--- Forwarded Message from "Carla Kessler" <[log in to unmask]> ---

>From: "Carla Kessler" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Research Funding?
>Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 10:16:15 -0500
>Importance: Normal
>Disposition-Notification-To: "Carla Kessler" <[log in to unmask]>

I hope this request for help is appropriate, if not, my apologies!

My name is Carla Kessler. I am looking for assistance in finding an
appropriate research arena for testing the validity of a new,
computer-assisted vocabulary acquisition curriculum called Word Lab. Scott
Baker and Deborah Simmons have both seen it and have been impressed with
it's instructional design. Here is some background. I am a teacher in the
North Kitsap School District in Washington State and have taught 5th and 6th
grade for thirteen years. Six years ago I resolved to learn more about
vocabulary acquisition. I could see many of my students were not learning
enough new words through the incidental exposure provided by the substantial
amount of reading I was requiring of them. In fact, they just seemed to be
stuck at one level, getting more discouraged. I read the research, wrote a
Masters Thesis summarizing it, and began creating a curriculum to use what I
had learned. With the help of my husband (a programmer), the preliminary
plans for a computer program were born.  Having immersed my students in many
of the approaches recommended, squeezing them into the classroom schedule,
we understood intimately the time crunch created by trying to do it right.
We knew these activities done in class could fit well into a mastery-based
computerized curriculum, and that a computer program could effectively
compact the learning process.

Last year, we tested our completed program at my school and a few others in
the district using curriculum content I had created from four novels. I
requested, and was granted, a half-time leave for this year to create more
curriculums from novels and to collect data on its effectiveness through pre
and post assessments. Our teachers are enthusiastic about it. They
understand the importance of intentional intruction and find it easy to use.
Students work hard on it, often asking to stay in at recess to keep working.
The program, being mastery based, gives them the feedback that lets them
know they are really making progress.

We have collected our first set of data. It was dependent on the cooperation
of teacher volunteers, making it a challenge to maintain the intergrity of
the variables. Briefly, students who started the year below grade level made
an average gain of 1.5 years in comprehension skills in the past six months,
with the entire test group making an average gain of one year. Long term
retention (after 3 months) was at 87%, with the lower group making a 7%
greater gain than those at or above grade level. Additional test data will
be collected at the end of the year.

I have looked everywhere for funds to assist me in collecting more thorough
data, but because I am not working with any higher institutions, nothing
appears available. Scott Baker (Univ of Oregon) upon reviewing the
curriculum, asked for my permission to include it in one of his grants, but
had to back out as he is now focusing on primary level interventions and
ours is for those students who already read (3rd - 9th grade).

Word Lab matches the requirements for success in vocabulary development by
including semantic mapping, semantic feature analysis, computer-assisted
instruction, and instructional design features that provide intervention,
systematic review, instructional scaffolding, and integration into
literature experiences and student background knowledge. As they progress
through the activities, students are guided in acquiring strategies for
learning word meanings independently. It can be summarized as providing
relevancy, variety, and repetition in an immersion-based format.

Please take a look at it and/or advise me as to whom I might contact to gain
assistance in this endeavor. We are quite certain this program has validity
and would like to see that confirmed (or disproven). It follows and applies
the research closely, and barring flaws in our understanding of what
practices help improve reading comprehension, should validate much of the
research that has been done.

You can gain general information about the program at our main web site
www.logixlab.com, then link to the "guest site" to try out the student
program. Be sure to print out the manual as instructed, to make it easier to
visualize how it is applied in the classroom.

Please forward this to anyone you believe might consider looking at the
program, and thanks in advance for your time!

We look forward to your response!

Carla Kessler
[log in to unmask]
360.697.6845
www.logixlab.com