Increasing Comprehension Levels Through Content-Specific Vocabulary

The objective of my study is to determine if explicitly
teaching content-specific vocabulary can increase
reading comprehension in low expectancy students. I
have created a pre/post assessment cycle design that
tests reading comprehension and familiarity with vocabulary
specific to the unit being taught. Participants
include 26 fourth graders at Park Lakes Elementary.
A pretest will be given, 5 lessons taught, and then a
posttest. Pretest and posttest scores will be analyzed,
to track learning gains and the validity of explicitly
teaching vocabulary to increase comprehension. All
26 students are expected to earn a higher score on
the posttest, compared to the pretest. After result analyzation,
I will report concluding results. My intent is to evaluate this technique with the hope that it will be
an effective teaching strategy that will improve low
expectancy student scores on the ELA area of the
Florida Standardized Assessments.