F.W.W. - Day (continued)

So, as I was saying... on this Friday (first day of vocabulary study) I thought that I would call it FWW-Day instead of Friday. FWW would stand for Fun With Words (pronounced FWA-day)... and I meant it both as sarcasm and as a bit of a hint.

So, on the board, under Friday I wrote FWW-day and in my best Buffalo Bob imitation I said "Hey Kids, what day is it?" Some mumbled softly "Friday", but most just looked on with puzzled indifference.

Then, I answered with as much feigned enthusiasm as I could muster "It's not Friday but FWA -day!"

By then, even the sleepers were awake and almost all of the students shouted, "What's FWW-day?". And I answered in my best carnival barker's voice, "FUN WITH WORDS - day".

Immediately the groans and hoots of derision started. The waves of disgust was so palpable that I thought I saw Gidget surfing one of them. But I laughed as if I mis-heard them and acted as if they were shouting to convey their enthusiasm for word study.

As I was writing the word elements of the new vocabulary word NONCHALANCE, a student raised his hand and asked if there was a word for "not caring" was there actually a word CHALANCE meaning caring. Well, I wasn't sure, and I told them that. But I also hazarded a guess that perhaps, at one time, there had been a word like that and that it was now obsolete or archaic. I reminded the students that language and words are dynamic entities whose usage lives or dies, waxes or wanes, or changes through passages of time and place. The students seemed satisfied with that answer.

And then, another student asked me for an example of words that change and I mentioned that in Shakespeare's time the word "NICE" was considered an insult and a naughty word.

And that of course prompted the question the question/response, "What exactly were naughty words?" Now of course, the classroom was riveted on every word.

FWW-Day

Well,what do you know? Even teachers can have the "teachable moment." It happened to me.

On Friday I introduced vocabulary study to my juniors. I know that the approved (for this decade) manner for teaching vocabulary is teaching vocabulary in context - which is fine if your students are avid readers, and if you have "oodles" of time to waste, and if you don't mind that much of the enjoyment of a story is fragmented by word study. However, I don't feel that my classes meet any of those criteria so I use word lists and sentence context clues. As a former language teacher I believe that in many ways studying English (even at the high school level) is like studying another language. So, I use many of the same techniques teaching English vocabulary as I would have teaching a foreign language - that includes oral repetition, memorization, word elements, contextual meanings, oral sentence construction, etc. I'm also using vocabulary to prepare students for the SAT's, to encourage vocabulary acquisition and us and, more importantly, to realize that often, they know more than they think. I'm constantly encouraging them to "Get full credit for partial knowledge" (Princeton Review) by using their language experiences to help them figure out what an unfamiliar word may mean. I urge them to try to figure out what the words mean before looking them up in the dictionary. It's a class project and all the students are encouraged to participate orally.

For example, if BELABOR is one of the vocabulary words, a student may recognize that "labor" is part of the word and relate that "labor" is work and that BELABOR must have something to do with work. Then I'll encourage them to read the supplied definitions to see if one of those definitions has anything to do with work. Or, if the word is CONGEAL, a student might observe that in Spanish "con" means "with" and I might ask what "-geal' might mean... and if that gets no response, I might add "gel" and then "jelly" and then, "Jello". By that time one (or more) student gets the idea that CONGEAL has something to do with liquid turning into a solid and there's one more word that they don't have to look up in the dictionary.

I must add that I love language - especially words, wordplay, word formation, word pronunciation, etc. As a result, the lesson is usually presented in a pretty dynamic manner with many puns, bad "teacher" jokes, double-meanings, mistaken meaning, word origins - all done in a rather rapid-fire manner. I feel that the jokes, bad as they are, often create an additional device for the students to remember the word. For example, the definition of LARGESS might be generosity or what Superman wears on his chest. There are usually many BOO's after this atrocity but if they remember the joke, they'll remember the correct pronunciation of LARGESS. Of course, the verbal wordplay usually gets a raucous response - but I remind them that I've had an ear operation that alters my hearing so that all boo's sound like loud guffaws. And, anyway the response is part of the fun and I do believe that often students learn more and better if they are enjoying themselves.

