I recently wrote a post about the Boost your Vocabulary workbook 1 that we are using and enjoying and as luck would have it we were also given a copy of the new Boost Your Vocabulary workbook 2 from Oxford University Press.

There are ultimately going to be three workbooks in this series and although I have not yet seen workbook 3 (it has not been released yet) I have been given a peek preview of the words that they are going to be including and I can confirm that the set of words in each workbook does get progressively harder. My daughter (year 8) is currently working through and completing the 1st workbook before she starts the 2nd one, 100% her decision because she says working through the activities and seeing exactly how to use the words will improve her writing. But that aside I would say based on the level of words the suggested years would be Workbook 1 for Year 7, workbook 2 for Year 8 and then Workbook 3 for Year 9 (but that does depend on individual abilities). Our plan is to finish workbook 1 and then go straight onto workbook 2 and we will level workbook 3 for her to complete as part of her Year 9 English activities (she will also be using the 3rd workbook in the Get It Right Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar series – we really are becoming big fans of the Get It Right series). Oh and on the plus side I have noticed that once she completes the double page for each word she also knows how to spell it, so bonus the kids are getting extra spelling practice in as well.

So what is it about the Get It Right series that we like? We love the page layouts, and yes some people may think that is a bit silly, why is page layout so important? Well, with sensory learners if the page is overwhelming, fill, to the point of bursting with lots of text and busy colours they honestly just switch off and don’t take anything in (I have bought books like this before and I ended up giving them away to the a charity shop because the pages where too overwhelming). So pages that have the information in nice small chunks, with attractive, slightly muted colours tend to work. And the cool colour palette that they use in this series really works.

Each word is covered over a double page. And each double page includes an explanation of the word, an activity on understanding the meaning, an activity on exploring the meaning and finally an activity on using the word in context.

The words are split into 4 categories and there are 9 words under each category which means 36 words in a workbook (okay now 36 words may not sound like a lot but it is 36 well-chosen, description words that will enhance anyone’s writing and 36 words that the kids will probably see used in English Literature and other subjects – what I am trying to say is the 36 words that they have chosen are really well-chosen words.)

1. Conflict and control – resistance, liberty, scorn, defiant, reckless, treacherous, contemptuous, antagonise and malevolent.
2. Mood and tone – desolate, controversial, tedious, placid, pensive, brooding, listless, apathetic and familial.
3. Individual and society -privilege, alliance, humility, aversion, prudent, contrition, empathy, ostentatious and manipulative.
4. Analysis and explanation – demonstrate, authoritative, impression, oppose, subtle, assert, symbolise, hypothesis, and subjective.

I really like everything about these workbooks. I think having a wide vocabulary is vital for all academic subjects and probably something that a lot of us just take for granted. But these workbooks are here to ensure that our kids get exposed to these words and get a proper understanding of the words. I think the entire idea behind this series and the way that the workbooks have been set-up is brilliant. We are going to work through all of the workbooks in this series.

You can get the workbook 2 directly from the OUP site in packs of 15 – Workbook 2 pack of 15 or you can get individual workbooks from amazon – Get It Right: Boost Your Vocabulary Workbook 2

Also all the answers are free to download directly from the OUP site – answers

Admin – As mentioned above we were kindly given a free copy of workbook 2. All opinions expressed are that of my tester (my daughter) and myself. I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same.  I only include affiliate links for products that we use and love.