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New Take Aim Indigo Level Teaches
Vocabulary at Fifth-Grade Level
A new level of Take Aim! at Vocabulary targeting readers at a fifth-grade reading level and above is now available. The new level— Indigo—follows the Goldenrod Level, introduced in 2008, which targets students who can read at a fourth-grade level and up.
Starting in the middle grades, vocabulary knowledge becomes increasingly important for comprehension as reading material covers broader content areas and includes less common, more abstract words.
The Take Aim! at Vocabulary program teaches high-quality words in the context of nonfiction stories and then deepens the student’s understanding of these words through repeated exposure and supporting activities.
Take Aim also helps students develop word consciousness, which, according to Michael Graves, Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Minnesota, “refers to awareness of and interest in words and their meanings.”
Creating opportunities for students to develop word consciousness helps them gain a greater self-awareness of vocabulary and language (so they begin to “own” the words) and increases their motivation, interest, and enjoyment of reading.
Read Naturally has built Take Aim on a foundation of vocabulary-development research, including research on:
- Word selection: Take Aim teaches words that students are likely to encounter in a wide range of texts. These are useful, sophisticated words that students at a given grade level are unlikely to know but likely to encounter, especially as texts increase in difficulty.
- Teaching methods: Take Aim implements multiple teaching methods and active engagement to ensure that students are able to learn the new words effectively. These methods include explicit instruction, instruction of words in context, student-friendly definitions, multiple exposures to target words, and semantic mapping.
- Learning strategies: Take Aim teaches three strategies for learning new words — using context clues, analyzing word parts (prefix, root, suffix), and using an audio-supported glossary.
Each Take Aim level includes 12 units. Each of these units teaches 24 target words in the context of four related nonfiction stories, engaging vocabulary activities, mini-lessons on using context clues and word parts, and more.
To track their progress, students take a pretest at the beginning of a unit and a posttest at the end of the unit. Students are motivated by seeing how many words they’ve gained from working in a unit.
Take Aim also includes optional activities for students who may require extra work to master the target words.
The vocabulary program is designed for individualized learning in a reading lab or resource room, but it also works well as a station activity in a regular classroom or extended-day setting.
Take Aim is priced at $299 per level. Each purchase includes 12 unit textbooks, audio CDs in a storage case, blackline master books, a teacher’s manual, a training unit, and a storage box.
