15: Final Entry/Reflection on Vocabulary Learning

Throughout the course of LTED 625, we were asked to update a blog focusing on learning new words that intrigued us. The goal of this was to build our awareness of how often we encounter new words as well how we approach to learning the new words.

Through this blog, I have become more aware of the numerous words I encounter on a daily basis that I am unfamiliar with. My words are scattered across the spectrum, coming from various sources. It was not until I started the blog entries that I realized how often I encountered unfamiliar words. Previously I would ignore the unfamiliar words or use context clues to help me understand its meaning. After reflecting on the words I looked up, most of the words were words I had come across before, such as in movies or in books, but never gave a second glance. These are the words that intrigued me the most. I wondered how I had heard these words but never gave them a second thought; especially if I had no real idea of their meaning. Such as with ‘guff’ from The Royal Tennebaums. I watched that movie at least 10 times and it was not until the blog that I realized that it was in the movie and I had no idea of its meaning.

My routine literacy practices vary, depending on what a part of the year/semester it is. Not too many of my words came from texts that I read for pleasure as I have little time to invest in a book. Most of my words came from movies or television shows as that is how I relax after a long day. The rest come from articles from either Yahoo or class articles. I read Yahoo articles almost every other day. While I do read the occasional celebrity gossip, I do engage in reading news that pertains to the country in general. Words such as ‘fracking’ came from Yahoo news articles. Once I looked it up, I realized how often I had been expose to word but never realized it. I see this word everywhere now, even on bumper stickers.

As a word learning, I benefited immensely from keeping a vocabulary blog. While I do not recall every single word and definition from my entries, the blog made me more aware of all the words I am exposed to on a daily basis that I do not know their meanings. I know now how truly important it is to be exposed to new words and different ways to learn the words. I have started to become more curious about unfamiliar words and their meanings after writing in the blog. This concept came from the class as well. Now as a teacher I am pushing more vocabulary words and strategies on my students.

This blog entry has embedded in to my life the concepts of both reading-to-learn and writing-to-learn. I read varies types of texts and came across new learnings. When I stumbled upon a new vocabulary word, writing-to-learn help enroot its meaning to my long-term memory. Through exploring the context I found the word, its meaning in context, my level of familiarity, and my reflective commentary, I learned the words and made them my own. ‘Corpulent’ is now one of my favorite words to know. If I did not write about it in my blog entry, I would have never learned this word.

These vocabulary tests have illustrated to me that not all vocabulary tests are like the ones I completed in school. My memories of these tests are the teaching handing us a sheet with all the words and me writing the definitions from short-term memory. Now I realize that vocabulary tests are not all the same. They incorporate different aspects of the word and its meaning. When I give my students vocabulary quizzes, I have them define it and write it in a meaningful sentence in order to show their understanding of the word.

One of the most important concepts this class has taught me is the importance of learning new words. While I will not continue with the blog entries or familiarize myself with the words on the same level as I did in the blog entries, I will continue learning new words. If I stumble across unfamiliar words, especially ones I cannot analyze using context clues, I will look them up. This blog assignment was the catalyst for my new words curiosity. I enjoy learning new words and now I am more aware of new words when I encounter them. This is especially important to me because if I want my students to learn new words, I should continue learning them as well. This way I can share with my students my new words and hope that they are just intrigued by them as I am. In order to continue learning new words, I will look them up in an online dictionary, or simply by going to Google. Once I read the definition, I will mentally write the definition in my own words and then put it in a sentence. This way if I come across the word again, I will understand its meaning.

14:1 Pretentious

Where & When: I was watching How I Met Your Mother earlier this week and heard the word "pretentious." Ted was telling two of his friends, Robin and Barney, about his first girlfriend, Karen, from high school/college. Karen was a slight snob and she used the word pretentious quite frequently. As did Ted, who turned into a male version of Karen when he was with her. I don't quite remember the exacting word but it appeared numerous times throughout the episode and sometimes was said "that's so pretentious."

Fryman, P. (Director),Bays, C., & Thomas, C. (Creator) (2009). Sorry, bro [Television series episode]. In How i met your mother. 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Definition: Pretentious is defined as: an allegation of doubtful value : pretext; a claim or an effort to establish a claim; a claim or right to attention or honor because of merit; an aspiration or intention that may or may not reach fulfillment

In this context I believe that is defined as claiming that something deserves high attention but really doesn't.

