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Articles from August, 2015
Blog Excerpts
Originality is Overrated
Interrupting the tired look-up-and-write-a-sentence instruction loop.
We have all seen this tired loop of "instruction": distribute word list, have students look up words, ask students to use the words in original sentences. While encouraging usage is never a bad idea, it's not realistic to expect students to pivot from definition to usage without guidance. We suggest ditching (or at least delaying) the idea of originality and instead asking students to model their sentences on usage examples written by those people who are especially skilled with using words: professional writers.
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Tips & Tricks
Kick Off the School Year with Five Keys to Vocabulary Success
A fast and efficient way to boost literacy in your classroom.
With the school year starting up, it's the best time to map out how best to make vocabulary mastery an integral part of your curriculum.
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Topics:
Vocabulary Bowl
Blog Excerpts
Debunking the Great Reading Myth
Head back to school armed with the word-learning research.
One of the most persistent myths about word acquisition is that students don't need to be taught words; they just need to read more and their vocabularies will magically expand. This theory — which I like to call "learning words by osmosis" — doesn't hold much promise for your average or struggling reader. While it may hold true for a select group of students who are strong, avid readers possessing a curiosity about words, most students don't learn words by simply encountering them in reading.
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Word RoutesExploring the pathways of our lexicon
The Colorful Origin Stories of "Gringo"
While folklore abounds, the word's true etymology is equally enticing.
For the Slate podcast Lexicon Valley, I delve into the many stories surrounding the origins of the word gringo, an epithet used by Latin Americans for foreign speakers, typically American Anglophones. Though a great deal of vivid folklore surrounds the word, its actual etymology is just as interesting.
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Tasty MorselsGood stuff from gold-punch.com
One Teacher's Brilliant Summer Reading Hack
Reinventing a tired summer reading assignment while boosting student vocab
When middle school literature teacher Kathy Zimbaldi first pitched the idea of gold-punch.com to her principal at St. Vincent de Paul School in Houston, TX, she was pretty sure the tool would bring meaningful word learning to the literature curriculum. What she didn't realize? It would also help her hack Summer Reading...and land her students a David-beats-Goliath feel good monthly leaderboard win.
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Tips & Tricks
Want to Bump up Vocab Learning in Your Classroom? Set a Goal.
Students don't have to be winning the leaderboard to feel like champions.
Teachers: One of the best ways to motivate your students on gold-punch.com is to show them evidence of their own success. But how do you define "success"? Set a goal. Here, we share eight strategies we've observed from real teachers using gold-punch.com in their classrooms. The strategies can be used in schools and classrooms large and small, and range from goals for individual learners to leaderboards that put word learning in a national, and highly competitive, context.
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Topics:
Vocabulary Bowl
Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
A Delicately Deodorized Word Bouquet
For when we'd rather not say what smells.
There's no nice way to put it: as we reach the peak of temperature and humidity levels in much of the northern hemisphere, we all too often find ourselves confronted by things — and yes, people — who smell. And even if we'd like to turn up our nose, for once let's take a giant whiff. Or at least an etymological one.
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