Sampling of selections:
NONFICTION
A Night to Remember (Walter Lord)
Meet Moboulou (The Jane Goodall Institute)
Math Trek: Adventures in the Math Zone (Ivars Peterson & Nancy Henderson)
A Short Walk Around the Pyramids & Through the World of Art (Phillip M. Isaacson)
and many more…
FICTION
The Dark Is Rising (Susan Cooper)
The Golden Fleece (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
Let the Circle Be Unbroken (Mildred D. Taylor)
The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juster)
and many more…
This best-selling series teaches vocabulary words and strategies through selections from outstanding grade-level appropriate fiction and nonfiction. Many of the excerpts are from literature commonly read in the classroom, so vocabulary-building instruction can be integrated into your curriculum.
Research-based
- selection of master words and instructional pedagogy grounded in scientific studies of the most effective strategies to learn vocabulary
- Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, and others
Literature-based context
- words are introduced in the rich context of selections commonly used in the classroom
- classic and contemporary literary passages and multicultural authors
- Exemplar and Exemplar Author texts
- 50 percent of each book is informational selections from three categories of informational texts
- English Language Arts; History/Social Studies; and Science, Mathematics, and Technical subjects
In-depth exposure
- 300 master words in each Student Edition
- 10 words per lesson with six activities for each provide multiple exposures and deepen learning
- six review sections focus on general and domain-specific use of master words
A three-step learning process provides multiple exposures to the targeted words. As students work through each lesson, they are actively engaged in learning.
- STEP 1
- Ten targeted words are introduced in the context of an excerpt from a fiction or nonfiction book, short story, essay, or poem. Students practice:
- using prior knowledge
- determining meaning from context
- STEP 2
- Students complete several exercises that teach strategies and reinforce word meanings. Activities include:
- finding correct dictionary definitions
- inferring meaning
- recognizing word associations and relationships
- using targeted words in new contexts
- word play
- STEP 3
- Chapter tests and unit reviews monitor student progress.
TEACHER GUIDES
- reproduction of Student Edition with answers
- reproducible glossary
- lesson and unit review tests and answer keys (grades 2 - 4)
TEST BOOKLETS
Test booklets with unit tests and review tests are available separately for grades 5 - 12.