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pretension%5B1%5D?show=0&t=1354471582
 
Level of Familiarity: I have heard this word before. Not only have I seen this episode before, but the ensuing episodes of How I Met Your Mother had the word in it as well. I never knew what it meant, but I was able to understand its meaning through the context it was used in.

Reflective Commentary: I picked pretentious to be my word this week because it was continuously used not only in that particular episode but also in the ensuing two episodes. I was able to gain a surface understanding of the word through how Karen and Ted used it in their sentences. But I was still curious to know the actual definition of the word. Usually I can hear a word once and as interested as I am about it, I'll just use my context clues to understand its meaning. However the word was used so often, I was rather curious to know its true meaning. This is a great word to know as you can call someone pretentious if they are making a big deal about something that doesn't really deserve the attention.

13:2 amalgamate

Where & When: Just now I was looking up synonyms for the word 'focused' on http://thesaurus.com and I stumbled upon the word 'amalgamate' as one of its synonyms. It was actually a synonym for the word 'centralize,' which itself was a synonym for the word 'focused.'

In other words I found amalgamate:

Focused -> Centralized -> Amalgamate
 
Definition: According to the same website, amalgamate  is defined as "blend."
http://thesaurus.com/browse/amalgamate

Level of Familiarity: Until I stumbled upon this word on accident, I had never heard of it before. Looking at the word, I do not see any roots that would give clue to its meaning. At least not that I know of. However, I'm sure Dr. Hopkins sees some. In the process of trying to see if there was a root word or suffix, I looked up 'amal' and it is a Canadian film. Perhaps they are trying to tell us we should blend with Canada more?

Reflective Commentary: This word is one that I do not come across very often in every day life. But perhaps I see/hear it, and do not realize it.Even though the word 'amalgamate' did not help me on my quest to find a synonym for the 'focused,' it did give me a vocabulary blog entry and a new word.Looking at the word, I wonder how often I would use it. My thoughts instantly go to using it in a recipe.Last night I baked cookies and one of the steps said to blend in the dry ingredients. As an avid baker, the term blending is very common. I wonder what would happen if I wrote " amalgamate the dry ingredients?" How many people would be able to understand what I was saying? So perhaps I should not use this word when sharing recipes. I would make my friends smarter with a new word, but probably also frustrated as they have to stop and look it up. Their level of caring for VSS is probably slim to non. But I do think we can incorporate this word into everyday conversation, as long as we give some context to its meaning in the sentence, just so people know what we are saying.



amalgamating Canada and America

13.1 guff

Where & When: I found the word 'guff' while watching the movie, The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), last night. It was said by one of the main characters, Royal Tenenbaum, about 30 minutes into the movie, when he was speaking to one of his sons, Chas. Royal said something to Chas, who made a sort of grunting noise. Then Royal said in response, "Don't give me that guff."

Anderson, W. 2001. The Royal Tenenbaums [Motion picture]. United States: American Empirical Pictures.

Definition: Guff is defined as "verbal abuse"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/guff

Level of Familiarity: I have watched this movie several times before and never realized that Royal said the word 'guff' before. Even before the movie, I do not recall hearing the word before.

Reflective Commentary: After listening to the dialogue between Chas and Royal, this word stuck out to me. I was curious to what 'guff' meant. I knew it was in reference to what Chas said, or at least the noise he made. After looking up I can see the Royal mean that Chas shouldn't have made his grunt/sign noise in response to Royal talking about dying of cancer. Royal expected Chas to be more sympathetic and did not want the verbal abuse of a grunt. Overall I like the word gruff and think it would be a useful word to know. When someone says a mean or sarcastic comment, you could response to them and say exactly what Royal said. Guff appears to a word that could be common so I wonder if I have heard it before, but never realized it. After all I have watched the movie quite a few times and never really heard it until last night.


Royal, left. Chas, right.

12:2 Mien

Where & When: I found the word mien when I was reading my article for the reciprocal teaching article.

"While his dear Ulkna’s sad entreating mien,/ Did but increase the brute’s unchaste desire;/ He vaunting bears her off, her sobs are vain,/ They part the man and wife whom all admire" (p 598).
 
Hansen, J. (2009). Multiple literacies in the content classroom: High school students’ connections to u.s. history. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(7), 597-606. doi: 10.1598/JAAL.52.7.5

Definition: a person's manner, bearing, or appearance, expressing personality or mood

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mien

Level of Familiarity: I had never heard this word before until the poem from the article.

Reflective Commentary: While searching for a word this week, I had found another word in the article but could not recall where it was located. I instead found this one first and was still just as curious to its meaning. When I first typed it into Google, I typed 'mein' on accident. I had not realized I switched the 'i' and the 'e' at first so I was rather confused why it was defined as "Chinese wheat flour noodles." As that does not make sense in context. While his dear Ulkna’s sad entreating" Chinese wheat flour noodles. I suppose it could make sense if the noodles were old and appeared sad but Ulkna's sad manner sounds much better. I have not heard this word before so I wonder if this is out of date  (as in not popular). But it also could be that I have seen it before just not realized it.

12:1 Scrupulous

Where & When: Scrupulous was found by one of my students at work today.

           

“’You are over scrupulous, surely. I dare Say Mr. Bingley

Austen, J. (2003). Pride and prejudice. New York, NY: Barnes & Nobles, Inc.

Definition: having or showing a strict regard for what one considers right; principled.

Or 

punctiliously or minutely careful, precise, or exact: a scrupulous performance.

Based on the sentence, I believe Scrupulous means being punctual and precise

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/scrupulous

Level of Familiarity: While I think I have seen the word before, I did not know the actual definition. 

Reflective Commentary: During my first period class, my student was reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This student in particular is a 9^th grade male. We watched the movie during my 3^rd period class and he would come in to watch it with us because he finished his work across the hall, in his Global class. I originally brought in the book for the girl in third period to read because she showed interest in reading it after I played the movie. Of course I was floored that she was willing to tried and read a Jane Austen novel as the language is difficult. I promised the 9^th grade student that I would bring in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in for him to read. Back to today’s class. We were mainly working on makeup assignments because so many students were absent. This student is bright and explains why he is in 9^th grade but taking 10^th/11^th grade English. He said he was bored because he finished The Hunger Games 1-3 already. So I offered to give him Pride and Prejudice to read for now. Since the vocabulary is difficult for the book, it wasn’t long before he asked me what scrupulous meant. Of course I didn’t know what it meant so I had to look it up. Then I realized this student actually helped me with my homework by giving me a vocabulary word.

Mrs. Bennet herself; the lady who is the topic of the sentence

11:2 librocubicularist

Where & When: I was looking through Pinterest and I stumbled upon a picture of the word librocubicularist.

Defintion: librocubicularist means a person who reads in bed.
It is defined through the Pinterest picture.

Level of Familiarity: Until I stumbled upon this word, I had never heard it before.

Reflective Commentary: I really like the word librocubicularist. I don't know how much I would actually use it. Librocubicularist is a word that would not come up in conversation a great deal, unless you were talking about a person who reads in bed. I might actually use this word frequently enough as I am an avid reader and so are most of my friends. I might actually refer to myself as a librocubicularist. It would be a great word to through around as no one would know what it meant. Looking at the word I see the word 'libro,' which is book in Spanish. This would be a useful trick to help understand the meaning.

11:1 Clowder

Where & When: I'm watching The Big Bang Theory. It's the episode where Sheldon and Amy break up and Sheldon deals with it by getting like 25 cats. Sheldon told Leonard to refer to his cats as a clowder of cats.

Lorre, C. (Producer), & Prady, B. (Producer) (2010). The zazzy substitution [Television series episode]. In The big bang theory. Burbank, California: CBS.

You can view the clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWhAeI7sGzI

Definition: Clowder was defined in the show by Sheldon as "a group of cats"

Also found at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/clowder

Level of Familiarity: Although I have seen this particular episode before, I have never heard the word clowder used to describe a group of cats.

Reflective Commentary: This is probably one of my most favorite episodes of Big Bang. Sheldon is such... I don't know how to describe him. Anyone who watches the show knows what I am talking about. To see him go crazy over Amy and buy a bunch of cats is hilarious. My friends and I joke that I may become a cat lady one day, even though I hate cats. Now after watching Big Bang, I know to call my future group of cats a clowder.

10:2 Tight End

Where & When: This year I have been playing in a fantasy league through my part time job. Since I have no idea what anything actually means, I decided to pick one of the many terms I do not understand. Tight end is an important part of any football league.

