Howeverwith its interesting passages, varied exercises, free digital resources and games and self-study approach, Vocabulary Workshop can be an affordable and easy to use way to help students develop a strong vocabulary with a minimum of frustration..
Published by Sadlier-Oxford, Vocabulary Workshop is a series of books designed to help students improve their vocabulary through leveled passages, an assortment of practice activities and exercises, reviews, word studies and more.
Vocabulary Workshop is made up of three levels, Tools for Comprehension, Achieve, Tools for Excellence, as well as a separate, fourth level for ESL and struggling students called Vocabulary for Success.
While the books in Vocabulary Workshop are partly centered around grade-leveled passages and words they can, of course, be used by students learning outside of the intended age/grade range, so long as their reading and reading comprehension skills are up to it.
The downside of a program using a non-age or grade-based structure is that it can be a little harder for homeschooling parents to figure out where they should start in the series, particularly if their student is a bit advanced or a bit behind in their studies.
That said, the Sadlier website does offer parents the ability to browse through and download samples of just about every Vocabulary Workshop book, offering them a unit or two of each level that they can use to make a more informed assessment or even try out on their student if they so choose.
The workbooks are written to the student and contain fairly clear instructions for every exercise and task, which makes Vocabulary Workshop more capable of being used as an independent learning program.
In our opinion, while students using Tools for Comprehension will probably need a bit more in the way of parental interaction, owing to the inclusion of various discussions and light kinesthetic activities, older students and those in Achieve or Excellence should largely be able to work through lessons by themselves.
Although perhaps a bit irritating to those who homeschool in order to escape the trappings of traditional schooling , these references should have little impact on the learning beyond the parent needing to take up the role of a fellow student from time to time.
Interestingly, in addition to the passages and exercises, the workbooks in the series often contain links or references to digital tools and activities that can be found on Sadlier Connect and that can augment the learning.
There are also word mapping activities, quizzes, supplemental activities and even word games, which can be kind of cool, and these are freely accessible to families, offering them a variety of useful interactive tools at their fingertips.
While perhaps not strictly necessary for more experienced homeschooling parents, we feel that they can be a valuable and helpful tool for those new to homeschooling and those whose ELA skills are a bit rusty.
With this code, in addition to the tools available to families, parents can get access to their own personal dashboard, progress tracking and recording tools, the ability to assign custom work, scheduling functions and more.
Unfortunately, as of writing, these are mostly available for institutions and larger orders and so can be a bit trickier for individual homeschooling families to sign up for, although they can contact the company directly to sign up for a homeschool account (which will require some proof, presumably to prevent students in schools from ordering answer keys).
Depending on the unit and book, in one text, students might read about space, while in another they might learn an Ashanti folk tale, while in still another they might read personal correspondence from FDR during the Great Depression.
This option can be a great one for students with learning and reading challenges or difficulties, and it can help turn lessons into a more multisensory experience by adding an auditory component, which is nice.
The activities found in Achieve and Tools for Excellence are somewhat similar in concept to those found in Tools for Comprehension, but tend to take things a little deeper and demand a little more work from students, as might be expected from the more mature intended age group.
These can include word associations (which can be invaluable for practicing for standardized tests), various writing activities, sentence completion, comprehension exercises with new passages, and more.
In Tools for Comprehension, these can include dictionary exercises, shades of meaning (where students work on similes), as well as antonym and synonym work, while in Achieve and Excellence, students start to learn about root words, similes, proverbs, denotations and connotations and more.
The learning here can actually get pretty in-depth, introducing and touching on other aspects of language arts far beyond a simple word list, including comprehension and grammar, which is pretty interesting and can be a good way to sneak in extra practice for other areas of language arts.
That said, it can make progressing through Vocabulary Workshop a little more time consuming and students who do pick up and remember language very quickly might get frustrated from the strong emphasis on revision.
As a result, and especially for older students whose reading, attention and comprehension skills are a little more developed, we feel that Vocabulary Workshop is more of an independent learning program, with students doing more self-study and parents being able to step into a guidance/oversight role.
Activities in Vocabulary Workshop, particularly when it comes to Tools for Comprehension, often include multisensory activities, with students pronouncing things, writing their responses, discussing concepts and even getting up and moving about at time.
Vocabulary Workshop offers students pretty solid and thorough vocabulary lessons, providing them with passages to read, lots of exercises to practice with and even exploring different concepts such as synonyms, antonyms, similes and word roots.
These passages can actually be pretty interesting and involve topics that students might actually care about (animals, space, science, historical figures), and the writing styles can be diverse, including fables, stories, essays, letters, historical documents and more.
Every couple units or so there is a dedicated review lesson that goes back over the different word lists, something that can be helpful for some students to prevent them from forgetting important words over time.
With each unit involving a passage, a word list and several exercises with up to 10 or so questions, Vocabulary Workshop lessons can take some time for students to work through and might be frustrating to those used to speeding through their work.
Although popular with homeschoolers and supported in this purpose by the company, Vocabulary Workshop is largely designed for classrooms, making frequent references to a school-type setting and activities that parents will have to work around.
With many lessons involving reading and writing, as well as the occasional kinesthetic activity and optional auditory components, Vocabulary Workshop can be very multisensory and can suit students with a wide variety of learning styles and needs.
As a result, it is a program that many students can work with on their own, with parents stepping into more of an oversight and guidance role rather than needing to spend a lot of time directly teaching.
Along with the workbooks, with Vocabulary Workshop parents and students have access to a wide variety of free digital tools and fun video games that they can include to get extra practice with their vocabulary.
With workbooks costing less than $20 and containing most of the learning students will need, Vocabulary Workshop can be an extremely affordable language arts supplement that can be a good option for those on a tight budget.
With multiple exercises and activities in each unit and a dedicated review after every couple units, it can perhaps frustrate students who like to move through their word lists a week (or less) at a time.
Vocabulary Workshop is geared towards schools and institutions, but does support homeschools as well and so parents are advised to contact the company for more accurate individual pricing information on current versions of the program.
The program also includes ample review and an opportunity to explore language in greater depth through fairly comprehensive word study sections that touch on word roots, similes, denotations, connotations and more.
Finally, because the workbooks are well-laid out and clearly scripted, students can do a good deal of their work on their own, which can be of great benefit to busier parents who can therefore shift away from direct teaching and into more of an oversight and guidance role.
However, with its interesting passages, varied exercises, free digital resources and games and self-study approach, Vocabulary Workshop can be an affordable and easy to use way to help students develop a strong vocabulary with a minimum of frustration.
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