day 118: wording Wednesday—root/prefix dict

Many of my full time language arts students (those who come to class each week during the academic year to help us test our complete language arts curriculum) use the root/prefix “dict” each week—as they take “dictation” over the passage of material in our book. They label their papers Dict then the unit we are in and the date. They even call it “dict” time—which is so appropriate since the root “dict” literally means “word”—and they are writing down many words when they take dictation!
We will look at the root/prefix “dict” today!
DICT, DIT, DIC—means to tell, to say, or word
Like we always tell our students—focus on something you already know in order to understand the unknown. In my students’ case, they take “dictation” (writing down words) every week—so they can remember that dict has something to do with words. If you are of my generation, you might remember television programs in which secretaries use a Dictaphone to take dictation from their boss.
Consider what you already know to unlock the unknown! If you have kids, repeat this to them over and over again to help them in their learning and to encourage them about their vast store of knowledge.
Take a look at some words containing dic/dict/dit—and see how they can mean what they do—with to tell, to say, or word :
  1. Dictate—to speak words to someone (for that person to write)
  2. Verdict—a word/determination that was spoken at the end of a trial
  3. Edict—words that are authority or law/rule
  4. Contradict—contra means opposite; dict means word—opposite of the words that someone spoke
  5. Predict—pre means before; dict means word—speak words before they happen
  6. Diction—the pattern of someone’s speech
What other dit/dict/dic words do you know? When you see dic/dit/dict in a word—even if you do not know any other part of the word—use what you do know and the words within the sentence to unlock the meaning.

day 76: creating a reading environment

I don’t want to re-invent the wheel–and I also want to be sure to keep LL 365 short….or I might lose my privileges (or so my family says!)…so while I am going to spend a little time on helping  your struggling reader in this month’s Homework Help, I am not going to spend too much time on reading in general.

So…I will direct you to our sister blog, Positive Parenting, a weekday parenting blog for Christian families. The link below will lead you to the first of three entries about creating a reading environment in your home for new readers. There are so many things that parents can do to create a learning environment–and build a love for reading, whether your children go to school or homeschool.

Blessings to your family as you seek to help your children in the areas of language arts, reading, and writing!

https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/09/day-244-creating-environment-conducive.html

day 16: it was just an “illusion” (or was it an “allusion”?)

Adding to the alluded/eluded and allusive/elusive quandary is the illusion/allusion Wacky Word pair! Again, looking at roots and affixes can be a great help.
Let’s start with allusion—since we had alluded yesterday. (Yes, you read that right—the roots are the same!)
1. Allusion (allude)
a.      Related to ludicrous: Hint—“What he alluded to was ludicrous!”
b.     Related to allusion—“He made an allusion to our previous conversation.”
c.      If you remember the allude/ludicrous (What he alluded to was ludicrous!), you will also remember allusion—allusion is something you allude to.
                                                                        i.     Allude is the verb—“What did he allude to?”
                                                                      ii.     Allusion* is the noun—The thing—“What was his allusion to your situation?”
2. Illusion
      a. Related to illustrate—See that root?
              i. Illustration is a picture
             ii. Illusion is an abstract picture
b.     Used to mean a facsimile or something that appears different than it is
i. “The ride gives you the illusion that you are on a mountain.”
ii. “They used Kleenexes to give you the illusion of fabric.”
iii. “Her success is just an illusion.”
c.  Illusion is also related to hallucination—seeing things that are not really there!
*Note: A more advanced vocabulary technique that you will learn this year on LL 365 is “illustrated” in suffixes—tion and sion generally signify a word is a noun.

day 12: roots and affixes

“….help kids (and adults!) to tap into what we already know in order to unlock the unknown.”
Back to the idea that students (all of us, really) know a lot more than we think we know. And helping kids (and adults!) to tap into what we already know in order to unlock the unknown.
One of the best tips I can offer for this is to encourage kids constantly to look at any part of anything that they already know. In the case of vocabulary and comprehension, I encourage students to look at what they do know. The beginning of this, of course, is root words and affixes—or even parts of words.
Root words, and sometimes even syllables, have meaning. And we often already know meanings of bits and pieces that we can put together to gain more knowledge. (If you know a foreign language, you will have even more success unlocking unknown words or parts of words since much of our language is taken from other languages.)
How can you use this concept to help you or your students? When you come to an unfamiliar word, don’t assume that you do not know it. Look more closely at the word. (And help your kids to do the same—question them all the time: “What do you know about the ‘aqua’ part of aquamarine?” [Or even, “What do you know about the ‘marine’ part?”)
Discussing words (roots, affixes, etc.) should be a part of our daily discussion with our kids. Even if our kids go to school, we have to look at ourselves as our children’s first teachers. There are so many things that we can teach them casually—homeschoolers or not.
Last week in literature class, our son (Joshua, one of our TFT teachers) asked the students what words they knew that contained the prefix “pro,” meaning “for.” He got the usual answers—pro-life; prolific; pro-football, etc. And then his clever “little brother,” Josiah, said, “’Propane’—means that we are ‘for pain’!” Have fun with vocabulary building—and your kids will not forget it, for sure!
Tomorrow I will give you a list of roots affixes that we use in our language arts books that you can print off for yourself or your students. Happy reading—and comprehending! Smile…

day 11: more about roots and comprehension building

Whether you are trying to expand your vocabulary and build your comprehension of higher levels of reading material or you are trying to help your children or students to do so, the same approach may be taken:
  1. Learn all you can about roots and affixes (prefixes and suffixes)
  2. Read a lot so you encounter the words you want to learn over and over
The real question isn’t whether those two methods work. The real question is whether one should come before the other. And for that, there isn’t one good answer.
It’s sort of like using a dictionary to learn how to spell a word. If you can’t spell the word, how can you find it in the dictionary to learn how to spell it? (Or so my kids always ask me!)
The same is true of vocabulary building. Reading levels that are above your comprehension level cannot help you if you have no clues to the unknown words.
And studying roots and affixes will not be much help to you if you have not encountered those roots and affixes often enough for that learning to carry over into your reading.
So what should a parent or teacher do to help a child increase his vocabulary? Glad you asked! And I will share my humble opinion tomorrow—the word count police are looking over my shoulder today! J

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