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100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
More is expected of middle schoolers—more reading, more writing, more independent learning. Achieving success in this more challenging world requires knowing many more words. 100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know helps students in grades 6 to 8 (ages 11-14) to express themselves with distinction and get the most out of school.
The 100 words are varied and interesting, ranging from verbs like muster and replenish to nouns like havoc and restitution to adjectives like apprehensive and imperious. Knowing these words enables students to express themselves with greater clarity and subtlety. Each word has a definition and a pronunciation and appears with at least one quotation—a moving or dramatic passage—taken from a book that middle schoolers are assigned in the classroom or enjoy reading on their own.
Both classic and contemporary works of fiction and nonfiction are represented. Among the authors are young adult favorites and award-winners such as Kate Di Camillo, Russell Freedman, Neil Gaiman, E.L. Konigsberg, Lois Lowry, Walter Dean Myers, Katherine Paterson, J. K. Rowling, and Gary Soto. Readers can see for themselves that the words are used by the very best writers in the very best books. It stands to reason that they will see them again and again in higher grades and throughout their lives.
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know helps students to gain useful knowledge and prepares them to step into a broader world.
The 100 words are varied and interesting, ranging from verbs like muster and replenish to nouns like havoc and restitution to adjectives like apprehensive and imperious. Knowing these words enables students to express themselves with greater clarity and subtlety. Each word has a definition and a pronunciation and appears with at least one quotation—a moving or dramatic passage—taken from a book that middle schoolers are assigned in the classroom or enjoy reading on their own.
Both classic and contemporary works of fiction and nonfiction are represented. Among the authors are young adult favorites and award-winners such as Kate Di Camillo, Russell Freedman, Neil Gaiman, E.L. Konigsberg, Lois Lowry, Walter Dean Myers, Katherine Paterson, J. K. Rowling, and Gary Soto. Readers can see for themselves that the words are used by the very best writers in the very best books. It stands to reason that they will see them again and again in higher grades and throughout their lives.
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know helps students to gain useful knowledge and prepares them to step into a broader world.
128 pages, Paperback
Published July 7, 2010
412 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 1, 2016
I hated this book because well, it was just a bunch of words and had no storyline whatsoever! The only time I enjoyed reading this book, is when UI was trying to pronounce the words and failed badly, and my brother and sister sat there and laughed at me. It was not a very interesting book at all and I did not enjoy it!
July 1, 2018
I am using this book with my upcoming 7th grader as extended summer learning. We’ve done two new words a day and I’ve found many that he wasn’t familiar with, and one or two that I was using or pronouncing incorrectly! Each word comes with the definition and at least one use in a sentence (sometimes multiple uses) and those uses are taken from modern literature, many that Ive read, some that a middle schooler should have read, so that is a nice touch.
November 2, 2019
Great words
This is a great list if words. The definitions, pronunciation guides, and other information for each word are great. Not just a simple definition and move on. Great book.
This is a great list if words. The definitions, pronunciation guides, and other information for each word are great. Not just a simple definition and move on. Great book.
November 22, 2019
We used this book for 8th grade homeschooling. Prefect!
March 5, 2025
I think this series would be perfect for the spelling bee team
December 17, 2025
Decent list of 100 vocab words middle schoolers should know. I liked the book excerpts they used and it was good to know words could be acceptably pronounced more than one way.
December 24, 2021
This is a super little book! It was such fun to read!!!!
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June 22, 2012Name: Karrie Kennett
Title and Citation:
American Heritage Dictionaries (Ed.). (2010). 100 Words every middle schooler should know. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Type of Reference: Handbook
Call Number: 428
Brief Description: This handbook contains one hundred words, pulled from current children’s fiction and non-fiction tales, which have been deemed words that every child should know prior to middle school. This book was recommended by Booklist.
Citation of a Review:
Phelan, C. (2012). 100 Words every middle schooler should know. [Review of the book 100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know, by American Heritage Dictionaries (Ed.)]. Booklist Online. Available from http://www.booklistonline.com.libsrv....- Schooler-Should-Know/pid=4129711
Cost: $6.00
Relevance and Relationship: This selection would be a great resource to our teachers and students to explore new words and word with vocabulary. These words are pulled from everyday children’s literature and non-fiction. According to Booklist, the title claim (100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know) is valid.
Purpose: The purpose of this reference material is to build student vocabulary and provide them with a reference for words commonly used in children’s literature.
Validity: The school currently has nothing similar which gives students, parents, and teachers a guide of commonly used higher level vocabulary to pull from.
Format: The format for this text is print.
Arrangement and Presentation: Each entry in the book contains pronunciation, definition, word origin, and an example of the use of the word in a sentence. Many words are demonstrated through the context of a paragraph.
Diversity: This book would be great for students attempting to figure out word meanings in text. I especially like how it gives the word in the context of a paragraph, allowing the reader to see how it fits in. This would be a great tool for ELL students learning the meanings of words and how they fit into the written English language.
Title and Citation:
American Heritage Dictionaries (Ed.). (2010). 100 Words every middle schooler should know. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Type of Reference: Handbook
Call Number: 428
Brief Description: This handbook contains one hundred words, pulled from current children’s fiction and non-fiction tales, which have been deemed words that every child should know prior to middle school. This book was recommended by Booklist.
Citation of a Review:
Phelan, C. (2012). 100 Words every middle schooler should know. [Review of the book 100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know, by American Heritage Dictionaries (Ed.)]. Booklist Online. Available from http://www.booklistonline.com.libsrv....- Schooler-Should-Know/pid=4129711
Cost: $6.00
Relevance and Relationship: This selection would be a great resource to our teachers and students to explore new words and word with vocabulary. These words are pulled from everyday children’s literature and non-fiction. According to Booklist, the title claim (100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know) is valid.
Purpose: The purpose of this reference material is to build student vocabulary and provide them with a reference for words commonly used in children’s literature.
Validity: The school currently has nothing similar which gives students, parents, and teachers a guide of commonly used higher level vocabulary to pull from.
Format: The format for this text is print.
Arrangement and Presentation: Each entry in the book contains pronunciation, definition, word origin, and an example of the use of the word in a sentence. Many words are demonstrated through the context of a paragraph.
Diversity: This book would be great for students attempting to figure out word meanings in text. I especially like how it gives the word in the context of a paragraph, allowing the reader to see how it fits in. This would be a great tool for ELL students learning the meanings of words and how they fit into the written English language.
October 12, 2014
My 4th grade granddaughter has a goal to read on a high school level by next school year, so I wanted to look this book over to see if it might help her with that goal. I am going to buy it for her. I think what she will like best about the book is that excerpts from books that will interest a middle school reader are used to illustrate each of the 100 words. I suspect that she will be requesting some of these books from the library, because they excerpts are very intriguing.
If these words are all known to her, I'll get the High Schooler book for her to work on.
If these words are all known to her, I'll get the High Schooler book for her to work on.
December 22, 2013
This was pretty good. I read most of it with Fisher but now I'm letting him finish it on his own. I liked all the quotes and word origins (although the word origins were a little redundant at times - EVERYTHING comes from Latin, nearly!).
October 6, 2012
Our family quizzed each other over these words. It is a great book to use in the classroom and at home.
February 11, 2015
This is a useful resource for middle school students and educators. The words are taken from many books that middle schoolers read, and there are plenty of samples of the vocabulary in context.
December 1, 2015
Kids liked pulling vocabulary words from this book.
January 25, 2016
I have been using these with my kids this year...Some of the sentence examples they have are confusing and not great, so sometimes I go searching for different ones.
January 16, 2011
The book has given me a new category that I can learn and teach from. :)
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews