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

day 10: free kaplan download

Tomorrow we will continue with tips for unlocking words with prefixes and suffixes, as well as a mini lesson on root words. However, the following note came through one of my message boards, and since it is time-sensitive, I wanted to pass it on to you right away. (I do not have an i-pod, etc. to download, so if it doesn’t work, please let me know!)

Kaplan is one of the companies that produces many of the SAT/ACT study guides, among many others. (My daughter is studying for the master's entrance right now, and Kaplan publishes the GRE study books for that too.) Even if you do not think you will use it right away, most of the SAT/ACT type books are applicable for a couple of years, at least.

MESSAGE:

Barnes and Noble is offering over 130 ebooks published by Kaplan for free

download until January 17. Once you download the books, they are yours

forever, but you must download before Jan 17 to get them for free.

These include many AP class study guides as well as SAT, ASVAB (military

entrance), including graduate programs and etc.

You do need to create an account at www.barnesandnoble.com (free), then

search for Kaplan, in nook books (ebooks) and select the download now button

for the books you are interested in.

day 9: roots, suffixes, and prefixes

Affix--think of "affixing a stamp onto the envelope"--it means to attach


One of the things that we stress in our language arts books is using what you already know! Most students know far more than they think they know. And if they could tap into what they know, it would go a long way in helping them to unlock the unknown.

One way we help them do this is by emphasizing roots and affixes. I am going to talk a little about this during this upcoming week--both for those of us who just want to know what a word means when we encounter it (even if we have never encountered it before) as well as for teachers and parents who are trying to help kids become better readers and better "comprehenders."

For example, tonight we were playing a table game and Josiah said that he was feeling very jocular. We asked him if he knew what it meant, and he didn't. (Another lesson: Teach kids not to use words of which they do not know the meaning--it could be dangerous and/or embarrasing!) Anyway, he had heard it on Jonathan's SAT audio and kind of knew the context in which to use it but did not really know its meaning.

Upon looking it up in the dictionary, we discovered that means humorous or jolly--and is an adjective. This, of course, led to a discussion of the word joke (and how jocular likely came from it) and of how jocular could be a noun if it were jocularity. (I know...we're strange here, but their mom writes this stuff every single day to the tune of 30,000 pages over the past ten years, so let's just say our table time discussions can be out of control sometimes!)

So...roots and affixes. A quick overview here...then more tomorrow. I have a time limit and a word limit imposed by "helpful" family members!


Root--the base word before any affix is added to it

Affix--think of "affixing a stamp onto the envelope"--it means to attach...two types of affixes
    1. prefix--affix added to the beginning (pre means before!)
    2. suffix--affix added to the end

More later...happy reading and word dissecting!

day 8: affect vs effect

Remember
Affect
Verb
Effect
Noun


I can remember learning about affect and effect in school--and being completely confused all of the time. Is that how you feel? Well, get ready to be relieved of your affect/effect phobia!

Generally speaking, you can count on Affect being a Verb and Effect being a Noun. So how does this help you?

That will not AFFECT the outcome--Verb meaning influence or alter

Her job did not AFFECT her college studies---Verb meaning influence or alter

What is the EFFECT of her test scores?--Noun meaning result

This will have no EFFECT on my performance---Noun meaning result

So...just remember RAVEN--and you will always use the proper AFFECT/EFFECT! Remember Affect is a VERB and Effect is a Noun.

Remember
Affect
Verb
Effect
Noun

day 7: wacky words—to, too, and two

Another Wacky Word trio, though not confused as often as “there-their-they’re,” is the words “to, too, and two.”

Again, we call these homophones because they sound (phone) the same (homo) when you hear them.

Let’s dissect these three WW’s:

1. To    

                

                       a. Preposition: to the store, to mom                                            

                        b. Beginning of infinitive: to go, to run

                                                           

            2.Too                                                                                                                                    

a. Means also                                                                                                 

    b. Also has two vowels and too has two vowels      

                                  

            3. Two                                                                                                                   

      a. Number word                                                                                                         

   b. One more than one          

Keep studying the other Wacky Words so far—you never know when you are going to get another pop quiz! Smile…

*Note: I had so many formatting problems with this post. Sorry!

day 6: pop quiz-- their, there, and they’re!

Have you been studying your Wacky Words “there, their, and they’re”? Are you ready for a pop quiz?

Fill in each blank provided with the correct Wacky Word—there, their, or they’re.

1. Cami was thrilled with _____________ involvement.
2. We will take you _______________ to see your friend.
3. __________________ going to be arriving late.
4. I don’t think _________________ coming.
5. Is that _____________________ house?
6. ____________________ is the king.
7. Are _______________ others coming too?

Answer Key:

1. Cami was thrilled with their involvement.
2. We will take you there to see your friend.
3. They’re going to be arriving late.
4. I don’t think  they’re coming.
5. Is that their house?
6. There is the king.
7. Are there others coming too?