Leveled Vocabulary L1–L6

Apps handle recognition and memorization, while the classroom handles use. The course concentrates on three things: working out meaning from a sentence, distinguishing the tone and setting of near-synonyms, and putting new words into the student's own speech and writing. Those three decide whether the words are genuinely available in reading comprehension and in writing.

The two build different abilities and are usually taken at the same time. Phonics turns letter combinations into sound, while Vocabulary L1 establishes what a word means, including the high-frequency sight words that do not follow phonics rules and have to be learned whole. Phonics alone produces students who can read a word aloud without understanding it, and vocabulary alone leaves them unable to decode an unfamiliar word.

The vocabulary track is divided by steps in ability and does not map one to one onto the reading levels. Five levels currently run, L1, L3, L4, L5, and L6, covering grades 1 to 8. A child's vocabulary level and reading level may differ, and the placement assessment judges each of them separately.

The Verbal Reasoning section of the ISEE (Independent School Entrance Exam) tests synonyms and sentence completion, where vocabulary size and awareness of roots and affixes are a hard threshold. Vocabulary L5 and L6 lay that base but do not replace exam technique. Irvine students planning to sit the ISEE should raise their vocabulary level around grade 4, then move into dedicated exam preparation.

One level runs a full 35-week year, 90 minutes a session. Periodic assessments are scheduled during the term, and a student who is clearly ahead of the pace can move up to a higher level partway through.