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Take Aim! at Vocabulary
Communicating With Students and Parents/ Guardians
Communicating with students and parents/guardians will help you ensure that students have a positive experience with Take Aim at Vocabulary and that they continue to deepen their vocabularies, both in school and at home.
When a student begins working in Take Aim, it is helpful to send home a letter explaining the program so that parents/guardians are involved from the beginning. A blackline master of such a letter is included in Blackline Master Book One.
You can keep parents/guardians involved in the process by sending home student packets each time a student completes a unit. You can use the level word lists and the Laudable Lexicologist bookmarks (found in Blackline Master Book One) to create bookmarks that feature the list of vocabulary words that the student studied in a unit. Attach a bookmark to the unit when you send it home.
When a student completes four units, you can send his or her most recent student packet home with a Laudable Lexicologist award (found in Blackline Master Book One) as a cover letter. On this award, you can include comments about the student's progress and record the student's pretest and posttest data. You can also send home a copy of the student's target graph sheet to provide parents/guardians with a visual depiction of the student's vocabulary gains.
When a student is making gains, it is important to celebrate this success with both the student and his or her parents/guardians. Recognizing the student's success can be very motivating.
If the student is not making the gains you expect while working in Take Aim, try the following:
- Make suggestions to parents/guardians about how they can work on vocabulary with their child at home. Encourage them to review the target words with the student at home and, if possible, to incorporate them into conversations with the student. You may also encourage parents/guardians to do the optional additional unit activities (e.g., crossword) with the student at home.
- Discuss the lack of progress with the student's parents/guardians. They may have information to help you better understand the student.