Click to enlargeVocabulary 1
The first word list: each word with a child-friendly meaning, synonyms, antonyms and a sentence.
- 25 word sets in the book
- Every word with a child-friendly definition, synonyms, antonyms and a sentence
Want the whole series? The full English series is £497, under £19 a book.
How this book is used in our course
English books are worked in short daily sessions rather than one long sitting. For vocabulary, the child covers the meaning, says it aloud, then checks; words that are missed go on a card for the week. For comprehension and cloze, the child attempts the passage under a loose time, then marks against the key and rewrites any answer that lost marks.
Where it sits in the series
- This is the first book in the series.
- Next book in the series: Book 2, Vocabulary 1 Testbook
What's inside English Mastery 1
Four real pages from the book, so you can see exactly what your child will work from. All 8 sample pages are in the viewer.
Over a thousand words, A to Z, in twenty-five word sets.
Abandon to Zest: 1,068 words that 11+ papers draw on, arranged alphabetically so a child can find any word in seconds and a parent can test a set in order. Set A alone is 105 words, Set C is 122, Set P is 96. One technique page at the front, then the words. Nothing else, because nothing else is needed.
Four steps for every word, and the one that makes it stick: learn the Baby word first.
Read the word and its class. Read the example sentence. Learn the Baby word, the simple word the child already knows with the same meaning, so the hard word has a hook in the memory. Then widen it with synonyms and antonyms, because papers love to put an antonym among the synonym options as a trap. Make it stick with cover-and-say, your own sentence, the Testbook, and spaced review after a day, a week and a month.
Every word, set out the same way: sentence, Baby word, five synonyms, five antonyms.
Abandon: the sailors had to abandon the sinking ship. Baby word: leave. Synonyms: desert, leave behind, forsake, strand, quit. Antonyms: keep, retain, stay with, rescue, hold on to. Then abate, abduct, abode, abolish, in the same shape. A child who has read this page can answer a synonym question, an antonym question or a cloze question on any of these five words, which is all three ways the exam asks.
The words that separate a top-set child from the rest are mostly at the back of the alphabet.
Vacate to vulgar, then wade to wretched, yearn to yield, zest. These are the words a child has never met in a school reading book and will meet in an independent school paper. The entries are built exactly as Set A was, so a child who learnt the method in September is still using it in July, on the words that matter most.
All 25 word sets in the book follow the pattern shown here.
Other Year 4 books in English Mastery
Vocabulary 1 Testbook
Tests every word in Vocabulary 1 the way the exam does.
English Rules 1
Grammar and punctuation rules taught one at a time, with examples a child can copy.
Vocabulary 2
992 words in 25 alphabetical sets, with meanings, synonyms, antonyms and sentences.
Vocabulary 2 Testbook
Tests every word in Vocabulary 2.