Dbasics Educational Enhancement Services
Vocabulary workshop
"It is widely accepted among researchers that the difference in students’ vocabulary levels is a key factor in disparities in academic achievement…but that vocabulary instruction has been neither frequent nor systematic in most schools". – Appendix A of Common Core State Standards
Academic Vocabulary Can Make a Meaningful Difference
Betty Hart and Todd Risley spent 2 ½ years intensely observing the language of 42 families. Specifically, they looked at household language use in three different settings: 1) professional families; 2) working class; 3) welfare families. Hart and Risley gathered an enormous amount of data during the study and subsequent longitudinal follow-ups to come up with an often cited 30 million word gap between the vocabularies of welfare and professional families by age
three. Analysis of the data suggests that an even greater disparity exists in schools that are made up of minorities. Systematically addressing the difference in our students’ vocabulary is one of the ways to decrease the achievement gap.
A Renewed Focus
Dbasics feels it should be a renewed focus on general academic vocabulary to enhance the vocabulary of all students and better prepare them to articulate effectively. By no means are the words taught in this course and exhaustive list of words a student need to learn; yet, the words we choose to use will be taught for mastery.
Teaching vocabulary for mastery means that it enables students to know and use the words accurately without hesitation. This requires explicit instruction of the terms that includes practice, review, and deep processing.
Direct teaching of vocabulary might be one of the most underused activities in K-12 education. The lack of vocabulary instruction might be a result of misconceptions about what it means to teach vocabulary and its potential effect on student learning. Perhaps the biggest misconception is that teaching vocabulary means teaching formal dictionary definitions. -Marzano et al. 2002
Vocabulary Workshop is a Fifteen Weeks Course
Vocabulary Workshop is designed to be a fifteen week course; but that ultimately depends on the individual student's learning ability. There are fifteen units to completion. Each unit comprises of a five-part lesson consisting of Choosing the Right Word, Completing the Sentence, Definitions, Synonyms and Antonyms and Vocabulary in Context.
Dbasics will use vocabulary building exercises to enrich the students learning experience. These exercises may include Building with Classical Roots, Analogies, Word Association and Word Families. Together these exercises provide varied exposure to taught words. This course will teach 300 words chosen for currency and general usefulness, and for the appearance on standardized test. Students who dedicate themselves to learning will add over 300 words to their word arsenal by the completion of high school.
Qualifications
Student must be a high school learning entering the 9th grade or higher for the current school year; or an adult learner returning to school.
Fees
Registration fee $50
Weekly fee $35
Additional fees will apply for students who are severely below grade level