100 Words to Know Before Graduating High School
Are you looking for a way to build your high school student’s vocabulary knowledge? The editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries have put together a helpful little guidebook to assist your student in broadening their vocabulary. If you want to improve your high schooler’s general vocabulary, this book will do it.
You’ll find a printable checklist of the 100 words available to download in my resource library. Grab the book from Amazon or wherever you buy books—it’s just a few bucks. The book contains an alphabetical list of the words, parts of speech, definitions, examples of usage, etymologies, and other notes.
(Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This means that if you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I use and love or would love to use! For full disclosure details, click here.)
Choose a Pace to Learn Vocabulary Words
If your student is a a freshman, you can choose to go through this book at a slower pace with a once-a-week time frame.
I like to assign a Word-of-the-Day Wednesday and introduce a new vocabulary word every Wednesday.
If your student is older and you want to work on improving vocabulary quickly, a faster pace makes more sense.
- Assign one word per week and go through the entire list in three school years at this pace.
- Assign one word per week and go through the entire list in two full calendar years.
- Assign one word per school day and go through the entire list in less than one school year.
How to Learn New Vocabulary Words
There are numerous ways to learn and practice new vocabulary words. As a general rule, reading a variety of material will naturally expand your vocabulary, but I’ve outlined several suggestions below to help your student learn specific words.
Get the book: 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know
- Listen to the pronunciation of the word
- Read the definition, parts of speech, etymology, etc.
- Write the word down while saying it out loud
- Use the word in a sentence
- Write the word on a post-it and stick it somewhere you will see it several times a day
- Make flash cards to review words
- Use an online tool like Quizlet to make digital flash cards for review
- Review the word multiple times at increasing intervals (daily, then every other day, then weekly, then less frequently)
- Continue to use the word in conversation or make up an example of how the word would be used
100 Words Vocabulary List Download
100 Vocabulary Words Everyone Should Know
If you have a high school student, this is a great list to work through to help them improve their vocabulary. But it’s never too late to learn something new! Learn along with them. More than likely, there are a number of words on this list that you never learned, or learned and forgot.
Make it a family game to come up with funny sentences using the word of the week and text each other your silly sentences. Gamifying learning is a great way to make knowledge stick.
Visit my homeschool resources page for monthly unit study ideas, projects, and homeschool planning help!
Join my mailing list to receive updates when new printable resources are added to the library, plus tips and encouragement for your organized homeschool journey.
You May Also Like…
100 Vocabulary Words for High School Students
