4/13/06

Real World Words

As many of you already know, Word Web Vocabulary’s primary purpose is to present Greek and Latin roots in a visual web that features the most useful words based on them. Definitions and examples follow, along with important connections to literature and historical happenings when relevant.

Several roots/prefixes/suffixes are presented in a sequence to make mastery as germane as possible to students. While root-based vocabulary is at the heart of our curriculum, there are other parts of our language that should also be part of regular classroom instruction and use.

One of these elements is called “Real World Words®.” I’ve often pointed out that turned-off students usually respond very well to this group of words that they are likely to see and hear everywhere they go.

In “The Art of Seeing,” an article I wrote a while back for an educational publication, I excerpt a few parts: “Imagine a third grader riding by City Hall and exclaiming to her mother, "Look at those Doric columns!” A precocious child, you are probably thinking, but she was actually a child of average ability who had had her eyes opened to the world around her... Why is an automobile named a “Maverick?” And a sports team, the “New York Knickerbockers?” These types of words are all around us but go virtually unquestioned by children and adults alike. Just how many niches, cartouches, keystones and Mansard roofs have you seen lately? They’re there, but I’ll bet you didn’t notice!

This reminds me of the time when I bought a new car and suddenly noticed just how many others like it were on the road. I soon realized that those others had been there all along, but they just had not caught my attention. They had not really had any relevancy for me before I made my purchase. Thoreau explained this phenomenon by saying, “Many an object is not seen, though it falls within the range of our visual ray, because it does not come within the range of our intellectual ray, i.e. we are not looking for it. So, in the largest sense, we find only the world we look for.”

As Thoreau pointed out, most of us gaze right past all sorts of objects in our surroundings and never really connect with them unless they have meaning for us. This is why I consider Word Web’s Real World Words to be an important element of vocabulary program. Suddenly, a newly-introduced word will seem to be all over the place — on billboards, on radio and television, the next street corner, the dinner table, in current reading material, etc.

Understanding — and noticing — these words are very important for the growth of students’ vocabulary. This is the reason they are a vital part of Word Web Vocabulary. I wish you’d share with me any Real World Words that have captured your attention!

That’s my word this time. Ellie

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