4/6/05

EVERY DAY A LEARNING EXPERIENCE

I've learned that some teachers use Word Web Vocabulary with only their top students. That's somewhat disappointing because in my own classrooms, I found the students in my lowest groups derived the most benefit.

Their success always came when they made a connection from a word in the classroom to their own world. They might have seen a web word in a headline (a real Periodical Pearl®) or when passing by one of the many acronyms, such as ATM, TGIF or SUNOCO in a car.

For you teachers, who are not able to use Word Web with your entire class, please consider making the Real World Word® part of all your students' weekly work. They are quite likely to benefit from this exposure when they succeed in locating these words.

One valuable source of these Real World Words® is the drugstore and grocery flyers that appear in most Sunday newspapers. Many of the advertised product names are derived from Greek and Latin. Here are some examples.

Benefiber®: root bene- for well, good, as in bene(fit) + fiber.

Dynavite®: power vitamin

Nicoderm, a skin patch to control smoking: nico(tine) + skin

Pyrex®: pyre means fire in Greek; pyrex is able to withstand heat better than other glass products

Quattro® razor, a razor with four (quattro) blades.

teleflora®: (send) flowers (from a) distance

See how well students do in understanding the fundamental meaning of these product names. Hold classroom discussions about them. Remember, Word Web Vocabulary stresses comprehension rather than memorization.

Do you remind students to use their vocabulary words when working on other writing assignments? They should!

Please contact me (emiller@seepub.com) with questions or comments. I'd love to know how you are making out with Word Web and how your students are doing!

That's my word for this time, Ellie

Word Web Vocabulary - recommended on Heidi Hayes-Jacobs' website, moving vocabulary from the edge of language arts to its center