This Blog Will Explore Two Key Questions:
(1) Can we transfer the successful methods we developed in school learning labs (in our award-winning Math and Vocabulary-Reading Acceleration programs) into American homes? We know our software gets results. We know that in a lab setting kids get addicted to it and that we often have to tell them, "That's enough for today. Stop Working!" But parents buy learning software, not children. The question is: can we sell them learning software their children will actually use? (think that's a funny question? In a world full of edutainment programs that neither educate nor entertain we think it's about time a company asked it!)

(2) What tools and methods does research- and our successful lab experience- show to be crucial to motivating children to "fall in love with practice" and to ensuring that their practice time isn't wasted?

Key tools you'll see explained, tracked, critiqued, defended: the Learning Zones Placement games; the TargetScore! Motivation & Mastery System; TargetScore! Progress Trackers (printable paper trackers); Perfect Practice Vocabulary and Math Learning Paths; and our claim that "40 words a week can change a child's life!"

Thursday, Feb 21, 2008

What are the two main reasons almost all vocabulary programs fail to increase the rate at which students learn new words?

Thursday, Feb 21, 2008 11:21

1. They start everyone at the same place (no-word difficulty list and no placement test) and 2. Students get only a fraction of the repetitions necessary to put new words into long-term memory. Research shows that children entering the first grade have large differences in their oral (pre-reading) vocabulary. In one study the top five percent of first graders had a working vocabulary of 7000 words. Children in the bottom 28 percent had an average vocabulary of 1500 words. These differences were not, on average, due to IQ (children in the bottom 28 percent learned new words just as quickly as those in the top five percent, once they started school) but to environment- how many hours did each child spend being read to or in conversation with adults? Schools in general are unaware of K-1 student's vocabulary level (the only way to measure it is orally and they do not have the tools to do that). But if nothing is done to help children with vocabulary deficits catch up, they will remain behind their peers and, with each new grade (as the vocabulary level of their textbooks rises), they will fall farther and farther behind in reading. How to close the gap? Find out what words students already know then start them on an intelligent vocabulary learning path to accelerate their acquisition of new words. Most vocabulary programs offer students a one-size-fits-all vocabulary list in which many of the words are either too easy or too hard for individual students. Such lists either bore or frustrate students but they have never been shown to increase new word acquisition. What does an intelligent vocabulary learning path (a "perfect practice" path) look like? It must give students enough multi-mode repetitions to put a new word's primary meaning, spelling, and pronunciation into their passive ("I recognize but don't necessarily use that word") vocabulary. It must make the word-recognition automatic so that when a new word is encountered in reading is absorbed immediately, without bringing the whole show to a stop! Finally, learners must find the practice path enjoyable or they will never get enough repetitions to put the new words into long-term memory. Students must "fall in love with practice," in other words, if they are ever going to close the vocabulary-reading gap and catch up to their peers.

Permalink Do you worry that TV (passive, fleeting connections; 75% images, only 25% words), the Internet (browsing, not reading), iPods (songs without lyrics), cell phones (no time to read, think, or finish one conversation), video games (please!), and all the other distractions of our Video Age might be suppressing your children's word power? Fight back with TargetScore! Vocabulary

Thursday, Jan 24, 2008

How to Help Kids "Fall in Love with Practice"

Thursday, Jan 24, 2008 05:31

Why do most educational software games remain unused after only one or two tries? Most are missing some or all of the 6 things researchers say you need to help kids "fall in love with practice": 1. Clear Learning Goals ("clear" means defined, visually or numerically) 2. Ability-Appropriate Goals (games that are too easy bore us; too hard, frustrate us); 3. Clear, Instant Feedback (on progress toward goals) 4. A Next-Step Goal always waiting (the brain rewards us for learning new things) 5. Drama & Suspense: time-pressure, increasing level of difficulty: 'Will I make it... before time runs out?! ... before the little monsters eat me?!' 6. Real-World Power: kids know the difference between skills that only help them in video games and skills that make them stronger in the real world. Here's how the TargetScore! Motivation & Mastery System matches up to the six elements: 1. Clear Goals: TargetScore! 4-Game Learning Path; 2. Ability-Appropriate Goals: Learning Zones Placement game (starts every student in a customized learning zone); 3. Clear, instant feedback: TargetScore animated Score Cards; 4. Next-Step goals (so when they hit one Target they can use the skills they've just mastered to tackle the next level) 5. Drama & Interaction: time-pressure, increasing level of difficulty: Will I make it... before time runs out?! ... before the little monsters eat me?! etc. 6. Real-World Power: TargetScore! Learning System's 3000 Core Literacy Words. Words are power. Don't believe it? Remember the study that found CEOs of Fortune 500 companies had the largest vocabularies of any profession. Words are power: power to understand, power to create, power to persuade. The TargetScore! Learning system was developed and tested under real-world conditions and designed to help kids "fall in love with practice" so they spend enough time (on the 'perfect practice' learning path) to get results.

