Review the Biggest Buzzwords of the Week!

When you follow national and worldwide affairs, you get access to religious celebrations, international tension, extreme sports news, the past becoming present again, Supreme Court debates, tragic deaths and new museums. Each week, we’ll highlight the top buzzwords or terms that your students might not have known or even heard until now. All these words are featured in the most recent edition of The Week in Rap. And once they beef up their vocab, the news will make a lot more sense.

THIS WEEK

Mardi Gras — Mardi Gras is a day of eating, drinking and merrymaking that happens prior…

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Close the achievement gap with direct vocabulary instruction.

One promise of public education is to level the playing field for the rich and poor. Unfortunately, the system is not entirely fulfilling that promise. The socioeconomic achievement gap has been an issue for decades, but a recent study released by Stanford University sociologist Sean F. Reardon, shows that the gap has widened by 40% since the 1960s.

Achievement gaps can be mystifying and confounding because so many cultural and economic factors contribute to them. The layers are complex and interwoven enough to make the problem seem insurmountable, but progress can be made if we focus on key…

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Post Civil War America was a period of reconstruction. Rapid economic growth and a population boom characterized an era that became known as the Gilded Age. Many entrepreneurs, chief among them John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and Jo Pulitzer, capitalized on this economic boom. Their questionable business tactics and their single-minded quest for wealth and power, however, had people harping on them and calling them “robber barons.” These men were accused of shady business tactics, as well as using the middle class as a stepping stone and dominating the US political and business world with monopolies.

The term “robber baron” was popularized by Matthew Josephson during…

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Review the Biggest Buzzwords of the Week!

When you follow national and worldwide affairs, you get access to foreign dignitaries, international relationships, scientific studies, famous artists and underdogs. Each week, we’ll highlight the top buzzwords or terms that your students might not have known or even heard until now. All these words are featured in the most recent edition of The Week in Rap. And once they beef up their vocab, the news will make a lot more sense.

THIS WEEK

audit (noun) — a methodical examination and review

Why it matters: After coming under fire for use of inhumane and environmentally unfriendly factories in China, Apple has…

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Review the Biggest Buzzwords of the Week!

When you follow national and worldwide affairs, you get access to championship celebrations, fights for the presidency, protests, international incidents, toxic food and scandalous allegations. Each week, we’ll highlight the top buzzwords or terms that your students might not have known or even heard until now. All these words are featured in the most recent edition of The Week in Rap. And once they beef up their vocab, the news will make a lot more sense.

THIS WEEK

stranded (adjective) — left behind or cut off

Why it matters: Over 100 dolphins have been stranded on the beaches of Cape Cod…

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We always love hearing from classes that are using Flocabulary. Well this class went above and beyond. They made a creative and funny video acting out our Age of Exploration song.

But enough about us. Let the excellent “Highfill Crew” tell you all about The Age of Exploration:

A Flocabulary Song & Lesson Plan

Nobody wants to read boring sentences. So every writer from Charles Dickens to Lupe Fiasco uses a technique that makes their words jump off the page. They use figurative language. Figurative language means that the words you use don’t have their literal meaning, but instead are meant to be imaginative, vivid and evocative. So what is figurative language? Simply, it makes writing more interesting.

Our new, free figurative language song covers 11 common types of figurative language, from metaphor and simile to juxtaposition and onomatopoeia. This lesson plan uses the song as a jumping off point to become skilled in…

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Fifteen New Word Up Vocabulary Videos!

The Word Up Project used to just teach interdisciplinary vocabulary words through songs and activities. But now we’re amping it up: We’re working with a talented team of animators to bring you videos for every single Word Up song. (Yup, all 98 of them for grades 2-8.) If you’ve ever wanted to see penguins join a rock band, a boy befriend a dragon or two mimes find love… you’re in luck. Here are the newest fifteen videos. We have a sampling of videos from grades 2 through 8. Check back soon for more videos!

The New Videos

2nd Grade Vocabulary:

Start a Club 
Whether you…

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Today we’re featuring our new video, “Bottom of the Ninth” from our complete vocabulary curriculum, The Word Up Project. It’s a vocabulary song all about baseball, and it’s free for the whole month of February. So why not review the vocabulary by actually playing a round of America’s favorite pastime?

Word Up Vocabulary Baseball Game

Materials Needed

• Use the Fix the Mistake or Pick the Winner worksheet for the Word Up Unit you’re working on. Here’s the worksheet for “Bottom of the Ninth.” You can find worksheets for other units by clicking on Exercises in the right panel of each song or video.
• A large photocopy

…

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