“Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down. Children are demanding. They are the most attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick and generally congenial readers on earth… Children are game for anything. I throw them hard words and they backhand them across the net.” — E. B. White

Would you ever hesitate to teach your child the word Tyrannosaurus Rex or how about supercalifragilisticexpialidocious ? Kids take naturally to these words and love a challenge. We should thus not shy away from introducing them to classic words such as countenance, prodigious, or grotesque. Rather than limiting students’ horizons to their grade level vocabulary lists- or the best ‘National Vocabulary Prevention Program’ as educator Michael Clay Thompson calls them – students should be introduced to classic words in early elementary grades.

Students who don’t know many words, can’t write many words. On the other hand, students who are familiar with classic vocabulary will enjoy greater ease with reading, which in turn leads to greater fluency in general. Additional benefits of advanced vocabulary:

• The more words students know, the quicker they can process information. Prior knowledge of vocabulary lightens the load on working memory.
• The larger students’ vocabulary the greater their capabilities for abstract thinking. Each new word opens up a new pathway and leads to better expression of their own thoughts, as well as understanding others.
• Good vocabulary is the single best predictor of career success. Vocabulary precedes achievement.

The downward trend

Many classics have been pulled from curricula because they are deemed too complex, too inaccessible, or simply irrelevant. Yet they hold profound treasures of our English language that is rarely found in modern texts. As this classic word chart by Michael Clay Thompson shows, those classics which are still taught in schools hold a mere vestige of the vocabulary which was once considered essential for good communication.

Where to get started: Top 100 classic words

Over 20 years ago, Michael Clay Thompson, an educator who develops language arts curricula for gifted children, wondered what the best words in the English language were. He began marking advanced vocabulary in every English language classic that he read, a task which eventually developed into a ten-year study of 35’000 examples from 135 different works. From his research he distilled the top 100 words that appear with high frequency in classic works of English and American literature.

100 classic words – Study help

I have developed the following worksheets that help your student master the top 100 classic words.

A Christmas Carol: Classic Learner’s Edition

Have words like ubiquitous, covetous, apoplectic, facetious, inexorable, or prodigious made you stumble or even kept you from reading Dickens’s classic Christmas tale? The Classic Learner’s Edition of A Christmas Carol enriches readers’ experiences by following the unabridged original text with deep, varied, and entertaining classical vocabulary study. Focusing on Dickens’s rich, profoundly true, and often uproariously humorous use of language, this Classic Learner’s Edition is bound to open doors to a great variety of classic literary treasures.

A Christmas Carol: Classic Learner’s Edition is available here