Book Review: Get It Right

Get It Right: Boost Your Vocabulary workbooks

At a glance

• Three vocabulary workbooks for KS3 with built-in progression and level-appropriate support
• Words explored in context with engaging features and activities
• Research-informed content with words drawn from the Oxford Children’s Corpus
• Provides a clearly structured, active approach to building students’ vocabulary
• Explore vocabulary in context through rich high-quality source texts
• Develop a rich understanding of language and boost comprehension

How do you close the word gap?

That’s not Blue Horizon rocket science – you propel your vocabulary because word power is directly related to school achievement,

A sizeable chunk of learners don’t have the language funds at their disposal to access the curriculum so they need a revenue stream of words to keep their accounts healthy.

As Seamus Heaney once said, “If you have the words, there’s always a chance you’ll find a way.”

Well OUP’s new write-in workbooks are just the ticket. They each contain 36 ambitious words to help students read more challenging texts and to write with more confidence and sophistication.

Split over four chapters, each focus word is presented as a standalone lesson and so can be used flexibly and easily slotted into your existing plans. The chapters in each book focus on conflict and control, mood and tone, individual and society, analysis and explanation.

The structure for each lesson is the same throughout and starts with a definition, some example sentences and a word knowledge box that explains where the word comes from.

There are then three tightly focused activities that help students to understand the meaning, explore the meaning followed by opportunities to use the word in context in non-fiction scenarios either through reading or writing.

The activities are extremely well written, suitably challenging and all have a formative flavour.

They include plenty of word webs, interactive grids and tables, sentence completion exercises, reading extracts and writing tasks. They are also short and snappy so won’t overwhelm or overload but empower and motivate. Answers can be found online.

Focus words also need to be embedded and verbalised in a sea of talk which is why oracy activists will be pleased to see each chapter including a ‘Have your say’ section which can be used as a springboard for lively discussions and debates. These give students lots of opportunities to air their thinking, justify their reasoning and use the focus words with more precision and flair.

Students will also find dotted throughout the book some top tips which offer support for completing activities. There is also a key terms glossary at the end of the book which define the key literary and linguistic terms which appear in each chapter.

A concluding word list brings together all the definitions of the synonyms and antonyms used in the chapters.

The layout and graphics are crucial to the success of any workbook and Get It Right! have certainly got it right. The design is colourful, inviting and very user-friendly.

These workbooks are like a do-it-yourself word power programme containing essential words for the literate student. They will help students speak and write with more confidence, master ambitious words, increase their knowledge and build an impressive vocabulary.

The Get It Right! workbooks clearly support learning across the curriculum and can help students get a foothold in every subject they encounter. One word leads to another and these workbooks will help students to be bold, courageous and start learning new words off their own bat.

The verdict

• Enlarges vocabulary, builds word banks and raises word consciousness
• Energises the verbal environment
• Activates students as owners of their own learning
• Purposeful, practical and powerful
• Helps students express themselves more intelligently
• Encourages students to be more articulate and take more risks

Upgrade if….

You are looking to help students increase their word consciousness, extend their excitement for word learning and motivate them to go nuts for words and academic vocabulary.

Cost: £70 for a pack of 15