Richmond Public Schools

An Introduction to

What is Flocabulary?

Wouldn’t it be great if academic content was as easy to memorize as the lyrics to your favorite song?

The Concept

What is Flocabulary?

The Program

• Original, professionally produced, authentic hip-hop music

• Online library of 600+ videos, activities and assessments for all subjects, grades K-12 with research-based and standards-aligned academic topics

• An engaging tool to increase your students vocabulary acquisition, reading and writing skills, and mastery of content.

What is Flocabulary?

A motivated student is a more successful student.

Our Core Idea

So…

Do rhymes really work?

In what year did Columbus sail?

In what year did the Mayflower sail?

How Flocabulary does it…

Music and Learning

Songs and rhymes are extremely powerful learning aids!

•Music facilitates the encoding and retrieval of sequential verbal information (Wolfe and Horn, 1993; Shehan, 1981; Wallace, 1994).

• Music forms long-lasting relationships to academic content (Wallace and Rubin, 1998).

• A song is the best all-around mnemonic device for facilitating a student’s recall of facts, definitions and concepts (Kimmel, 1994).

Multisensory Instruction

Songs and rhymes are extremely powerful learning aids!

Two simultaneous exposures are better than one. Auditory and visual exposures to the content aid in acquisition and retention.

Support Instruction Across the Curriculum

Science

Social Studies

Language Arts

•Introduce, reinforce, and review key concepts

• Engage students with the curriculum

• Leverage the power of song to aid memorization

Math

The Flocabulary Promise

Student Achievement

On average, students scored 25% higher on state reading tests after

using Flocabulary

Student Engagement

Increase participationIncrease student focus

Increase student engagement

Using your Teacher Account Create classes

Invite students and assign quizzes

Review student results

Manage student accounts

Help! Where to find support and training documentation

Okay…

Let’s go check it out.

Create Your Teacher Account

http://flocabulary.com/accounts/select-school/richmond-city-pblc-schs-2

If you are new to Flocabulary, you will be prompted to set up an account.

If you’ve ever set up a trial or paid Flocabulary account before, enter your email address, and you will be prompted to enter your password.

In Review…

You and your students get access to everything. All the time.

• Hundreds of songs, videos and activities for all subjects, K-12

• 24/7 web-based access from any computer or internet device

• Standards-aligned, research-based and proven to increase achievement

In Review…You can find relevant content in a variety of ways.

Five Ways to Search

In Review…And many ways to extend your lessons!

Writing Academic Rhymes

• Complete lesson plans

• Instrumental beats

• Recording resources and tips

Classroom Mini-Games

• Competitive games for vocabulary, math and more

• Easy-to-follow lesson plans for teachers

Weekly Contest, and more

• New contest every week for Week in Rap

• Reproducible activities, “Flocab, Month by Month”

Please read the following:

Yet it takes little perspicacity to show that the text does not practice what it preaches. A rhetorical reading of the passage reveals that the figural praxis and the metafigural theory do not converge and that the assertion of the mastery of metaphor over metonymy owes its persuasive power to the use of metonymic structures.

- From Allegories of Reading by Paul De Man

Reading Comprehension

• Vocabulary instruction is one of the three key elements in teaching reading comprehension (NRP, 2000).

• Children’s vocabulary as measured in Pre-K is directly correlated with reading comprehension in upper elementary grades (Dickinson and Tabois, 2001).

The Vocabulary Gap

Reading comprehension is 63% vocabulary.

There is no better predictor of achievement on state reading tests than the size of a student’s vocabulary.

-Dr. Roger FarrFormer President, IRA

The Vocabulary Gap

Hart & Risley (1995)

The Vocabulary Gap

Grade Average Student

Bottom 25%

End of PreK 3,440 2,440

End of Kindergarten

4,300 3,016

End of Grade 1

5,160 3,592

End of Grade 2

6,020 4,168

Beginning in the intermediate grades, the “achievement gap” between socioeconomic groups is a language gap (Hirsh, 2002).

Vocabulary knowledgeis key to academic success.

Comprehensive Vocabulary Program

• Research-based instructional sequence

• Multiple exposures to critical Tier 2 (cross-curricular) words

• Engaging, multisensory approach to word ownership

Breaking Down Vocabulary

Tier 1: Basic “scaffolding” wordsrun, tooth, find, answer

Tier 2: Grade-Level, interdisciplinary “utility” words

vital, refuge, barren

Tier 3: Content-Area wordsamoeba, hypotenuse, federalism

Sources: (Beck, McKeown, Kucan, 2002); (Calderon et al, 2005)

Flexible Weekly Schedule• Grades 2-8

• 14 Units per grade level (not sequential)

• Flexible schedule options

flocabulary.com/vocabulary-lessons

Research & Results

Results of “The World Up Project Efficacy Study” by the Educational Research Institute of America (2009)

Proven to Increase Achievement Proven to Increase State Test Scores

Q & A

Writing Academic Rhymes!

• Mastery of Content

• Skill Integration

• Higher Order Thinking Skills

https://www.flocabulary.com/warp/intro/

• Basic outline of a lesson plans

• 50+ downloadable beats!

• Basic outline for a lesson plan

• The Flocabulary Formula to master any word!

• Tips for Hip-Hop Songwriting

• Instructions for Classroom Recording

Writing Academic Rhymes!

Word of the day is Pioneer

Pioneer (noun.) – a person who is among the first to settle or explore a

new country or area

Three Steps for Mastery

Say the word aloudAct it outWrite a rhyme with it

Basic Vocabulary Lesson

Writing Academic Rhymes!

• Step 1: Write a first line. “Lewis and Clark set out, yea they were

pioneers”

• Step 2: Make a rhyming word bank

Basic Vocabulary Lesson

Writing Academic Rhymes!

Rhyming Word Bank – “pioneers”Perfect Rhymes Slant Rhymes

.

“Lewis and Clark set out, yea they were pioneers”

.

Writing Academic Rhymes!

Spice Up Rhymes with Figurative Language

“I’m cooler than a polar bear’s toenails”

I’m sharp as a ___________.

I keep it fresh like (a) __________.

Life is a ___________.

Resources:

Teacher quick start guide: https://flocabulary.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205362305/

Student quick start guide: https://flocabulary.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205362345/

More resources:

Find them on facebook.com/flocabulary

Visit www.flocabulary.com

Follow them on Twitter: @flocabulary