5/11/04

HIDDEN AND EASY-TO-FIND WORDS

Do you notice the "hidden" word in each week’s lesson? It’s the fourth word of the week, one that correlates with students’ science or social studies topic. There’s a gray section just below the Wicked Word of the Week for students to write in this word. It should be discussed during the week just like all the other words.

It’s up to you to provide students with this fourth word. If you don’t teach them these subjects yourself, you must get the words from the teachers who do. If that doesn’t work, then go to my web site (http://www.seepub.com) and order ap-propriate lists. These words are not only essential to students’ literacy, but they also help them to understand and master other material.

If you teach middle or high school students, it will also help them if you consult with their math teachers. Many math teachers have told me that their students don’t know basic vocabulary, and that they have to teach them the meaning of such words as adjacent, equivalent, etc. So talk with them, and perhaps you’ll uncover another hidden fourth word.

I recently had an interesting experience while meeting with a community college professor to discuss his concerns about the lack of his students’ literacy and their inability to write simple sentences. Suddenly he saw a way that Word Web would help them. He’d been concerned that the nature of Word Web’s lessons would be too simple for his older students, too obviously designed for younger ones, but when he studied some of the word webs, he realized his students could easily incorporate almost all of them into the subject he taught - business and marketing.

We were looking at the word web for mono- when he noticed "monopoly." Immediately, he said, "My students connect that with what they just learned about such-and-such a company to a monopoly!" Then he went from web to web and quickly found more words that would work the same way. He was seeing the tie-ins for his special subject, and voilà!, he”d found his solution with Word Web! And — he also opened a new vista for me!

After meeting with him, I realized that I should show other teachers of special subjects, no matter at what grade level, another way to improve their students’ writing skills by correlating Word Web’s words to their special subjects. So, starting with Volume III, whenever I see such a possibility, I will try to do so.

That’s my word! Ellie

Word Web Vocabulary, moving vocabulary from the edge of the
Language Arts curriculum to its center.