Permalink Do you worry that TV (passive, fleeting connections; 75% images, only 25% words), the Internet (browsing, not reading), iPods (songs without lyrics), cell phones (no time to read, think, or finish one conversation), video games (please!), and all the other distractions of our Video Age might be suppressing your children's word power? Fight back with TargetScore! Vocabulary

Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008

"Get in the Zone:" Learning Zones Placement

Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008 05:41

The first thing players see after signing into TargetScore! Vocabulary is our Learning Zones Placement game. This "game" is actually a sophisticated Vocabulary-Research Diagnostic designed to put find everyone's individual "learning zone" in our 3000 word sequenced vocabulary list. What is the Vocabulary-Reading "Learning Zone"? The place in our 3000 word vocabulary list below which you know most of the words and above which you know very few of the words.... and, since vocabulary level equals reading comprehension, when you've found your Vocabulary Learning Zone you've also found your Reading Zone (for more about that see the reading passages in our download library). What's the Advantage of Starting "In the Zone"? Research shows that students learn and retain new words up to three times faster if they start "in the zone" than if you give them a traditional, one-size-fits-all word list (You're in sixth grade? OK, here are the sixth grade words). Click Here to See the Vocabulary-Reading Connection: Learning Zones Placement Chart 1. Already Own TargetScore! Vocabulary? The placement chart will show you how your child's Learning Zones Placement results correlate to his or her reading grade level. 2. Don't have TargetScore! yet? The chart will show you which disk in our 10-disk vocabulary series your child should begin with (each disk has 300 targeted sequenced vocabulary words).

Permalink Do you worry that TV (passive, fleeting connections; 75% images, only 25% words), the Internet (browsing, not reading), iPods (songs without lyrics), cell phones (no time to read, think, or finish one conversation), video games (please!), and all the other distractions of our Video Age might be suppressing your children's word power? Fight back with TargetScore! Vocabulary

Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008

Power of Visual Goal Setting

Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008 01:34

Many learning games are like cafeterias. Children get their tray (sign-in) and enter the cafeteria to find out that the software designers have left the job of putting together a wholesome meal up to them. The menu (learning path) and portions (number of repetitions) are not laid out. So much freedom! A typical child ends up with three helpings of pie and a stomach ache. One or two times in the cafeteria and they don't return; or they come back every day and get nothing but sick from the time they spend there. The TargetScore! Learning System is different. First thing players see is a visual Learning Path that lays out a "prepared path to excellence." Our promise: If you follow this path--hitting your TargetScores along the way-- you will get stronger. As soon as children sign in and play the Learning Zones Placement game (more on that amazing tool in another post), they immediately see three things: (1) what games we want them to master; (2) the mastery TargetScores! they have to hit for each game; (3) the point of each game (Learn the Words, Earn them, Use them, Show off!: Speed & Perfection!) What happens then? They internalize the learning goals, make them their own, and fall in love with practice! Parents don't have to push their kids to do their 20 minutes 2-3 times a week. Though setting up incentives and making the printable TargetScore! Progress Trackers part of your household routine can make it even more likely that your children will rapidly increase their word power, reading power, learning power.... More about that in the next post.

Permalink Do you worry that TV (passive, fleeting connections; 75% images, only 25% words), the Internet (browsing, not reading), iPods (songs without lyrics), cell phones (no time to read, think, or finish one conversation), video games (please!), and all the other distractions of our Video Age might be suppressing your children's word power? Fight back with TargetScore! Vocabulary

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