While incidental vocabulary development is an objective of any assigned reading, we understand that it is not the main focus. Certainly, we would be disappointed if a student reported that the best thing about reading Romeo and Juliet was adding the word lament to her expressive vocabulary.
Yet, we know:
- Increased vocabulary development is vital to academic and vocational success.
- Most vocabulary is learned incidentally while reading.
- Word consciousness and repetition are crucial to such vocabulary acquisition.
With a minimum of fuss, verbalworkout.com reinforces the best words in over 1000 books commonly read in high school and middle school. For each book, academic words are ranked based upon how often they are used in that book, in general communications, and in standardized tests like the SAT®. Homework assignments are similar to the vocabulary questions in the SAT® and ACT®.