9/20/06

Periodical Pearls

Please don’t regard the Periodical Pearls® as shown in your teacher’s manual and students’ workbooks as just attractive graphics to glance at before turning the page. Each Periodical Pearl in Word Web’s three volumes serves two purposes: One, to encourage students to find their own Pearls and two, to introduce critical thinking into the interpretations of some Pearls’ meaning.

Pearls are important instruction tools, so take time to cover them with your students. Not only are they examples of what almost anyone can find in local newspapers, some can become interactive lessons for students and teachers. When creating the original Volume I, I only showed a few Pearls, all placed within various lessons’ text. I hadn’t yet come to realize the importance of tying these “real words” to students’ lessons.

Because I’m about to give you a few examples of Pearls from each of Word Web’s three volumes, I suggest that you take your teacher’s manual for whichever volume you’re using, and, as you read the information below, turn to the appropriate pages in your manual ready to make notes for future reference! You know that if you don’t, you’ll forget all about a good idea! Use the index in the back to help you find correct pages quickly.

The first Pearl in Volume I appears in Lesson 7’s Real World Word classic. Unfortunately, it’s not one that easily lends itself to classroom discussion, as its meaning is a bit deep for some children. However, it does serve as a good model for a Periodical Pearl, the type which you want to encourage your students to find.

The second Pearl, browse, found in Lesson 10, however, does allow students to explain its meaning, as does The Minivan with Maxiluxury in Lesson 15.

In Volume II’s Lesson 15, Police Keep Vigil in Times Square requires students to know several facts or to search them out: (1) where Times Square is (2) why and when police are likely to keep a vigil there (most likely on New Year’s Eve when large crowds gather to wait for the descent of the New Year's Eve ball from the flagpole atop One Times Square.)

Inside the introduction to Volume III, Attack of the hydrilla calls out for explanation. Only students who live or have visited southern Florida are apt to know about this fast-spreading plant (naturalized from Europe) that is clogging Florida's waterways. It’s a topic for research for more able students.

I hope you will enjoy finding Pearls as much as I do. Not a day goes by that I don’t find at least one — and usually more. Here’s an example of one day’s “Pearl pickings” from headlines: Exurban (Volume I), ebb (in the works for Volume 5), Astrodome (Volume III), and an article about Hydra (Volume III) Terra (Volume I), a floating bus, which was news to me!

I hope you will use the Pearls provided in Word Web’s volumes with your classes and find many of your own to bring to class.

If you are attending the October ASCD Conference in Orlando please visit us at Booth 218. We'd be delighted to meet you!

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