William Shakespeare is said to have had a vocabulary of over 29,000 words that helped him write 37 plays and more than 150 sonnets.

By the end of this school year, 10-year-old Karina Kushnir, an immigrant from Ukraine, hopes to master 1,000 English words that will help her make it through school.

Students like Karina are being immersed in English through a "threshold vocabulary" program offered by the Folsom Cordova Unified School District.

By mastering a list of 1,000 key words – at 28 words a week – the program is designed to help English learners and children from limited-language homes build an academic vocabulary and catch up with native speakers.

The 1,000 words comprise at least 75 percent of any written material at any grade level, district officials said.

Already, Karina, in her second year in the program at Rancho Cordova Elementary, has a favorite word: "perserverance." It aptly describes the hard work she needs to develop a vocabulary that last week included the new words "hope," "life," "past," "free," and "although."

The vocabulary program "takes you through high school and beyond," said Jon Wallace, Folsom Cordova's director of state and federal programs.

Sina Chau-Pech has been teaching 11 years in the district's newcomer program, which is designed for new students whose primary language isn't English. Born in Cambodia, he understands the challenges that English learners face.

"I moved to France when I was 11 years old and learned French by cutting out pictures of words," Chau-Pech said.

He's applied that technique to the threshold vocabulary program – matching new words with images from sources like Microsoft clip art.

Folsom Cordova's program utilizes a list of 2,000 words selected to best serve English learners.

The original list was published in 1953 by Michael West, an English language teacher and researcher. A revised version that ranks words in order of frequency was created in 1995 and is the basis of Folsom Cordova's vocabulary program.

Chau-Pech whittled the list to 1,000 words – a better fit for a yearlong school schedule.

Tammy Davis is in her third year teaching a newcomer class at Rancho Cordova Elementary, where her students are from Mexico, Vietnam, Ukraine, Russia and Moldova.

"We use a lot of visual aides to ease them into the classroom," she said. After one or two years in the newcomer program, students return to neighborhood schools.

Davis encourages students to take their vocabulary lessons home and share them with parents who may be taking English-language classes.

"I've seen huge positive results," she said of the program.

Students progress from learning individual words to writing sentences and paragraphs

During Davis' class last week, Chau-Pech utilized a SMART Board – an interactive white board connected to a computer – to teach a lesson.

He used this five-step process for each new word: Look at the word with a picture; listen to the teacher; say the word; spell the word; and, use the word in a sentence.

"Hope" was one of the words. An illustration of a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow accompanied it.

Chau-Pech asked students to use the word in a sentence.

"I hope I can read this book," one girl said.

Chau-Pech said the 1,000-word list is the start of an academic vocabulary. "These are words they'll see when they read," he said. "We don't want to teach words they use everyday."

As a result, the list leaves out words like "TV" and "dude."

For students at Rancho Cordova Elementary, learning new words isn't limited to newcomer class. It's reinforced throughout the day.

P.E. teachers, for example, are provided with the same weekly word list and incorporate it into their classes.

Karina Kushnir said she's used her vocabulary words while playing soccer.

"Give me the ball," she said with a smile.

Call The Bee's Walter Yost, (916) 321-1146.