Literacy special interest journal v1 n1

As seventeen-year-old Kendra (all names are pseudonyms) noted, there are “definitions that I can understand,” and Abigale found that multiple definitions enabled her “to expand my variation of the word's meaning.” Thus, it comes as no surprise that student survey responses overwhelmingly indicated that three salient features of online vocabulary websites included variety, repetition, and relevance.

Though it’s common knowledge that not all websites are created equal, what’s important is that there are options, and games, such as the Vocabulary.com Challenge (aka ‘The Challenge’), offer students a chance to learn via adaptive technology, repetition, and application. Mariyah explained that The Challenge “allowed me to memorize my words and see how they are used in a sentence.”

Among the sites she visited during and beyond the sessions, Abigale recalled how “I have learned how to use the online thesaurus and…I have learned that Vocabulary.com is a very useful tool for helping me study vocabulary words, and that I can continue to use it to improve my vocabulary (even if it's just to make my sentences sound smarter).” Features of the site that supported Abigale’s independent learning included personalized word lists and game-based interaction that ultimately translated into an individualized learning experience that was tailored specifically to Abilgale’s performance. As a result, we see how adaptive technologies can support independent learning and also help students to recognize the application of their learning beyond test scores (e.g., “even if it’s just to make my sentences sound smarter”).

The participants were able to learn on their own—both inside and outside the classroom—and posttests indicated a positive shift in the students’ feelings of wordlearning independence. Further, students reported an increase in enjoyment and competence when it came to learning vocabulary; participant responses to the preand posttest question, “I look to learn new words on my own,” reveal a positive shift and an increase in students’ interest in independent learning. Likewise, graduate student observations suggested that the students “were excited to add new words to their Challenge and were able to apply those skills successfully to the sentence completion questions they had.” Because online technologies support selfdirected learning, students became designers of their own education as they added vocabulary words to online lists, played interactive games, and ultimately applied what they learned in meaningful ways.

What this Means for the Classroom Given that websites and adaptive technologies (such as interactive games) support student-centered and independent learning, we need to consider how, if at all, these technologies can be used in the classroom to support literacy learning.

Teachers might decide that online vocabulary games should be played outside the 33