I love words. I mean, without words, we wouldn’t have language, and most of the time that would be a bad thing, right? Vocabulary is pretty important, though, especially for a grammar nerd like me. I really want my kids to have a substantial vocabulary list in their brains, so when we were given access to WordBuildOnline from Dynamic Literacy, I knew this would be something useful for us, and maybe even fun! Issac and Ethan were the lucky reviewers for me for this product. This will work on a Mac or PC.
If you went to public school, you probably remember how the vocabulary portion of your learning went. You were expected to memorize a bunch of words, right? I don’t know about you, but that was tough for me. I can’t imagine going back to school now and having to memorize lists of words, either. Dynamic Literacy teaches vocabulary in a different way, though, through morphology. When you learn 3 root words, you know 3 words, right? Well, what if you then learn some prefixes and suffixes, how many words would you know then? You would know a lot of new words. Dynamic Literacy calls this Exponential Learning, and I think it’s fascinating!
As you’ve probably guessed by now, WordBuildOnline is an interactive vocabulary builder that is entirely online. When students log on, they’re greeted by Lexi. Lexi doesn’t speak, by the way; in fact we haven’t noticed any spoken speech at all, just music, so your child will need to be able to read to use this. Underneath Lexi is a skateboard that’s used as a scoreboard and shows students how many daily activities they’ve completed. Then, at the bottom of the page are videos. Some are how-tos, and others are related to the level that the student is using (Foundations or Elements). They aren’t very long, but they are very informative, and they are also played at the beginning of the first activity in each unit. There are 2 levels available; Foundations for grades 2-5, which Ethan used, and Elements for grades 6-10, which Issac used.
There are five vocabulary-building activities in WordBuildOnline, and the same group of activities is worked for each unit, with 25 units total. The lessons don’t take very long to complete, really, and students are given up to 15 minutes to complete each one. They’ll see a countdown timer in the upper right corner of the screen. One lesson can be worked per day, or if your child can do as many as they want. Working ahead is fun! Students will watch the video and learn the meaning of a word, prefix, or suffix. Then in the same lesson they have what’s called an Affix Square. It’s a 3×3 box of 9 squares with a prefix or suffix in the middle. you first click the middle word, then one of the surrounding words to make a new word. Then your student will type the meaning of the new word. When that’s complete the word that has already been worked changes color. Finally, there’s a “check-up” to see if your child remembers everything they’ve learned for that unit. After each activity is completed, Lexi will tell you how many questions your student answered correctly, and how long it took them to complete it.
In the first lesson, students will watch the video and learn the meaning of a word, prefix, or suffix. Then in the same lesson they have what’s called an Affix Square. It’s a 3×3 box of 9 squares with a prefix or suffix in the middle. you first click the middle word, then one of the surrounding words to make a new word. Then your student will type the meaning of the new word. When that’s complete the word that has already been worked changes color. Finally, there’s a “check-up” to see if your child remembers everything they’ve learned for that unit. After each activity is completed, Lexi will tell you how many questions your student answered correctly, and how long it took them to complete it.
The second lesson consists of pairing the lesson’s prefix or suffix with different words again, and again typing the new definition, but when that’s done, students will then choose a sentence that best uses the new word. Finally, there’s a “check-up” to see if your child remembers everything they’ve learned for that unit. After each activity is completed, Lexi will tell you how many questions your student answered correctly, and how long it took them to complete it.
In the third lesson, students will play the Magic Square. Here is another 3×3 square with 9 words in it. Beside that are a list of definitions. Students will first click on a definition, and then click the correct word in the Magic Square. After a word is clicked a number appears in the box so you know it’s been worked. Finally, there’s a “check-up” to see if your child remembers everything they’ve learned for that unit. After each activity is completed, Lexi will tell you how many questions your student answered correctly, and how long it took them to complete it.
The fourth activity is Word Power, which is like multiple-choice (my favorite kind of question!). Students will see a sentence and must click to choose the correct word that fits. Finally, there’s a “check-up” to see if your child remembers everything they’ve learned for that unit. After each activity is completed, Lexi will tell you how many questions your student answered correctly, and how long it took them to complete it.
Finally, there’s a “check-up” to see if your child remembers everything they’ve learned for that unit. After each activity is completed, Lexi will tell you how many questions your student answered correctly after each lesson, and how long it took them to complete it.
There is also a parent account! Parents can log in and see the list of students they have, along with progress reports. Progress reports show the date a lesson was completed, the affix, lesson scores, how long the lesson took to complete, and whether the lesson was completed.
On the right-hand side, you see an Action section. Clicking “Review” lets you see what was covered in the lesson and see the answers chosen for each question. You can also choose to reset a lesson, but since WordBuildOnline is an interactive program and presents content based on performance, this isn’t recommended. Normally I make my children go back and correct their work until they master it, but in this case it can be detrimental because they may be presented with something that’s more difficult than they can handle well. As a parent, you’ll also receive an email after each lesson is completed, although you can change this in your account settings if you decide you don’t want them.
So, I know y’all know by now that I’m a laid back teacher. I love when I can tell the kids they need to work on something and they don’t really need much guidance from me. This is mostly the case with WorkdBuildOnline. Once they are logged in they can get started with the lesson, because it saves their progress. Issac and Ethan each completed a lesson per day, and that normally took less than 5 minutes. Ethan did need a little help from me with how to word his definitions, but most of the time I could leave them to work on their own.
I am really digging WordBuildOnline. It’s a great compliment to any vocabulary program and is perfect for use in the Summer since the lessons aren’t lengthy, but really is great to use any time! It’s a fun and easy way for your child(ren) to build their vocabulary skills, and it’s easy for parents to track progress.
Be sure to read the reviews from my fellow Crew Mates. There were different products used in this review. Thanks for stopping by!
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