BIG WORD CLUB Introduces Nationwide Pilot Program to Reduce Word Gap By Improving Childrens’ Vocabularies
Denver, CO –BIG WORD CLUB, a digital learning company, is working to combat the Word Gap by inviting all interested teachers, parents and caregivers to join them in a free national pilot program. Founded by Emmy award-winning producer and children’s book author, Shane DeRolf, BIG WORD CLUB uses books, songs, animation and dance to engage preschool and elementary school kids while improving their vocabularies…one day and one word at a time!
To learn more about the program, teachers and caregivers should click here and parents should click here to watch our short video.
The Word Gap is no small problem. Research indicates that by the time they are 4 years old, children from lower socioeconomic families may hear as many as 30 million fewer words than those from middle and upper income brackets. This translates to 400–700 fewer words in their vocabularies by the time they enter kindergarten. Vocabulary is the single best predictor of success in school and in life, and as E.D. Hirsch Jr. so elegantly stated in a recent article, “Simply put: knowing more words makes you smarter.”
“For over 20 years, we have known about the Word Gap,” said DeRolf. “But there’s a big difference between knowing about a problem and solving it. BIG WORD CLUB is about helping to solve the problem—in fun ways that kids love and that also works for busy teachers, parents and caregivers.”
“The premise of BIG WORD CLUB is really quite simple,” DeRolf adds. “Every day of the school year, in less than one minute a day, BIG WORD CLUB introduces students to a new “BIG” word in an animated video. The program takes those 5 words and reinforces their meaning throughout the week in an animated book, song, dance and video review, providing kids with a fully immersive multimodal approach to learning vocabulary. Kids love BIG WORD CLUB. And best of all, it works!”
Here are what educators have been saying about the program:
My kindergarten class is absolutely loving BIG WORD CLUB! They are using the words in conversation and we have started a BIG WORD CLUB wall to display all our new words! Thank you!!!
I LOVE Big Word Club! My preschool students love it, too! Parents and other teachers are amazed when my students explain what an Archaeopteryx is!
They are roaring with the dinosaurs! They begged me to let you know that they LOVED their first Big Word Club experience! Thank you for getting my first graders so excited about learning new words!
My first graders LOVE Big Word Club! It’s their favorite part of the day! We review earlier weeks’ songs during brain breaks for a win-win situation! They get to dance & move while I get to see what they’ve retained.
Pilot program participants will have unlimited access to over 300 award-winning BIG WORD CLUB books, songs, animation and dance videos until September 30, 2016. “The BIG WORD CLUB pilot program will help educators get the school year off to a great start. And, because the program offers over 300 videos, it’s also an excellent choice for parents to help reinforce classroom learning at home,” DeRolf concludes.
ABOUT BIG WORD CLUB
The vision of BIG WORD CLUB is to give every kid the opportunity to build a strong vocabulary. BIG WORD CLUB videos have more than 80 million YouTube views, and the content has received 11 Emmy Awards. BIG WORD CLUB appeals to both educators and parents, with a Web app format that makes it easily accessible for classroom and home use, on computers, tablets and smartphones. To learn more about the program, teachers and caregivers should click here and parents should click here to watch our short video.
Contact: Shelly Schumacher 262-305-1713 [email protected]
