~and may they all grow up to be wordsmiths~
Over the past nearly 64 years I have collected many memorable things. As a teenager it had to have been 45 rpm records and 33 1/3 LP albums from the generation that I grew up in called the '70s. In my early 30's, I had a passion for collecting angels of different sizes and shapes. I had amassed so many of them that one day I just decided to give them all away. Later on I cabbaged on to things like books, old crocks, and vintage linens. My collections of things have come and mostly gone which was inevitable over the passage of that much time. As of late, I have been collecting things that most people don't think of.
I collect words.
Never once did I figure that I would be a collector of such a thing, but the truth is that for the last 5 weeks or so my 22 5th graders and I have been doing just that.
As a teacher now for over 40 of those 64 years, I've seen children who stumbled upon a brand new word of which they had no idea of how to pronounce or a single clue as to its meaning. I've seen good readers and struggling readers alike be stopped right in their tracks just because they encounter a word that is new and unknown to them. I've witnessed children taking reading tests whose eyes filled with tears when they saw a new word they were expected to know and use during that assessment. Many have given up over the years, stumped by a word that was not in their vocabulary. I always hate to see that happen and so this year I made my mind up that we'd do everything we could to prevent that from occurring by trying a new strategy and approach.
It all started in class one day with a couple of words that looked kind of similar to one another. Before long we found another word that looked rather like the two words we had originally been talking about. I wrote them down on a chart and the seed was planted in less than 5 minutes. I challenged the kids in my fifth grade class at Liberty to come up with 1,000 new vocabulary words by December 1st. If they could do that it would be worth their while, and they would be rewarded with a pizza party during the last week before we went home for Christmas break. They got to work quickly and at last count we were only 168 words shy of our goal of 1,000 words.
All that I had to was to say pizza, a vocabulary word that is definitely one they all know.
We have had so much fun with this that it was decided last week that we were going to change the challenge up a bit. Rather than stop at a grand (a word referring to the number 1,000 and there is ANOTHER word for our list), we have decided to press onward and see how many we can get by December 1st. All good things will have to come to an end some time because to be honest, I might run out of space to display them. In the meantime, the hallways of our end of the building will be filled with 5th grade offerings of some of the finest words around.
It has taken some effort, time, and black Sharpies to get this learning lesson to the point we are at now. I have found great joy in doing this, and it will seem sad to just pull down the many lists that are now displayed and throw them away. I love those words and the kids whose eyes brighten and voices become excited as we spend time with them each day. On Monday of this past week an idea came to me, and when I shared it with the kids they gave their nod of approval.
During the first two weeks of December we will be having a word adoption party. Every single word on our lists (and there well may be a couple of grand in all) will be up for the choosing by folks who really could use them for their vocabularies. If the adopting of a vocabulary word doesn't make sense to you, consider the following word list.
Ok, take the word baton for example. It is one of those multi-meaning words. Maybe you know someone special who directs a choir, band, or orchestra. Or by the same token, perhaps you or someone else you know might have been a runner on a relay team in middle school, high school, or college. That is an instance where the baton was something quite different. Now wouldn't baton be a nice word for you to adopt?
Or how about the words administrate, administration, and administrator? Just think of all the people who might like to adopt these for their very own. Are you currently or in the past a principal, superintendent, or some other person whose job it has been to adminstrate (a less common form of the word administer) Any one of those three words would be so appropriate for someone to take for their very own.
By the time we are finished with our word collection on December 1st, there could well be 20-25 pages of words to choose from. What a variety there will be to consider for adoption! For those who love multi-syllabic words, you might consider words like enthusiastically from list #14 or antihistamine from list #2. If you are really into words with plenty of vowels in them, you could adopt pharmaceutical from list #11 or inextinguishable from list #7. Perhaps you are looking for a word that matches your profession, and if that is the case, we have PLENTY to choose from. You might ask to adopt a word like anesthesiologist, hydrogeologist, pharmacist, or pediatrician and those are just a few. For those of you who love to challenge your way of thinking and put yet another wrinkle in the old brain, I might suggest the words kerfuffle (a commotion or fuss caused by conflicting points of view) or kakorrhapphiphobia (the fear of failure). My own personal favorites are from list #8-catty wampus and whipper snapper. I just love the way those words sound as they roll off my tongue. They actually make me smile!
The list is endless.
But don't wait too long to choose a word or two for adoption. (Did I use to, too, and two correctly?)
You might be stuck with the word procrastination (meaning to put off doing a job or task until it is almost too late) found right there smack dab in the middle of List #8.
They might just look like random and useless lists to some, but to the kids and I those words look like knowledge and badges of courage to wear for the next time we encounter a word that we absolutely do not know the meaning of, let alone how to pronounce it.
