MIT-Funded Study Confirms Big Word Club’s New Vocabulary Program is Effective, Low-Cost and Requires No Teacher Training
October 23, 2018
DENVER–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#MITfunded–Over the last 18 months, Big
Word Club has been the focus of an MIT-funded evaluation implemented
by the University of Chicago and University of Toronto to measure the
impact of Big Word Club on the vocabularies of preschool and
kindergarten students. The results have been nothing short of amazing.
It seems we have accomplished something with Big Word that is nearly
impossible in education: an effective (and now evidence-based)
intervention that is both low-cost and requires no teacher training.
“Big Word Club is a low-cost and relatively low intensity
intervention that requires no teacher training. This suggests that Big
Word Club may be a cost-effective program to increase vocabulary,
especially when used regularly.” — “An Evaluation of the Big Word
Club Vocabulary Program” by Susan E. Mayer and Ariel Kalil, University
of Chicago and Philip Oreopolous, University of Toronto.
The goal of Big Word Club is to improve the vocabularies of every kid on
the planet because, as E.D. Hirsch, Jr. so eloquently writes, “Simply
put: knowing more words makes you smarter.”
But according to Hirsch, “Between 1962 and the present, a big segment of
the American population began knowing fewer words, getting less smart,
and becoming demonstrably less able to earn a high income.”
According to a landmark study by Hart and Risley in 1995, children’s
vocabulary skills are linked to their economic backgrounds. According to
Hart and Risley, children from lower socioeconomic homes may hear as
many as 30 million fewer words than children from higher socioeconomic
homes by the time they are three years old. Though this study has
received recent criticism, the fact remains: vocabulary is the
foundation of comprehension and the vocabularies of kids from different
socioeconomic groups vary greatly.
“Whatever the cause, the fact remains that millions of three-, four- and
five-year-old kids start preschool and kindergarten every year knowing
hundreds of fewer words than their classmates,” said Big Word Club
founder and CEO Shane DeRolf. “Because kids who start behind tend to
stay behind, we wanted to create something that both parents and
teachers could easily use that would improve their children’s and
students’ vocabularies in fast, fun and effective ways. This is exactly
what Big Word Club does.
“By improving a child’s vocabulary, we improve his or her chances for a
successful and happy life,” said DeRolf. “And that, to us, is a job
worth doing.”
Big Word Club is an award-winning multimodal vocabulary intervention
that uses books, songs, animation and dance to introduce preschool and
elementary school children to a new “BIG” word every day of the school
year. To learn more, visit http://bit.ly/2A5BpTS.
Shane DeRolf is a children’s book author and 11-time Emmy award-winning
writer and producer of children’s educational television. His books have
sold over two million copies worldwide and his animated music videos
have received over 75 million views on YouTube.
Contacts
Big Word Club
Shane DeRolf, 303-550-7700
shane@bigwordclub.com