Word Up Review

Word Up is a DVD containing ten lessons of common Greek and Latin root words and the English words we derive from them.  Each lesson lasts about twelve to fifteen minutes, covers one concept, and presents both the Greek and Latin word base word, and 10 English words that come from each.

The lessons are taught by Dwane Thomas who dons different outfits to play the Greek expert, the Latin expert, and the presenter.  His presents the words with a dry humor and keeps the jokes sprinkled in as he goes through the word list.

Word Up works best as a supplemental resource for a vocabulary or root words class.  The material, even with the online flashcards they provide, is not nearly enough to stand by itself.  When used as a supplement, it works well.  My boys enjoy the lessons, and watching the videos is a nice change of pace from the same-old same-old of regular lessons.  With the nature of the material, re-watching is not only possible, it’s actually very helpful; you’ll get your mileage out of the video.

The root words presented on the video are fairly common, making them useful to decipher many other words.  I would imagine these roots would be very useful for science and SAT/ACT tests.

The video lessons are well made, and present quality material, so the 20$ price tag is fair.  However, as an ‘extra’ for vocabulary, it gets hard to justify on a modest budget.  Entire year-long vocabulary workbooks can run less, so the price might make it a little unreasonable.  If you can get it used, however, it’s a great deal.