By Emily Hathhorn, Speech Language Pathologist at Horizon Academy One of Horizon Academy’s initiatives for the 2024-25 school year has been to teach high-utility vocabulary words directly. Using precise vocabulary words in written and spoken language enhances our ability to clearly communicate our thoughts; understanding increasingly complex words improves our reading and listening comprehension skills. Direct, interactive vocabulary instruction, therefore, should be integrated into the educational curriculum. Check out Bringing Words to Life (2013) by Isabel Beck, Margaret McKeown, and Linda Kucan to learn more about robust vocabulary instruction. Vocabulary words are commonly sorted into three categories. Tier I words…