Literacy nerds Beth Lawrence and Deena Seifert cofounders of infercabulary.com

• Infercabulary is a web-based k–12 interactive tool for helping kids improve vocabulary and skills.
• speed up learning by making learning vocabulary like
• Avidly reading.
• We tend to make words simpler with oral language than authors when writing.
• SLPs by trade.
• Why should we help kids learn vocabulary?
• TedX talk
• 65% of students aren’t capable of comprehending text on grade level.
• Unless you know 95% of words in a text, it will impact your comprehension.
• A foundational skill that needs to exist is a strong vocabulary.
• Breadth and depth of vocabulary.
• If you only have a surface level understanding of a word, you can’t link it to more
• A child needs 10–12 exposures to a word in a variety of contexts to understand the word.
• Tiered words.
• Tier 1: These are the common, everyday words that most children enter school knowing already. Since we don’t need to teach these, this is a tier without tears!
• Tier 2: This tier consists of words that are used across the content areas and are important for students to know and understand. Included here are process words like analyze and evaluate that students will run into on many standardized tests and that are also used at the university level, in many careers, and in everyday life. We really want to get these words into students’ long-term memory.
• Tier 3: This tier consists of content-specific vocabulary—the words that are often defined in textbooks or glossaries. These words are important for imparting ideas during lessons and helping to build students’ background knowledge.
• Over-generalization and under-generalization
• When the author is kind enough to give you context clues.
• How to help kids who hate learning about reading.
• Semantic reasoning -
• Beta tests showed quickly that assumptions were wrong about their intended target student.
• How to be a transformative principal? Deena: Bringing words to life. Beth: Do additional homework to understand importance of vocabulary!

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. 

Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors

Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:

• What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze

• Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner

• A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom

• Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington

• The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal

• The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors

Join the Transformative Mastermind Today and work on your school, not just in it. Apply today. 

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.