12/02/05

ASCD 2005 San Francisco Attendees Fall For Word Web Vocabulary

After attending a recent ASCD conference, I was inspired to write about some of the comments made to me by conference participants. Almost all who stopped by our booth have Hispanic students in their classes, so they were very pleased to discover how I use Word Web’s Awesome Applications to draw attention to words of other languages that also use the same Greek or Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes that English does.

For example, Los Estados Unidos appears with the “uni-” prefix in Vol. I, Lesson 3, as does (Numero) Uno. Connected to the root “terra” meaning earth are Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) and terremoto (earthquake).

Volumes II and III present many more of these Spanish Awesome Applications, such as: agua, aplomo (aplomb), Carnival, chili con carne, cuatro (quarter), hasta la vista, ilícito (illicit), lucido (lucid) oneroso (onerous), madre & padre, prudente, vive la diferencia, vivela! (live it up), vivero (a nursery with live plants), Sierra Madre, auto lavaggio (car wash), Buenos Aires (good air), lavamatico [automatic (car) wash], lavenderia (laundry), fachada (facade), rojo (red) and verde (green).

Other Word Web’s proprietary elements also impressed visitors at our booth. Receiving special notice were the Think Links, represented by Rodin’s sculpture, The Thinker, that ask questions of students which they answer in space provided at the end of each lesson; Literary Links which connect words to either a well-known passage or author; Bonus Blasts, long words composed of many word parts, as in biogeography, dentiloquist (one who speaks through clenched teeth), and hemisemidemiquaver (1/2 of a 1/2 of a 1/2 of an 1/8th note---in other words, a 1/64th note!) The latter produced many laughs and the same comment from almost everyone. “Wow! That’s quite a word!” The point of these unusual words is to give students who choose to learn them an extra leg up on the self-esteem scale. Rolling those words out in front of family members really gets them affirmative attention!

Cool Connections also connected with attendees. The first of these I that uncovered was monk, which is based on the prefix “mono-”. Of course! I exclaimed to myself. Monks used to be solitary, so that’s how they got that appellation. Next came biscuit and biscotti, words based on the numerical “bi-” prefix. Old-fashioned biscuits, much like today’s pilot crackers and hardtack, were baked twice, while anyone who has made biscotti knows that first it’s baked as a loaf, cooled, then sliced thinly and baked again. I thought these were “cool,” hence their name — and I kept on looking for more.

Not only do these special elements, just three of the 15 that are in each of the three volumes, enrich students’ vocabulary, they also heighten their interest in words. I believe they accomplish the same with teachers! I’d love to hear which are your favorites. Please share them with me at emiller@seepub.com.

That’s my word for now, Ellie

Word Web Vocabulary - recommended on Heidi Hayes-Jacobs' website - moving vocabulary from the edge of language arts to its center