Vocabulary at the Core, the expanded and updated edition of Vocabulary at the Center (© 2009), is the definitive guide for every teacher engaged in helping students learn essential academic vocabulary. In clear, precise language, Benjamin and Crow explain why vocabulary is at the core of all learning and communicating and why word study should play a more significant role in English class and across the curriculum—as emphasized by the Common Core State Standards. You will learn... How words get learned and stay learned. Why teachers must emphasize useful academic words. Why rote memorization doesn’t work and why students need opportunities for deep processing. How and why to teach derivations, collocations, register, idioms, and gender. How and why to teach context clues, fluency, and pronunciation. The benefits of graphic organizers and word games in the classroom. Each chapter includes engaging, easy-to-implement classroom applications that are correlated to the Common Core State Standards and will fit seamlessly into your lesson plans. BONUS! Vocabulary at the Core also provides ideas for formative and summative assessments.

The Common Core State Standards present unique demands on students’ ability to learn vocabulary and teachers’ ability to teach it. The authors address these challenges in this resource. Work toward the creation of a successful vocabulary program, guided by both academic and content-area terms taken directly from the mathematics and English language arts standards.

Your students may recognize words like determine, analyze, and distinguish, but do they understand these words well enough to quickly and completely answer a standardized test question? For example, can they respond to a question that says "determine the point of view of John Adams in his 'Letter on Thomas Jefferson' and analyze how he distinguishes his position from an alternative approach articulated by Thomas Jefferson"? Students from kindergarten to 12th grade can learn to compare and contrast, to describe and explain, if they are taught these words explicitly. Marilee Sprenger has curated a list of the critical words students must know to be successful with the Common Core State Standards and any other standardized assessment they encounter. Fun strategies such as jingles, movements, and graphic organizers will engage students and make learning these critical words enjoyable and effective. Learning the critical vocabulary will help your students with testing and college and career readiness, and will equip them with confidence in reading, writing, and speaking. Marilee Sprenger is also the author of How to Teach So Students Remember, Learning and Memory, and Brain-Based Teaching in the Digital Age.

Part textbook, part practical handbook, this must-have resource from the trusted Consortium on Reading Excellence (CORE) will help every literacy teacher understand key research on vocabulary instruction, put best practices to work in any classroom,

" ... A practical guide designed to help early childhood teachers take advantage of the unique opportunity provided by the common core state standards. It offers strategies for planning and presenting vocabulary instruction and for monitoring children's word learning progress, along with helpful appendices that provide specific guidance on which words to teach"--Cover, page [4].

First Published in 2009. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

It's a good book. Offers pronounciation, definitions, synonyms, and antonyms, as well as good practice. Chances are there are at least some words you'll learn from the book, even if you do well on the diagnostic test but I still suggest that you take that test to see if you should get a higher level book.