Michael Clay Thompson Free Downloads

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Latest Download: Read Michael's response to the assertion that 'All children are gifted'

(Hand-out for : Gifted Children Need Classic Literature NAGC 2006)

"Classics are gifted books, by gifted writers, and are right for gifted kids". Contains a List of classic words. Answers the question: Why is grammar fun and valuable? Key points and recommendations.

See also Michael Clay Thompson's Classics in the Classroom and Word Within the Word.

Download Developing Verbal Talent 646K, 8 page PDF.

Just as a composer consciously places each separate note of a symphony on musical staff, so a poet consciously controls each separate vowel and consonant sound, organizing them within the structure of rhythm.

The technique that everyone immediately associates with poetry, rhyme, is probably the one that is least used in modern poetry. Instead, most modern poets use far subtler and less obvious techniques to create - and conceal - their art. Many of them are explained in this hand-out.

Learn more about poetics in the Poetic Series by Michael Clay Thompson.

Download Elements of Poetry 81K, 3 page PDF.

"What words do students really need to know if they are to read comfortably in the classics of English and American literature? My ten-year study of 35,000 examples from 130 different works indicates that the following words appear with high frequency. They are the top 100 words in my Classic Words database, in descending order of frequency, and they appear even in socalled children’s classics, such as Tom Sawyer, Peter Pan, The Wind in the Willows, and The Call of the Wild."

From: Classic Words by Michael Clay Thompson.

Download 100 Classic Words 40K, 1 page PDF.

A Magic Lens For Understanding Our Own Ideas.

More about Grammar: The Magic Lens series by Michael Clay Thompson, for secondary students, and for elementary students: Building Language.

Download Grammar 138K, 12 page PDF.

Lincoln used only ten sentences to give one of the most powerful speeches in American history.

For the full text of Michael Clay Thompson's study of the Gettysburg Address, see Lincoln's Ten Sentences

Download An Introduction to the Gettysburg Address 121K, 5 page PDF.

From the Classic Words database. A bar chart showing how 27 books of classic literature vary in the richness of their vocabulary, noting that the most frequently read in the classroom are the least challenging!

Download Classic Words Bar Chart 99K, 1 page PDF.

This download is a hand-out for Michael Clay Thompson vocabulary workshops. It shows how vocabulary can be taught by learning and using roots and stems. It is a sample chapter from his series for secondary students, Word Within the Word..

Download Advanced Vocabulary for Gifted Secondary Students 113K, 13 page PDF.

This is the text of a speech Michael delivered at the Indiana Association for the Gifted 1998 Annual Conference, and it is one of his most-frequently-asked for articles.

Are All Children Gifted? A Response 35K, 14 page PDF.