by Donna | Jun 24, 2011
Do you remember how I talked earlier about how we (and our students if we are teachers) know much more than we think we do! There is no place that this is more apparent than vocabulary learning!
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?”)
Today’s root is SPEC, SPIC, or SPIT
It means LOOK or SEE
What do you already know about these “spec,” “spic,” and “spit” words?
- Perspective—seeing a point of view
- Aspect—one part or one thing you can see
- Spectator—one who sees
- Spectacle—a sight to see
- Suspect—a person you see that might be guilty
- Others???
Keep reading. Keep asking yourself what you already know!
by Donna | Jun 10, 2011
Now that we know how to spell the word Wednesday, we are going to add a new feature to Language Lady 365. If you desire to increase your vocabulary for professional or personal reasons; are preparing for standardized testing or college; or want to help your kids learn vocabulary better, you won’t want to miss Wordy Wednesdays! (Yesk I know it’s Thursday–I didn’t get this up last night!)
Wordy Wednesday will be a vocabulary-building day each week. Sometimes I will introduce a “word that everybody should know” type of word from test preparation or collections with these types of lists. Other times we will focus on prefixes, suffixes, and roots. Basically, all types of vocabulary learning—your weekly “shot” of wordsmith learning!
At the beginning of the year, I described the importance of roots and affixes in helping our children learn vocabulary: “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.”
Not long ago 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 (nor will you)!
So today, we will start with a common root—a root that can help you unlock the meaning of many other words: gen.
GEN is a root meaning birth, race, or kind.
From this root, we get many common words that most of us are familiar with, including, but not limited to, the following list:
- Generous
- Generate
- Generation
- Genealogy
- Gender
- Genocide
- Generic
But roots are not limited to the beginnings of words—they are found buried within longer words as well. Consider the following words with gen somewhere in them. How does the meaning of gen—birth, race, or kind—fit into the meanings of these words:
1. Agency
2. Intelligence
3. Resurgent
4. Agenda
5. Allergen
6. Pathogen
7. Oxygen
8. Carcinogen
9. Divergent
10. Emergency
11. Degenerate
12. Negligence
13. Legends
14. Estrogen
15. Homogenate
16. Ingenuity
by Donna | Apr 14, 2011
Moving on from National Poetry Month–though if someone would like to send poetry, I will still publish it until the end of April.
With Easter so close, I thought we would look at a tricky Wacky Word pair–rise and raise (followed by sit and set and lie and lay since you really should learn them together, if possible).
First, an overview:
Rise and sit have I’s–and lie does too.
“Coz these are things that I, all by myself, can do.
Raise, set, and lay are words that you choose
When each one has an object after it to use.
What does that mean? It means that I and rIse, I can sIt, and I can lIe without any object.
But I raise something; I set something; and I lay something….
More tomorrow…then one at a time. These are confusing ones, but with LL’s tips and tricks, you will be raising your head high, sitting with grammarians with confidence, laying your dictionary aside, rising up to the occasion, setting the stage for future success, and lying down at night, knowing that you understand lie, rise, and sit! 🙂
by Donna | Mar 25, 2011
Another confusing word pair–cavalry and calvary. And yes, we will see them written incorrectly over the next few weeks as Easter approaches! How can you differentiate between the two in this Wacky Word pair?
As a Christian, I have a unique way of remembering calvary and cavalry–see it helps you!
1. Cavalry–
a. A group of miliary people
b. We often say, “Send in the cavalry” to indicate help is needed
c. I remember this by remembering that the V comes before the L—Victory comes first if the cavalry comes caValry.
2. Calvary–
a. The hill on which Jesus was crucified
b. I remember this by remembering that the L comes before the V–Calvary denotes Love–CaLvary
by Donna | Mar 25, 2011
Another quick tip for you!
- Wonder is spelled like ponder—and they both mean to think
- Wander is spelled like land—and you wANDer all over the lAND (or wAnder has an A in it and Area has an A in it—and you wAnder in an Area)
So…does Winnie the Pooh like to wander or wonder?
- Pooh: “I’d rather be wondering.” OR
- Pooh: “I’d rather be wandering.”
Well, I’ll give you a little hint. My daughter was a thinker—always thinking and/or reading—as a child (and still is!). When she had to do something she didn’t want to do—or her thoughts were interrupted by something, she would say, “I’m just like Winnie the Pooh. I’d rather be wondering!” In other words, she, just like Pooh Bear, would rather be pondering/thinking! J
