Product Description
Two-thirds of K-12 students (36 Million) are struggling to comprehend, and vocabulary is the building block of comprehension. Teachers are stuck using tools that use language to teach language to students who struggle with language. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not working. Unless students deeply understand thousands of nuanced vocabulary words, they will struggle to comprehend, communicate and learn in every subject area.
InferCabulary Pro, created by two speech-language pathologists with over 40 years combined experience teaching language and literacy, will save schools money by putting the right vocabulary tool into the hands of the regular education teacher. Because InferCabulary asks students to use their visual and critical thinking skills to figure out word meanings for themselves (rather than memorizing language-dense definitions that often make no sense), classroom teachers can now reach all students, whether the students are proficient at language, or not! Not only the 18.6 million “proficient” students in K-12, but also the 12.7 million in special education and learning English, and the 23 million who struggle, but don’t receive special education support.
We have developed InferCabulary Pro, a unique, visual tool that a recent independent research study indicated is far superior to traditional methods. During a six-week study at the University of Virginia, fifth-grade students scored significantly higher (10-20%) on quizzes where they needed to understand words in sentences, and extend understanding to new examples not directly taught. Additionally, teachers asked up to ten times as many questions of students when using InferCabulary, compared to when they taught using “business as usual instruction”. InferCabulary Pro reduces the need for one-on-one or small group vocabulary instruction with a “specialist”, saving schools up to a billion dollars per year. Our “win” is that not only will the top 1/3 of students learn vocabulary better, but the lower two-thirds of the class who struggle with literacy will finally learn vocabulary.
How It Works
When students are first enrolled in InferCabulary Pro, they see a helpful video that explains the mountain-themed game, and the process for learning vocabulary in this new way. Students navigate climbing a series of mountains by engaging in the “Climb” (assessment) mode. It is here that students are asked to choose the correct word (in a series of four words) that best conveys the common thread of the four images. Words are written and read aloud for students. If students need hints, audio and written captions can be accessed for each photograph by clicking on the pictures for more information. These captions are written with simple language that guides students toward understanding, but do not define the word. Students rely on carabiners to make sure they do not “slip” or fall down a level if they make an incorrect choice. Students are able to try again if they are incorrect. The system keeps track of whether students have learned a word, are progressing, or are struggling with the word. They are provided with the list of words, and which were correct/incorrect. In order to earn additional carabiners (and to encourage students to spend extended time learning additional information about the images), students access 10 word lessons in “Basecamp” that incorporate semantic reasoning (our term for the use of critical thinking that enables one to infer meaning from multiple examples).
The Teacher Portal allows teachers to: 1) assign words to an entire class or differentiate instruction for individual students; 2) keep track of learned/progressing/struggling words for each student. Words can be assigned by “starring” the words in the dashboard mode. In addition to assigning words by grade-level, multiple filters allow teachers to search for additional words to be included. These filters include a search box for specific words, literature titles that have been cross-referenced to words in the system (a list of titles can be found on our website), and category labels (e.g., emotions, quantities, occupations etc.), Because we are collaborative and responsive to teachers’ needs, teachers can share vocabulary that may not yet be in the system, and we will add the lessons for appropriate words (i.e., nouns, adjectives, adverbs that are “imageable” and are “appropriate”).
