Summer Skills Building: Vocabulary

It's summer and thinking about academic skills is not high on any student's "to do" list. But the slower pace of the summer months makes them an excellent time to build skills that will be helpful when school begins again. This summer we will be featuring several blogs that will be looking at ways to build skills, work on problem areas from the past school year, and get ready for the challenges that September will bring. Don't worry -- we know it's vacation time and won't be suggesting anything too rigorous. We hope that our suggestions can help your student have fun, build strengths, and start the new school year ready to tackle what lies ahead.

We have written extensively on building vocabulary, and our prior posts have included a number of tools that can enrich students' vocabulary at all levels, from computer games to books to the importance of talking to young children to build their skills. Take a look and see what might be helpful to your child.

We have a few more suggestions that you might want to have your student try: 

• Wordly Wise 3000  

This computer-based program for grades K-12 teaches new vocabulary and definitions with audio and visual support. It also offers online games and activities to help reinforce the new vocabulary learned from the word lists.

• A.Word.A.Day 

This subscription service sends daily emails containing words selected for students in middle and high school. Students receive a daily email including the word, its definition, origin, and pronunciation, and several sentences containing the word. Students  should be encouraged to learn and use the new word regularly to gradually increase their vocabulary.

• E Readers

Another way to build vocabulary is to do summer reading on an electronic book reader, such as 

Amazon’s Kindle. An eReader allows students to tap on an unknown word to easily access the precise definition without interrupting their reading. Keep in mind, however, that the kind of light emitted by EReaders can interfere with sleep, so they are not good choices for before bedtime reading.