Vocabulary Cartoons
by Sam Burchers
Reviewed by Tory, Valerie, and Martha R.
Purchase details: Vocabulary Cartoons, paperback, approximately $10, and Vocabulary Cartoons II, SAT Word Power, paperback, list price, $12.95.
Review from Tory
I showed my sons Vocabulary Cartoons told them what I wanted them to do (Look at the first ten words and cartoons, read the info., and try to memorize what they could.) Simple. I told them to try to learn one or two a day, no hurry.. and at the end of two weeks, I'd test them to see how they did.
Amazing. Both were able to memorize the words, how they are spelled and what they mean. They were correct about 85-90%!
I decided to try this with my daughter and the student I'm home schooling this year. The student had been public schooled up to this year (8th grade). She had her own idea of these "cartoons." She thought they were babyish, or maybe that "school" can't be this easy?? I'm not sure. She made a list of all ten words and their meanings. Very "schoolish". Her penmanship is very neat, and she listed the words in order from one to ten and studied the way she's used to doing it at school, from her notebook.
I tested her and my daughter. My daughter got 100% correct. My student failed miserably. (This is not a throw off on her public school education, because she is very bright.. but a reflection of HOW she was studying!) She didn't want to use the book and look at the cartoons.. She couldn't even tell me anything about what was in the book because after she wrote down the word list in her notebook, she never looked in the Vocabulary Cartoon book again at all those two weeks.
So, I gave her a little challenge. Try it the way the book says. USE the cartoons. Look at them, read what it says, memorize the little clues, etc. She said ok, because she was so shocked at having gotten none of the words right on the test.
The next week she came to me and said she was ready to try the test again. She got everyone of the definitions correct! She spelled eight of the words correctly, and of the two she misspelled, she only missed them by one letter each!
This program works. I have proof right here. Four teenagers at different grade levels and all were able to learn these words.
My son tested today (after only one week of studying) on his second set of ten words. I also added some of the first ten. He didn't know which words I'd pick from the first ten, yet he got all of them correct. He also had nine out of ten definitions of the new words correct. He spelled ALL ten of them correctly!
I am loving this program. (so are they!) The cartoons and clues really DO make learning the words easier and they are able to remember them easier.
Review from Valerie
For those who are unfamiliar with it, Vocabulary Cartoons is a black and white, 253 page paperback book containing 210 vocabulary words with a corresponding cartoon for each word. Each word has it's own page in the book; the word is at the top with its meaning(s) and a word it rhymes with (like Abduct-Duck). Then there is a comical cartoon in the middle of the page, and at the bottom they give a few sentences using it in different possible ways.
What I do is copy the first ten pages (containing the first ten words), cut out just the cartoon without any words saying what it is, and once my nine year old daughter learns them (from the book), she colors them. When I cut them out I leave some space on the left side so that when she knows all ten words for the unit, I can staple them together, making it into little book which I then use down the road as review. (My girl's a big colorer, so this is just a little bonus for her!)
At the end of each ten word unit, there is a review section with a *Match the word with it's definition* and also *Fill in the blanks*. My daughter REMEMBERS the cartoons and the words and gets excited when she reads or hears the words somewhere else! I'll definitely be getting the High School version when she's older.
Review from Martha R.
This book sounded so good that I thought we'd give it a try! I got the high school level book, SAT Word Power from the local library. Valerie described the format of the Vocabulary Cartoons for younger kids and this book is laid out exactly the same way. The words are challenging but not obscure, and I found the several extra sentences at the bottom of the page particularly helpful for conveying the meaning of the word. This book is sure to help your high school student score better on the SAT! If you use this at younger ages (say, grades 6-8), it will make reading classic literature easier.
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