11/4/03
THE MAGIC OF NEW WORDS
Ever since I published Large, Larger, Largest, the bonus lessons for schools that have reordered Word Web, I've come across many more examples. I hope those who've used these lessons have spotted them, too.
For instance, after the Cubs defeated the Marlins in one of the great playoff games, Associated Press headlined (at least in my newspaper) "Mammoth 495-foot homer ignites romp." This was a fresh use of mammoth, and an excellent example of dynamic writing.
Another example leaped out at me in this headline: "Two massive oil rigs are seen in Portland, Maine." The article went on to describe these semi-submersible drilling rigs and the process that would move them to Brazil. (In case you don’t remember, "semi-" is the first prefix in our very first lesson, so all students who've used Word Web know this word.)
Another news article with an eye-catching graphic described what is believed to be the largest and heaviest book in the world, which weighs almost 75 pounds. Although none of the "large" words I defined in the bonus lesson were used, an alert teacher or student could have had students write their own headline for the article, using any of the large words: behemoth, gargantuan, mammoth, jumbo.
Then the New York Times ran a story with a photo of the owners of Goliath Casket Company in Lynn, Indiana, displaying their 49-inch-wide coffin (standard coffins measure 24 inches wide). Their largest model is designed to accommodate someone up to 700 pounds! Wouldn't students find this interesting?
Next, along came news of Nissan's Titan, its upcoming pickup truck that is so large that some Nissan dealers have had to remodel their showrooms and service areas to accommodate it! These are every-day examples that encourage teachers and students who are using Word Web. With Titan, we see another example of product designers reverting to Greek mythology in order to name the new item, and we can add it to those that have gone before: the ship Titanic; the element Titanium; the largest satellite (Titan) of the planet Saturn; the recently discovered Paralititan (meaning "tidal giant") stromeri which may have been the largest dinosaur to have walked the earth; and the football team Tennessee Titans.
My next memory jogger arrived on the front page of a national newspaper: "Big Ten behemoths clash." I wouldn't have thought of describing those college teams that way. Would you?
Once any of us are awakened to a word we suddenly seem to see it everywhere we look! This reminds me of the time when I bought a new car and suddenly noticed just how many others just like it were on the road. I soon realized that they had been there all along, but they had not registered on me before I made my purchase. That's how it is with words!
That's my word this time.
Ellie
WORD WEB VOCABULARY: Written by a teacher for teachers
