Vocabulary building and reading comprehension go hand in hand, both are known markers for success in higher education. I have long been an advocate for indirect vocabulary building; by reading texts with high index vocabulary words, but this year we added Wordly Wise 3000 to our curriculum for direct, systematic, academic, vocabulary instruction.

We had been using the workbook as a stand-alone independent study, but for our review we received the instructor’s guide to use a well. With the guide in hand, I realized how much I have been missing. I would not recommend purchasing Wordly Wise 3000 without the instructor’s guide, it will not sit on your shelf unopened. The guide is worth the cost, as it offers a wealth of instructional helps. This includes a breakdown of each activity within the lessons, alternative reading selections, Review Exercises, Reproducible Tests as well as the Answer Key.

Each lesson introduces ten new vocabulary words, followed by activities to reinforce their meanings and gain total comprehension. The schedule is highly flexible.Activities can be done once a week in a forty-minute block, fifteen minutes three times a week, or in ten minutes five times a week. You can spend ten minutes of direct instruction with your student each day and receive all the benefit of the program.

The weekly lesson begins with a “rate your knowledge” survey (reproducible, provided in the instructor’s guide) where you can gauge your child’s familiarity with the vocabulary words. Vocabulary Activities look at the words and their meanings, sorting and matching them with a variety of methods to gain mastery. These activities help develop problem solving and critical thinking skills along with mastering new vocabulary words. The student then reads the vocabulary words in the provided Context Passage exercise. If the passage proves too difficult, a modified version is provided in the teaching guide, so struggling readers can gain the full benefit of the program.

The Vocabulary Extension exercise provides a writing component, as the students write their answers for ten reading comprehension questions focusing on the assigned vocabulary words. Vocabulary Extensions can be done independently or in a group. This is an opportunity to talk about the selected word and write a short paragraph. We enjoyed the writing component and felt like they were a good addition to our school day. There were times in the past that I wanted to add a written assignment for our kids’ school day, but I didn’t want to pile on arbitrary work. Wordly Wise 3000 offers just the right amount of writing for a younger student. Longer assignments are tempting to skip with a struggling student, but these assignments can easily be modified to fit any level of writing skill. The discussion suggestions were a favorite at our house. The kids really liked the spoken component of the lesson. Kids like to talk and share, so it is not surprising that they respond well to this in their lessons too.

My older student can work independently out of their workbooks. There is plenty of accountability provided with the quizzes and tests.You can use Quizlet.com for lesson prep and tests. Quizlet.com is an additional online resource you may access with the code provided in the student workbook. The platform offers several interactive games as well as flash cards to helps prepare for the tests in each lesson. If your kids are using online tools for school this is a solid educational program. It is easy to access through your browser or through the Quizlet App.

-Product review by Amber Smith, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, January 2019