Success Story: Ms. McCants

Ms. McCants: One factor is that literacy is the focus of our school. Another is that, being a high school teacher who’s working with students at this stage in their education, they’re thinking about the next steps in their lives, whether that be college or career. We’re all thinking about how we can get them prepared, whether it’s the courses they’ll be taking or the tests they’ll be taking. And if you look at the testing material they’re going to encounter — whether it’s the FSAs, ACTs, PSATs or the SATs — they all have more science content now. But in preparing them for the future, I also see the importance of focusing on the literacy portion and the vocabulary, because if they can’t understand the language, they’re not going to understand the content, and they’re not going to be as successful in life.

M: The platform is wonderful in terms of the variety of language that’s there, and this is how students are assessed during testing — words are presented in a variety of different ways — and Vocabuary.com gives them practice with those different ways of thinking about language. I love how Vocabulary.com changes up how students are seeing the word. You might have a question where you have to make an inference, and then the next question is giving the definition of a term, and then there are synonyms, antonyms, and fill-in-the-blank questions. Presenting words in different ways gives them a taste of the what they’ll be asked to do on the tests, and it’s also really engaging!

M: That’s one of the most important things that we do as teachers — to engage our learners — to grab hold of them and keep their attention so they can learn. And that’s what I see with Vocabulary.com, like with the Vocab Jam that we did in class today. It’s great to have activities like this because the more tools that we have in our toolbox that we can give them, the more success that they will have. And it’s so great to have this tool that my students get a lot of pleasure out of doing! We’re just having a lot of fun doing it.

M: I do like to use incentives to engage and motivate students. I think they like that element of competition and also that recognition. I sometimes have contests where I’m looking for the top five students over the weekend, whether it’s points or words mastered. Or I’ll look for the top 10 students after the quarter is over. This way I’m promoting Vocabulary.com as something that they want to do, and it’s the kind of thing where any student who puts in the effort can be successful.

M: I do assign them science word lists, and I often start by seeing what lists are available that other teachers have created and shared. But I also look for lists that are just for fun, like “Black Panther Lingo” — that list had great words! We do those because they’re fun, but also because they’re words they’ll see in their reading and use in their writing, words they need to know in general. And if the words on those lists don’t match up with what I have in my science curriculum, that’s fine — they’re working on their overall literacy skills. And that helps in the science classroom where students do have to be strong readers and writers to understand the content.

M: I start a unit by introducing the terms in class, and we review them in the context of our course content. Then I assign my students a practice activity on Vocabulary.com so they can work on the words for homework. Again, sometimes I’ll make my own lists or I’ll search for lists that are already available. Once they’ve finished the practice, I give them a quiz. It’s very handy for grading purposes, and I also like that I can give a quiz again if there’s a situation where I want a student to have the opportunity to reassess.

And during the week, I’ll go over any words that they’re really having a hard time mastering — those trouble words. I find it really useful that Vocabulary.com tells me on my teacher dashboard which words my students are struggling with, so I can spend an extra minute in class reviewing those.

M: As far as observable outcomes, when I look at our test scores — like my students’ SAT scores — I see that they are going up. And day-to-day in my own classroom, my students are using language that’s appropriate, they’re using the words I know they learned on Vocabulary.com. They know how to use more advanced words and you can just hear in how they’re talking about the material that they really have a better understanding of what they’re reading and what’s going on in the classroom.

M: Every year that I’ve done this, I think of more things that I want to do with Vocabulary.com! I’m already looking forward to next term. And we’re having a lot of fun doing it!