5/6/05

VOLUME III SOON TO BE HOT OFF THE PRESS!

I think users of Word Web Vocabulary will be pleased with the features of this latest in our proposed series of five Volumes.

Volume III contains many interesting and distinctive elements. The first is a series of nine architectural terms. I chose these because I've learned that these really do open learners' eyes to objects that have always been there but usually remain unseen - that are glossed over. However, once they are pointed out - to youngsters or their teachers - they are almost always remembered and noticed.

This volume treats the most obvious of building features: roofs and columns. There are four basic types of the former, all readily seen in almost any town or city anywhere in the world. Students quickly meet with success by finding each style and knowing its name. Columns are only slightly less common, as almost every urban area has houses and public buildings with classical elements. Being able to recognize the three basic types of columns is a big confidence builder, almost always producing a feeling of self-assurance.

One other building term I include is facade (spelled with our without the cedilla), a term connected meaning both the face of a building and an artificial or deceptive front displayed by a person.

This volume also follows the precedent set in the first two volumes of presenting four foreign and useful phrases in common English usage, such as bona fide and modus operandi .

This volume's seasonal words follow its predecessors, but this time I chose "Halloween terms": dead letter office, skeleton in the closet, skeleton key, talk turkey. You should have fun with these! Five cooking terms round out the special vocabularies that make up the Real World Words.

The three Root-and-Branch words are chrono- (time), hydr- (water) and the many colors of red. There's lots of fun for students' learning there, too!

Other components of Volume III are: 40 Literary Links; 23 related to product names; 92 graphics; 14 Bonus Blasts for those who want to learn long and difficult words, especially useful for showing off to older family members; 28 Awesome Applications that relate the commonality of words in English to those in Spanish, French and German; loads of Periodical Pearls; and 23 Cool Connections. Here are a few teasers. See whether you can connect lavish, devour, neon and circus to their correct roots. (You'll find the answers in Volume III.)

This volume also has many tie-ins to science. For instance, students learn which mammals are digitigrade or plantigrade (by their type of foot); whether animals are insectivores, herbivores, frugivores, granivores or piscivores; and about pyrite and pyroclasts.

No need to regard these hints as a "heads-up." All you need to know about any of these terms is fully explained in the teacher's manual. I hope I have whetted your appetite for this new volume of useful and interesting words!

Here's a footnote to this Ellie's Word: Please add the following to your euphemisms page in Volume II, lesson 9: pre-owned vehicle for used car; pre-engineered house for pre-fabricated. I guess these are meant to be kindly, to say nothing and more hoity-toity!

Look for Volume III in July. 

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