Inspiring word learning and much more
With Vocabulary.com, students at Learning Tree Elementary learned thousands of new words as well as the value of persistence. Vocabulary.com brought new excitement and engagement to their vocabulary learning that teachers had not seen with other methods of instruction. The competitive aspect of the Vocabulary Bowl, exciting mini competitions, and Vocabulary.com’s gamified activities motivated students to complete assignments and do extra learning.
With just 34 5th-8th grade students participating in the Vocabulary Bowl, they placed first in their state and second in the nation, beating out many much larger schools. 6th-grader Caleb O. says, “It took a lot of perseverance to keep going and learning words, but it was a lot of fun. It’s an example of what we can accomplish.”
Learning Tree Elementary
About the school
- Location:
- Dalton, GA
- Grades:
- PreK — 8
- Number of students:
- 85
- Characteristics:
- Private
How they use Vocabulary.com
- Grades:
- 5-8
- Subjects:
- ELA
The challenges
Learning Tree Elementary is a small private Seventh Day Adventist school serving a diverse student population. Many of their families are native Spanish speakers with limited English proficiency. That makes vocabulary—especially critical academic vocabulary—a challenge.
For Niki Knowlton, who teaches Language Arts for 5th-8th grade students, vocabulary is the key to reading comprehension and content-area knowledge acquisition. The school had some existing vocabulary materials, but students found them dry and uninteresting. It was also hard for her to integrate the materials with her core curriculum and tailor them to the needs of her students. In her Language Arts classroom, she wanted word lists correlated to the books they were reading in class. She also saw a need for students, especially English learners, to strengthen their academic vocabulary, which would help them be successful in science, social studies, and other content areas.
Top learners at Learning Tree Elementary pose with their MVP certificates
The solution
Mrs. Knowlton discovered Vocabulary.com while searching for vocabulary resources online. She was first intrigued by the “Word of the Day,” which provided definitions for words in an accessible, kid-friendly format. Once she started exploring the vocabulary activities and resources, she realized that she could use it to support her classroom curriculum. She found ready-made lists to support books they were reading in class, such as A Long Walk to Water and A Single Shard.
She had only been using Vocabulary.com for a couple of months when the Spring Vocabulary Bowl started in February. At first, she kept expectations low, asking students to master at least ten words per week. Many students chose to go further on their own, inspired by the game-like elements and achievement awards within the program as well as the mini-competitions Mrs. Knowlton set up for her classes.
Once students realized they were moving up the Vocabulary Bowl Leaderboard ahead of other competing schools, they were hooked. Olivia, a 5th-grade student, says, “It was difficult, but it was fun. We just had a small class, but we realized there was something bigger here. We wanted to win the mini-competition for our class, but we also wanted to win the whole thing!”
Students were motivated to build their vocabulary and use VocabTrainer to continue racking up points. Jeremiah, an 8th-grader who mastered more than 800 words, says, “I did it at home when I got bored.” Caleb E., a 6th-grader, says, "It doesn’t take all that much to learn a bunch of words. I would do some on the way to school or even at lunch while I was eating my food. And I really did learn a lot. When I started, I was still working at the elementary level, but by the end, I was working on high school words."
Throughout the Bowl, students watched the Leaderboard and planned their word-learning strategies. Over spring break, students could earn a homework pass by mastering 100 words. Winners of the mini-competitions earned free pizza or a milkshake. On the last day of the competition, a Sunday, Learning Tree hosted an in-school pizza party for anyone who wanted to come and work toward earning more word mastery points. At the end of the Bowl, the top six word-learners got to go on a restaurant outing.
Here’s how Learning Tree Elementary is using Vocabulary.com:
- Mrs. Knowlton assigns Practice activities based on word lists aligned with the books they are reading in class.
- Students test their knowledge of the words together in class with fun, interactive Vocabulary Jams.
- Students also work in VocabTrainer for individualized vocabulary practice.
- Mrs. Knowlton uses the class and student reporting to track which words students have mastered and where they are still struggling.
The results
Learning Tree students were initially disappointed that they didn’t place first nationally in the Vocabulary Bowl, but their disappointment quickly turned to pride when they ran the numbers. While Morehead City Middle School beat them in total words mastered (26,591 to 16,506), they also had 482 students competing vs. Learning Tree’s 34. That means Learning Tree students, with an average of 485 words mastered per student, learned almost ten times as many words on a per-student basis. That’s a real reason to celebrate!
In addition to the amazing amount of new words each student mastered, they learned how to set an ambitious goal and work hard to meet it. Reid, an 8th-grader and the top word learner for the school with more than 2,000 words mastered says, “Trying hard is my secret.”
Mrs. Knowlton plans to expand her use of word lists next year and start making more lists of her own. She also would like students to start using Vocabulary.com in their science and social studies classes. After just a few months of using Vocabulary.com, she is excited about the progress she has already seen—especially among students who have not always been highly motivated by vocabulary. Students use the words in class and in writing and demonstrate better comprehension of the books they read. Vocabulary.com brought vocabulary learning to life for the students at Learning Tree.