10/6/06
News You Can Use About Word Web’s Super-Jumbo Student Enrichment Lessons
If you're not fortunate enough to be using Word Web's regular volumes with your class, don't despair. There are other ways to take advantage of Word Web Vocabulary's material. Go to our website (www.wordwebvocabulary.com). On the home page, click on Teachers Enter Here. Then go down almost all the red links on the right and click on Student Enrichment.
Once there, you'll find an array of topics: Architectural Terms; Autos' Names; Sports Teams; Large, Larger, Largest: Vocabulary for Interesting Sizes; separate lessons on shades of blue, green and red; Periodical Pearls (Word Web's vocabulary words as they appear in periodical literature) for each of our current three volumes, along with ways to challenge and involve students with these Pearls.
The title of this Ellie's Word, though, refers to a headline that caught my eye in a recent newspaper: "Longer Delay of Super-Jumbo Feared." It was the super-jumbo that caught my attention because of the contents of the Large, Larger, Largest vocabulary lessons, which I broke into three parts. The first contains behemoth, colossal, colossus and cyclopean; the second, gargantuan, goliath, jumbo and mammoth; the third, leviathan, mammoth, massive and titanic.
Super wasn't among those but is a root word in our upcoming Volume V. It's a colossal prefix itself with words such as superhuman, superhighway, supervise, superior, supernatural, supermarket, superlative, superb; Superbowl, superficial, Superman, supersonic, superstructure; Superdome, supernova and on and on. Today, we've all become used to the concept of supersized this and supersized that, as well as the adjective form of super: super strong, super tired, super hero, not to mention Word Web's Super Sentences®!
In another newspaper on the same day that I encountered the super-jumbo headline, I was captivated by an article about a 3 1/2-foot Calvatia gigantea, better known as the giant puffball mushroom, found in our area and hence the local news. Although the finder's hope was that it would qualify for the record books, it was outclassed by an eight-foot, 8-inch giant puffball found in 1997 which tipped the scales at 48 pounds. Had I not been interested in large sizes, I might well have passed over this piece of news. Cognizance raises one's level of observation.
Use these super lessons for students who require additional work and for general classroom enrichment. To receive your evaluation copy of our curriculum go to www.wordwebvocabulary.com and click on Review Sample Copy.
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 this time, Ellie
Word Web Vocabulary - recommended on Heidi Hayes-Jacobs' website - Moving vocabulary from the edge of language arts to its center