When you are a teacher and have used every single strategy stored in your back pocket, sometimes you have to dig a little deeper and find a new way to get the message across. "1,000 New Vocabulary Words by December 1st" was mine.
I collect words.
Never once did I figure that I would be a collector of such a thing, but the truth is that for the last 5 weeks or so my 22 5th graders and I have been doing just that.
As a teacher now for over 40 of those 64 years, I've seen children who stumbled upon a brand new word of which they had no idea of how to pronounce or a single clue as to its meaning. I've seen good readers and struggling readers alike be stopped right in their tracks just because they encounter a word that is new and unknown to them. I've witnessed children taking reading tests whose eyes filled with tears when they saw a new word they were expected to know and use during that assessment. Many have given up over the years, stumped by a word that was not in their vocabulary. I always hate to see that happen and so this year I made my mind up that we'd do everything we could to prevent that from occurring by trying a new strategy and approach.
It all started in class one day with a couple of words that looked kind of similar to one another. Before long we found another word that looked rather like the two words we had originally been talking about. I wrote them down on a chart and the seed was planted in less than 5 minutes. I challenged the kids in my fifth grade class at Liberty to come up with 1,000 new vocabulary words by December 1st. If they could do that it would be worth their while, and they would be rewarded with a pizza party during the last week before we went home for Christmas break. They got to work quickly and at last count we were only 168 words shy of our goal of 1,000 words.
All that I had to was to say pizza, a vocabulary word that is definitely one they all know.
We have had so much fun with this that it was decided last week that we were going to change the challenge up a bit. Rather than stop at a grand (a word referring to the number 1,000 and there is ANOTHER word for our list), we have decided to press onward and see how many we can get by December 1st. All good things will have to come to an end some time because to be honest, I might run out of space to display them. In the meantime, the hallways of our end of the building will be filled with 5th grade offerings of some of the finest words around.
It has taken some effort, time, and black Sharpies to get this learning lesson to the point we are at now. I have found great joy in doing this, and it will seem sad to just pull down the many lists that are now displayed and throw them away. I love those words and the kids whose eyes brighten and voices become excited as we spend time with them each day. On Monday of this past week an idea came to me, and when I shared it with the kids they gave their nod of approval.
During the first two weeks of December we will be having a word adoption party. Every single word on our lists (and there well may be a couple of grand in all) will be up for the choosing by folks who really could use them for their vocabularies. If the adopting of a vocabulary word doesn't make sense to you, consider the following word list.
Ok, take the word baton for example. It is one of those multi-meaning words. Maybe you know someone special who directs a choir, band, or orchestra. Or by the same token, perhaps you or someone else you know might have been a runner on a relay team in middle school, high school, or college. That is an instance where the baton was something quite different. Now wouldn't baton be a nice word for you to adopt?
Or how about the words administrate, administration, and administrator? Just think of all the people who might like to adopt these for their very own. Are you currently or in the past a principal, superintendent, or some other person whose job it has been to adminstrate (a less common form of the word administer) Any one of those three words would be so appropriate for someone to take for their very own.
By the time we are finished with our word collection on December 1st, there could well be 20-25 pages of words to choose from. What a variety there will be to consider for adoption! For those who love multi-syllabic words, you might consider words like enthusiastically from list #14 or antihistamine from list #2. If you are really into words with plenty of vowels in them, you could adopt pharmaceutical from list #11 or inextinguishable from list #7. Perhaps you are looking for a word that matches your profession, and if that is the case, we have PLENTY to choose from. You might ask to adopt a word like anesthesiologist, hydrogeologist, pharmacist, or pediatrician and those are just a few. For those of you who love to challenge your way of thinking and put yet another wrinkle in the old brain, I might suggest the words kerfuffle (a commotion or fuss caused by conflicting points of view) or kakorrhapphiphobia (the fear of failure). My own personal favorites are from list #8-catty wampus and whipper snapper. I just love the way those words sound as they roll off my tongue. They actually make me smile!
The list is endless.
But don't wait too long to choose a word or two for adoption. (Did I use to, too, and two correctly?)
You might be stuck with the word procrastination (meaning to put off doing a job or task until it is almost too late) found right there smack dab in the middle of List #8.
They might just look like random and useless lists to some, but to the kids and I those words look like knowledge and badges of courage to wear for the next time we encounter a word that we absolutely do not know the meaning of, let alone how to pronounce it.
When you are a teacher and have used every single strategy stored in your back pocket, sometimes you have to dig a little deeper and find a new way to get the message across. "1,000 New Vocabulary Words by December 1st" was mine.
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