing white-supremacist ideologies via text selection and instructional supports (Rigell et al., 2022). In response to this concern, the current study supported students’ content knowledge and literacy development by supporting teachers’ agency in developing a contextually-responsive unit.
Research Questions
What are the effects of an integrated, context-specific unit on 1st grade students’ (a) breadth of unit-specific vocabulary words, (b) social studies interest, and (c) reading interest.
Methods
The context was a low-income school district surrounded by rural, farming communities. Participants were 92 first-grade students from six classes. Teachers with similar years of experience were matched, then randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Treatment teachers engaged in five professional-learning sessions, during which we co-constructed a six-week unit plan that included purposefully-selected texts, vocabulary, and knowledge development supports (Appendix A). Control teachers continued with typical instruction. Although assignment occurred at the teacher level, students were the primary unit of analysis. Lessons from all teachers were observed and recorded once per week. Ongoing feedback was provided for treatment teachers.
Data Sources
Vocabulary Recognition Task
The Vocabulary Recognition Task (VRT) is a valid and reliable measure of breadth of word knowledge around a concept (Stahl & Bravo, 2010). Between 15 and 25 vocabulary words are identified related to a unit, and also four to seven unrelated words (Stahl et al., 2020). Students circle the words that they think are related to the to-be-learned concept (e.g., community; Appendix B). The VRT was administered pre- and post-implementation to students in the treatment and control groups.
Interest
Reading and social studies interest was measured for students in both conditions (Appendix C).
Results
Descriptive statistics can be found in Table 1. To explain the effect of assignment to the treatment condition on students’ vocabulary knowledge, a multiple regression was conducted using R software version 4.0.3 (RStudio Team, 2022). Gender, VRT pretest, and assignment were included in the model.
Assignment to the treatment condition, gender, and vocabulary pretest accounted for 29% of the variance in vocabulary posttest scores (Table 2). Gender was not found to be a significant predictor. Assignment to the experimental condition was found to be a somewhat stronger predictor than the vocabulary pretest. There was a positive correlation between being in the treatment condition and having higher social studies interest (Table 1). There were no differences in reading interest.
Discussion
These results suggest contextually-flexible content-literacy integration could be beneficial to support vocabulary knowledge development and interest in lower elementary students, especially in comparison to less-flexible curricula which include problematic texts and supports. Additional research should consider students’ depth of vocabulary and content knowledge, reading comprehension outcomes, and teachers’ perspectives.

Author

• Courtney Hattan, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill