Roman Roads Media Vocabulary Builder REVIEW

I'm always looking for ways and programs that can help to either strengthen or stretch my son's vocabulary.  We had the opportunity to review a neat classical education online program from Roman Roads Media called Picta Dicta Vocabulary Builder.  It is an online language arts program that builds vocabulary through teaching Latin words and picture associations to enhance learning.  It is geared for Jr. High to College students and was meant to teach fluidity in Latin reading.  It is a self-paced program so there is less stress of having to mold to a strict timeline structure.  We accessed and used the program on a laptop running Windows 7 and Chrome as the browser.



Setting up the account wasn't too tricky.  Once you get your subscription you add your students (learner profiles).  To begin your lesson you click the "go" icon.  If you click the "train" icon it gives you a list to choose from so you can practice on a specific area if you need or want to. The program automatically advances you to the next step as you progress through the lesson.  Once completed you can see your score for that lesson.

Login screen

Create account and learner profiles (students)

Click on "go" icon to begin lesson

Each chapter lesson focuses on a topic and then has activities that you complete to learn words related to that topic.  There are a total of 31 chapter lessons.  The activities include Learn, Choose, Spell, Forms, Test Forms, and Review.  During the "Learn" phase you learn the words with picture associations.  The "Choose" activity has you matching the pictures with the word or phrase.  The "Spelling" activity has you filling in the blank and spelling the word.  It's challenging but a lot of fun.  "Forms" presses you further.  The definition from the program is as follows:

Forms

In this exercise, you will practice writing out any extra forms for the words you have studied. For nouns, you may be required to give a genitive form and/or a gender. For adjectives, you may be required to give feminine and neuter forms or sometimes a genitive form. For verbs, you may be required to give the third and fourth principle parts.

Finally after forms comes either "Test Forms" and/or some "Review" activities.

Learn activity (word association with pictures)

Learning Latin words with picture association

Types of lessons in student dashboard

Sample forms screen

I am finding this program to be fun and challenging.  I really think it is important for our kids to learn at least a little bit of Latin and I really feel that learning Latin roots is invaluable to expanding their vocabulary.  This program does a good job of stretching their vocabulary skills. I'm not sure that I quite follow the train of thought as to the words we are learning, but I'm sure as we progress through the program it will come together.  My son, of course, is not enjoying it so much and it really does challenge him quite a bit.  He is a struggling learner and programs like this can be a bit much for him.  That being said, I know that he is still learning and gaining some good vocabulary skills despite his challenges.  I do also have him working on it every day so he keeps the flow going.  You could easily just use it 3 days per week and progress just fine.  It is self-study so there are no deadlines to meet.  I think it is best for your student to take their time and work on mastering the words and their forms.

At work on his Latin vocabulary

I would recommend Picta Dicta Vocabulary Builder by Roman Roads Media if you would like to incorporate some Latin into your curriculum and help your students to have a good tool to help build their vocabulary.  The recommendation for Jr. High and up seems fitting because it is a more complex program.

You can connect with Roman Roads Media on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, YOUTUBE, and PINTEREST.

My fellow crew members are also reviewing some of their other wonderful programs so be sure to check out all of the reviews at the link below by clicking on the graphic.  You can read what others have to say about Picta Dicta Vocabulary, Picta Dicta Natural World, and Fitting Words.