I really miss this place!

[Shea]

I just finished my first quarter. I got grades in 3 minutes before deadline and now I can take a short breather.

What has been on besides the obvious color change? I see the interviews have been stickied, I'll have to go through those. Any big thread recommendations that I must see?

I hope to stick around more frequently (I know, I always say that). I guess I've been making the same mistakes every new teacher makes; I'm trying to grade every little bit of their writing. But I've recently found a way to remedy that, and it would be nice if you guys could help me.

I give my students ten vocabulary words a week and their homework has been to write one sentence using that word. I have found this past week that it's just as challenging if I make up three phony sentences and one good one for the word and they have to choose which is correct. Here's an example:

The vocab word is awry, meaning amiss; wrong; twisted or turned

The sentences I came up with were:
1. The plot of the book was awryly wrong.
2. The bad light awryed my vision.
3. Our vacation ended in a huge awry when Dad crashed the car.
4. Though it is easier to cram for a test, your brain will likely go awry when remembering the facts.

Obviously, the last one is correct. But you wouldn't believe how many students picked 2 or 3. The reason why I've written my sentences as I did is because I modeled them after what I've been receiving from my students. They don't seem to be able to use the word correctly. They make nouns into verbs, verbs into nouns, use the word with its definition creating redundancy. This way I can review why certain sentences are wrong with out having to write reasons on 145 different papers and I can have someone else, like Leo, grade them.

I have to get going right now, but later tonight I'll post next week's words.

[Virgil]

Nice to see you Shea. I'm no teacher, so I can't help you with your class. But how's the dog doing? I've wondered on occaision.

[Idril]

It's nice to see you back, Shea and it's nice to know the students didn't drive you completely crazy...only slightly. ;)

[Scheherazade]

Hi Shea,

So nice to see you on the Forum again! :)

I can only sympathise with you when it comes to such issues. Vocabulary is not one of my students' strong point either (it is disappointing especially considering that most of them are adults) and most of them would fail a similar task, no doubt. The only thing I can suggest is that to reduce the number of the words you give to them weekly. If they are already struggling, they will only feel more and more discouraged and start merely copying sentences from dictionaries etc to do their homeworks.

You could maybe give them just three words every week to 'learn' and the following week and they can take a small test on these words (like the task you mentioned above, choosing the correct usage/meaning of the given words. With three words it would be easy to prepare at least 10 similar questions? ) And they can move on to new words only when they 'master' those. I know keeping a tab on each student's progress this way might be a little harder for you but they can feel rewarded as they get the new word assignments as well.

Hey, do not despair though! :) I have students who cannot pick a complete sentence from a given set such as:

1. Even though it was hot yesterday.
2. They hungry because there is nothing to eat at home.
3. I would like to book a single room, please.

And most of the time, their vocabulary targets are 10 words for a term.

PS: How do you choose the words? Is there a list of words they are supposed to master at the end of each term/year?

[Admin]

Awry is a pretty hard word for some people, I used it in a sentence awhile ago and puzzled my mother. I was suprised, she went to college, likes to read when she finds the time etc, but she had no idea what it meant.

[grace86]

Hi Shea, it is wonderful to see you back here again. More upsetting news I am afraid - ElizabethSewall - aka Julie is in the hospital (there is a sticky post from her best friend who keeps us all updated) umm...Pendragon is taking a break from Litnet, he is not feeling well and there are even burning flats and all kinds of nonsense that shouldn't be happening..

But there have been a lot of good things since you have been gone too. Just thought you might want to know about some of the people we should be thinking about and hoping for.

As for your teaching - I am so glad things are pretty much going well for your teaching career. What grade are you teaching, I don't think I ever knew.

I am a little sad about the vocabulary words though.

Well, I hope you are doing good. It is nice to have you back.

[Shea]

I meant to take a nap last night and fell asleep on top of the covers, with my day clothes on and my contact lenses still in! Can you tell I've been tired?

Thanks for letting me know about Julie and Pen, Grace. I'll keep them im my prayers. I have been teaching a very challenging 10th and 11th grade classes.

Virgil, Bonnie's doing better. She certainly has grown! There were times when we were wondering if we ought to trade her because her biting was too much. She kept cutting our skin and tearing our clothes. We took her to puppy classes and found that she's VERY smart. But she is still stubborn about that biting. Our last resort was one of those remote shock collars, and that's been working very well, though we hate to use it. I'll have to post some new pictures of her on her thread.

Sher, isn't that sad!! The words I've been using come from a book called vocabulary cartoons. It's a great mnemonic. It gives the word, and another word that the vocab word sounds like, and then a goofy cartoon to help remember the meaning. For "awry", it sounds like "tie" and the picture is of a guy hanging from the ceiling because he's got his tie caught in the ceiling fan. The sentence underneath it is "Ed's first attempt to tie a tie went awry." Then it gives several other example sentences. While we go over these, I ask my students for sentences, and they seem to know the meaning of the words, but I really think it's the part of speech that they don't know. Most of them also do very well on the vocab quizzes at the end of the week.

I've taught parts of speech but it's so dry that I have a difficult time holding their attention. I even tried to make it fun by creating a Grammar Jeopardy game as a review for the test. When I graded the tests, I got nothing above a C. Most of them failed.

My Juniors are finding these words too easy, so I've moved them up to the same book but using SAT words.

The next set of words for my Sophomores are:
Adage- a short traditional saying; a proverb
Calamity- an event that causes great misfortune; a disaster
Survive- to remain alive, to continue living or existing
Dismantle- to take apart, pull down, disassemble
Sleazy- of cheap quality; of low character
Falter- to become weaker; to be unsteady
Encumber- to weigh down unnecessarily; to burden; to impede action
Embed- firmly fixed in a surrounding mass
Obtain- to gain possession of; to acquire
Intuition- knowledge gained without reasoning or proof

I'll post the words for my juniors later.

[cuppajoe_9]

The funniest question of that sort I've been asked was for the word 'shrewd'. I can't remeber all of the options, but they included "The kitten shrewded the newspaper with its claws". After reading that, I burst into a fit of uncontrolable laughter in the middle of a government acchivement exam. Good times, good times...

[miss tenderness]

we missed u, shea.
how is ur students?which level?

[Shannanigan]

I know I'm late, but it is nice to have a teacher back on forums :) Welcome back and congrats on surviving the first quarter! :p



2. They hungry because there is nothing to eat at home.


In local dialect, that is a correct and full sentance, Scheher, lol. Although it may be more like "They hungry 'cuz deh ain nuttin to eat at home." Wouldn't pass in an English class, but a creative writing class wouldn't give it a second glance :p