Seward Incorporated completed Phase I of the School Speak project in November of 2008. The Phase II proposal was submitted early in 2009. If funded, Phase II will begin in June of 2009. The project will be completed in June of 2011.

Upon completion of Phase II, the School Speak program will consist of approximately 200 lessons that each focus on 10 words. These lessons will include content vocabulary that address math, science, and social studies topics. The distribution of topics across these content areas will be determined by the words in the final vocabulary list.

During the Phase I feasibility trial, only three lessons were developed. Those lessons were used to assess functionality, usability, and appeal. Although key components were included in the Phase I lessons, additional lesson activities are planned for Phase II.

This screen above shows a sample lesson activity in which a student is asked a question and then required to speak the response modeled by the sentence at the bottom of the screen. The spoken sentence is recorded and then analyzed to determine the student's ability to speak the words correctly. The general path through the main sections of the prototype lessons is described below.

Login

The login requires each student to enter a unique user ID and password combination. Unique logins protect student data and allow management of the students' learning.

Vocabulary Recognition Pretest

Lessons begin with a pretest activity focused on 10 target words. Each student's performance on the pretest determines which of the lesson vocabulary will be emphasized in the subsequent instructional activities.

Quick Start

Following the pretest, students engage in familiarization activities to become better acquainted with each lesson's vocabulary. Two types of activities are used:

• Key Words – Students randomly select from among ten printed words, until all ten have been chosen, to hear each word's meaning and see an associated image.
• Speak – Students hear a question, hear and see the sentence-long model answer to the question, and then are required to speak the answer for evaluation by the speech recognition feature.

Language Model

Through an interactive oral reading experience, students are exposed to the content area vocabulary in context. This is a read-along activity where the on-screen passage text is highlighted as the student reads along with the narrator. Students see target words highlighted in red and may repeat the narration on each page if desired.

Using My Vocabulary

The oral reading experience is followed by a series of comprehension questions based on the passage. Each question is paired with a model sentence answer. Students record their spoken responses which are then evaluated by the speech recognition feature.

Vocabulary Recognition Posttest

Each lesson concludes with a posttest that repeats the pretest activity. Scores from the posttest are tracked and presented in student records.