A Note from the Site Creator
Teachers often ask how I came to create verbalworkout.com.
As a rising ninth-grader, summer reading for one of my sons was The Count of Monte Cristo. I suggested we both read the book and discuss it. I think of words as tools that help us think better, so if I see my children encounter a word they don't know, I typically describe it. But that book had too many unfamiliar words.
Clearly it would take the fun out of the book to spend too much time on vocabulary. I wished we could know which words he would see again and again in the book, and which he might later see on tests like the ACT® or SAT®.
Years later when I retired from database work, I created this website to answer those types of questions. Teachers tell me it greatly increases the vocabulary growth that normally accompanies reading.
If you have suggestions, as you or your class use this site, please share them with us so we can continue to improve this tool.
Happy reading,
Jim Thompson
As a rising ninth-grader, summer reading for one of my sons was The Count of Monte Cristo. I suggested we both read the book and discuss it. I think of words as tools that help us think better, so if I see my children encounter a word they don't know, I typically describe it. But that book had too many unfamiliar words.
Clearly it would take the fun out of the book to spend too much time on vocabulary. I wished we could know which words he would see again and again in the book, and which he might later see on tests like the ACT® or SAT®.
Years later when I retired from database work, I created this website to answer those types of questions. Teachers tell me it greatly increases the vocabulary growth that normally accompanies reading.
If you have suggestions, as you or your class use this site, please share them with us so we can continue to improve this tool.
Happy reading,
Jim Thompson