Word Generation: Helping English Language Learners Strengthen Academic Vocabulary in the Core Content Areas

The National Charter School Resource Center hosted a webinar June 14, 2012, which explored Word Generation, a comprehensive vocabulary program developed by researchers at the Strategic Education Research Partnership in collaboration with educators in Boston Public Schools. By engaging students with high-interest texts about a variety of contemporary controversies, the program helps all students, but particularly ELLs, to increase their academic vocabulary and learn how target words are used in a range of settings and within the context of the four core content areas.

Our featured presenter was Claire White, Ed.D., who is the director of the Word Generation Program. She described the development of Word Generation, provided an overview of the components of the program, and reviewed recent research that has been conducted to evaluate the impact of the program.