This post has become more involved then I anticipated... (to be continued)

Rules and observations

Rule #1: There is no school function that is so well planned and organized that some dumb SOB can't screw it up.

Rule #2: Don't you be that dumb SOB!

Back to school insight

In my last post I mentioned the dreaded "Back-to-school" night. It seems to me that I have always thought of it as just one more onerous task that was necessary but terrifying and, a bit demeaning. Sort of like, "Look, Ma, that trained seal is balancing a ball on his nose and eating a kippered herring ... AT THE SAME TIME!" Believe me, observing the teachers' performances at my own children's back-to-school nights (flushed face, tight jaws, strained smile, forehead glistening with flop sweat, babbling incoherently, eyes darting wildly from face to face searching for even the faintest sign of friendly understanding -even pity) did not fortify my image of own presentations. Perhaps I exaggerate, but, as I mentioned, there was always that opportunity for panic.

However, I realize now that I was kidding myself. I have enjoyed my interactions with parents, more than I have admitted to myself. In my self-centered way, I incorrectly imagined those meetings as a command performance, in which the central object was me, my class, and my ability to convince the parents of my effectiveness in teaching their children. That is not how it usually turned out. Of course, there is always a bit of parental judgment of me, personally. However, it has been my experience that many parents come back to school to find out two things - first, to find out the "nuts and bolts" of the course, and secondly, to find out my philosophy of teaching. They are not so interested in "What?" I am doing but rather, "Why?" I am doing it. They are looking for some common sense rationale that guides my teaching - stated in such a way that they have no trouble understanding it or, at least, understanding (if not agreeing with) my purpose.

So, instead of filling up the time with the "specifics" of the course I try to share visions of education and its purpose with parents. The number of parents who are looking for some positive outlook for their child - some teaching philosophy that challenges their child while at the same time taking into consideration that their child is vulnerable, has shortcomings, and may be afraid to take risks.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that BTS nights are as much about giving parents inspiration and hope that, maybe...just maybe, this year might be a that productive and enjoyable year that they wish will re-ignite their child's zeal to learn. Or, if their child already possesses that zeal and drive they hope that this year will be an continuation of years past. What they dread is another school year of uninspired, lackluster, pedantic teaching that dulls the mind and deadens the spirit .

Back onTrack

Well, I'm back. As I mentioned before, it's been as chaotic an opening first month as I have experienced in my 38 years. After playing "class list roulette" for three weeks, the students are finally settled in to their correct classes. (Well, most of them anyway). I guess it's time for me to make up my official roll book. The computer print-out sheets I've been using are jammed packed with scribbled-in (and scribbled-out) information - assignments, grades, attendance, book #'s, latenesses, withdrawal dates, entry dates, # of lav/nurse/locker passes given, to whom, and when. All information that will eventually find its way into my roll book (and not by magic I can tell you).

Did I mention that the library is finally open. It had been closed because a summer snafu created a mold-filled LRC. I'm not going to make any bad jokes about how the Librarian is such a fun-guy, but things were so bad that almost all of the books could have been filed in the 570 section. So they say that all is well in the library, but I am skeptical since the rooms adjacent to the LRC still smell like the back of a cave. We shall see...

We just held our Back-to-School night. It was quite successful, many parents showed up - maybe it was the free food at our newly renovated cafeteria, but I sensed that the parents were quite concerned with the material and the quality of their children's education (even the traditionally low attendance classes). It was nice having a win - especially after so many losing seasons. There were some nights in the past in which so few parents attended that we teachers ended up giving our presentations to each other. I can't always blame the community, a few of those years the dates of Back-to-school were never sent out to the parents. Not a good idea - but it sure reduced the number of parental complaints.

I'd like to relate my thoughts on the Back-to-school experience - an experience that, in retrospect has been quite positive, but it's time to go. Next time...