Activity 1
Complete Exercise
#3c on page 58 in the text: first write a definition of each word listed. Did
you notice yourself using any fairly consistent principle for determining what
the words might mean? Discuss. Then read the first chapter of A
Clockwork Orange to find the meanings of at least six of the
words: http://www.hubertlerch.com/pdf/Burgess_A_Clockwork_Orange.pdf. In each case, how
do you finally determine what the word means? Combine this assignment with
Activity 2 in this module. Create a blog post.
#3C Prior to reading A Clockwork Orange
creech- screech malenky- long, lanky razrez- rare
droogs- drugs messel- message skorry- scurry
glazzies- glasses millicents-small change spatted- splattered
goloss- gloss poogly-ugly zoobies- zombies
As I was attempting to define what each of these words meant
I found myself looking at the words and breaking them into letter sounds I
could recognize. After I did that I
tried to see if I knew other words with the same sounds and see if I could take
their meaning and weave them into these unknown words. In some cases I also found myself breaking
the word into two parts ( * my thinking* messelà
message and missel, so maybe a quick message?)
I took my prior knowledge of word sounds and meaning of prefixes and
suffixes and used those same techniques to apply them to the words above.
After reading A
Clockwork Orange
After reading the
first chapter I realized that what I was doing my kids do everyday in
school. I found myself struggling to
fine the meaning of words or skipping word sin hopes to find context clues. For
each of the six words I have now defined, I was wrong at my guessing for all
but two! (Lucky guesses!) J
I relied heavily on context clues to help me discover what these words meant.
droogs- friends,
people poogly- surprised or shocked
glazzies- glasses messel- message
razrez- cut
(similar to razor?) skorry- quickly,
fast
Activity 2
Read Exercise 7 on p. 85 and rather than showing
it to an audience, complete the exercise yourself. Answer the questions,
including the two at the top of p. 86.
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As I was
reading these words aloud I found myself mostly chunking the words into
syllables when trying to pronounce the words.
I found myself relieved when I found syllables that sounded familiar to
other words that I knew. Some were much
easier to pronounce than others.
-
There were a few
words such as extravasate that I tried to sample all the letter more or less
all at once. I found myself having to
re-read the word because I made way too many miscues to even try to make sense
of the word I was reading.
-
When looking at the
words there were only a few that I knew the meanings of. I know that sarsaparilla is a root that can
be used in a drink. I know that vitiate
means to undo or defeat. I also learned from SAT tutoring that a sycophant is a suck up or a brown-noser.
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Pronouncing the words
helped me recognize some of the letter sound meanings. It did not, however, seem to help me when
trying to decode the meanings of the given words.
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When I encounter
words that I do not know in normal reading I typically try to look at the word
to see if I can figure out the meaning.
If I look at the word and am unable to recognize any of the letter
patterns then I will skip the word and read the sentence(s) that follow to see
if I can construct the meaning of the word.
-
With this experiment
I felt like I was a second grader in my own classroom trying to find the
meanings of new words. I think that
giving students tricky words is a good idea for a challenge assignment so that
I can see what parts of the word children are familiar with. This re-opened my eyes for ways in which I
can teach children to deal with unfamiliar words. I think that giving examples like the words
in this books will also help the children see what I do when I find tricky
words. It is important to give students
opportunities to re-read the sentence, struggle, and guess and check when
finding tricky words.
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