4/27/05

A POTPOURRI OF THOUGHTS

If you are one of the teachers who's been wishing that the answers to the tests at the end of each chapter in Volume I weren't printed in the students' books, I've written other questions and answers and
have posted them on our website as PDFs. I call them a set of second reviews. You can download them and print as many copies as you need.

In addition, I have also written another type of review, ones that are in story form, for both Volumes I and II. One story tests for words from the first half of the year, lessons 1-18, and a second story for the last 18 lessons. You can also download these from our website.

WRONG MISTAKES - FUN WITH WORDS

I hope "wrong mistakes" caught your eye! Perhaps you thought you'd caught me in a faux pas! I recently came across more of Yogi Berra's malapropisms, so if your students have completed the "-mal" prefix in Volume I, lesson 10, let them enjoy these. Can they "fix" them?

"You can observe a lot by watching."
"Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded."
"We made too many wrong mistakes."
"Ninety percent of the game is half mental."

GUNNA, DUNNO, WANNA, GIMME, HAFTA

I've been wondering what you think about this rapidly growing trend.   It's often what English really sounds like as we speak it today. It is even printed that way with television closed captioning. I expect that a few hundred years ahead "going to," "don't know," "want to," "give me," and "have to" and all their offspring will seem as strange to people then as we find Chaucer's "old English" to be today. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject!

I have also been curious to know whether your students have been able to associate Word Web's words with the literature they are either currently reading or which they covered earlier in the year and whether they were able to incorporate them into their own writing. Won! 't you please let me know? I wanna hear about it!

A NEW WAY TO STIMULATE STUDENTS' INTEREST

One way for students to pursue Periodical Pearls are with their photo-phones and digital cameras. Whenever, wherever they spot a sign or a newspaper headline with a vocabulary word in it, have them snap a shot and share it with the class. This will be especially useful for students who will be using Volume III next year with its series of architectural terms.

Please contact me (elinormiller@seepub.com.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