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Wordly Wise 3000--Book 6 (student book and audio CD) Review by Ruth Hoskins

Educators Publishing Service
800-225-5750
http://www.epsbooks.com/

Wordly Wise 3000 is a systematic, sequential vocabulary development textbook that is meant to be used in conjunction with the audio CD. Each lesson begins with a word list and definitions. On the audio cd, each word from the word list is read, defined, and then used in a sentence. The CD then checks for student understanding by using the word and asking the student to determine if the word was used correctly. There is a brief pause before the answer is given. The narrator goes through all the words in each list in this manner. There are 15 words per lesson, and 20 lessons in Book 6.

After all of the words for the lesson have been recited, the narrator reads a short passage that includes all of the words in the list. This is a treat for people like my daughter, who thrives on story tapes. The selected passages are very good. Some of the titles include "Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D.," "The Trojan Horse," "Our Brightest Star," "Water, Water Everywhere," and "Journey to the Soviet Union."

The book that accompanies the audio cd is very thorough and somewhat repetitive with the exercises that the student is required to complete for each lesson. Each lesson has five assignments associated with it: Finding meanings, Just the right word, Applying meanings, Word study, and a reading passage. It is the same reading passage found on the audio tape. After reading the selection, the student answers a series of questions. Each question has to do with the meaning of the vocabulary words in the context of the passage.

Every fifth lesson there is a review. For the review, the student takes a break from the monotony and completes a couple of pages of word fill-ins.

Throughout the lesson, words from the word list are presented in bold print. This makes it really easy for the student to stay focused and to be reminded of the words for that lesson. I like that. Finally, at the end of each lesson there is a fun and fascinating facts section. Here you will find interesting very short statements about word origins, fascinating homonyms, definitions, and a lot of Latin. These are interesting, and I think students will find them to be a nice break from the study.

There is a teacher's resource book available that has all of the answers for the student text, reproducible lesson review exercises, a test for every lesson, and four Book 6 final tests that require the student to read a passage and answer multiple-choice questions. The first part of the teacher's guide explains how this text came to be, what makes for good vocabulary development, strategies and techniques for teaching vocabulary, and a step-by-step walk-through for teaching each lesson, which is very helpful.

I think this is a wonderful vocabulary textbook. It could seem boring for those who like variety, although I like how they have tried to incorporate variety within the predictable. If anything, this course is through and repetitive in a good way. I will be looking into purchasing the other grades.

Product review by Ruth Hoskins, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, November 2009

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