About the Author

Mark Pennington is an educational author, presenter, reading specialist, and middle school teacher. He encourages teachers to “work smarter, not harder” to improve their craft and increase student learning. Mark is committed to standards-based staff development in differentiated instruction for the diverse needs of today’s students.

Mark has twenty four years of teaching experience in the elementary (six years), middle school (ten years), high school (eight years), and community college (three years part-time) settings. His MA Education (Reading Specialist) is out of the California State University at Sacramento. Mark received his teaching credential at the University of California at Los Angeles after graduating Magna cum Laude from the University of Southern California. Go Trojans!

Mark currently serves as an English Language-Arts Middle School Teacher in the Elk Grove Unified School District in Elk Grove, California. Mark presents at educational conferences and provides staff in-services in the areas of spelling/vocabulary, grammar/mechanics, and essay writing.

Mark has served as series editor for Prima Publishing’s (an imprint of Random House) Better in 5 Minutes series, and has written two of the books in that series. He has also authored three books and five resource collections for his own Pennington Publishing.

Life of Reuben J Swanson

Daredevil: The Album $6.46 One wonders what Daredevil the superhero might make of Daredevil: The Album. Given his heightened sense of hearing, the costumed one would probably grab the volume control, since tinnitus-inducing modern rock is the primary fare here. Despite strong new fare from Fuel, Saliva, and Nickelback, the pairing of Drowning Pool with another cartoon character, Rob Zombie, is the clear winner on personalit…

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Greek and Latin Roots $16.30 The national standards require that students beginning at fourth grade know common Greek and Latin roots and affixes and use this knowledge to analyze the meaning of complex words. Each of the 30 units in this resource includes a word list, vocabulary sort cards, review game cards, and a vocabulary quiz. Students will learn over 300 vocabulary words and become more comfortable “dissecting” words a…

God of War III: Ultimate Edition $99.99 The God of War III Ultimate Edition is everything that new and longtime God of War fans need to experience the final chapter in one of the most acclaimed action series of all-time. God of War III is a single player action game, exclusive to the PlayStation 3, and the final installment of the God of War trilogy. It is packed with signature and addictive God of War gameplay — a combinati…

What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know (Revised) (Core Knowledge Series) $9.23 What should your child learn in the sixth grade? How can you help him or her at home? This book answers these important questions and more, offering the specific shared knowledge that thousands of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American sixth graders. Featuring sixteen pages of full-color illustrations, a bolder, easier-to-follow format, and a thoroughly updated curric…

240 Vocabulary Words 5th Grade Kids Need To Know: 24 Ready-to-Reproduce Packets That Make Vocabulary Building Fun & Effective $9.95 Teachers can build word power with these 24 ready-to-reproduce, 3-page lessons. Each lesson is packed with fun, research-based activities that help students to explore roots, prefixes, and suffixes; use students’ prior knowledge for greater understanding….

Words on the Vine, Grades 5 – 8: 36 Vocabulary Units on Root Words (The 100+ Series) $7.56 Ancient Latin and Greek live on in the words we speak every day. Introduce your students to the fun and challenge of word genealogy with Words on the Vine, a 36-unit vocabulary program based on common Latin and Greek roots that will provide you with a framework for an entire school year. Each unit introduces ten related words and shows how their definitions can be traced back to a common meaning. …