Definition: an offensive football end who lines up close to the tackle and can act as a lineman or receiver 

Since this definition does nothing for me, I clicked the ELL definition and was provided with this:
American football : a player on the offensive team who plays in a position on the line of scrimmage and who blocks and sometimes catches passes

http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tight%20end

Level of Familiarity: I have heard this word hundreds of times before as the tight ends are an important aspect of football. I just never knew what it actually meant.

Reflective Commentary: The ELL definition actually makes more sense to me than the other definition. Except I had to look up the line of scrimmage to see what it meant. Back in September when I signed up for fantasy, I had a delusional idea of what it meant. Turns out, you actually have to do work every week. I originally assumed you need to pick your team and not touch it for football season. Big Mistake. So every week I struggle trying to understand what terms means and what is important when I go to change my line up. I can see how it would be much easier have background knowledge of football. But I am in fourth place so I am doing alright for lacking all sorts of background knowledge. I can see through this hos important background knowledge really is. It makes things a lot easier and I probably would have an easier time picking my lineup because I would actually understand what people were talking about.

My tight end, Jermaine Gresham, who is playing this week

10:1 Adverse

Where & When: While watching Pride & Prejudice for probably the hundredth time, it is easy to pick words from there that I am unaware of. One of them that recently struck me was "adverse"

Charlotte Lucas: Just put on whatever you bought that's best.
Mr. Collins : Lady Catherine has never been averse to the truly humble.

Bevon, T., & Wright, J. (2005). Pride & prejudice. United Kingdom: Universal Pictures.'

Definition: acting against or in a contrary direction : hostile
 
taken from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adverse

In this sentence, Mr. Collins is informing Elizabeth that Lady Catherine does not judge people poorer than herself.

Level of Familiarity: While this word seems unfamiliar to me, I am sure I have heard it before. I know I have seen this movie at least 10 times and read the book so I have had multiple exposures to the word. But it never stuck out to me as a word I was truly curious about before, until I watched the movie today.

Reflective Commentary: From the movie and the book, Lady Catherine seems like a witch. Expect replace the 'w' with a 'b.' I did thoroughly enjoy her in Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. Still a witch but one that killed zombies like a champ. From the dialogue exchanged between Charlotte, Mr. Collins, and Elizabeth about going to dinner at Lady Catherine's house, you get the sense that Lady Catherine will not judge Elizabeth on what clothes she is wearing because in Mr. Collin's opinion, Elizabeth is not well off and Lady Catherine is nonjudgmental about poor people. But we readers know this is inaccurate. In my opinion, Mr. Collin's slightly insulted Elizabeth by saying that the clothes you brought/own are not good enough for Lady Catherine but she's too great of a person to pass judgment. I do like this word, but I do not know exactly how often I would this in my everyday language. 

9:2 Scintillating

Where & When: I found this word from the book, Absolutely True Diary, I am reading with my 7th grader. I made it one of his vocabulary words this week.

"I'm planning on heading back to the classroom for more scintillating lessons from the history teacher. But then I hear that noise again" (Alexie, 2007, p 106)

Alexie, S. (2007). Absolutely true dairy of a part-time indian. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

Definition: Scintillating: brilliantly lively, stimulating, or witty

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scintillating 

In Context: The boy, who loved physics, dreamed he had a scintillating conversation with Einstein about the meaning of life.

Level of Familiarity: I do not recall hearing this word before reading this book. I read thr book in one of my undergraduatute classes as well as at the school I worked at last year, but I do not rememeber the word standing out.

Reflective Commentary: I picked this word this week because I was unfamiliar with the word. Since I was having my 7th grader learn the word, I decided I should know what it meant too. Overall I like the word. It is an interesting word that kind of matches its definition. The word reminds me of the word skin and how your skin reacts when you are excited or stimulated. Based on the context of the paragraph the sentence was in, I could have easily used context clues to figure it out. Based on the actually sentence it is in, it would be hard to use context clues. Junior, who said this, is using sarcasm as his teacher is rather boring and monotonous. Looking at the sentence above, you would not be able to get the sarcasm Junior was using. I think this is a good word to know as it a great word to use instead of excited or witty.

9:1 cognizant

Where & When: I found the word cognizant when I was reading an article on Yahoo.

"Duryea's neighbors are 'very cognizant of the fact' he wants to respect their privacy, and explains 'they've been extremely tolerant and gracious because it's for charity" (Murphy, 2012)


Murphy, E. Top 7 outrageous Halloween houses. (2012). http://gma.yahoo.com/top-7-outrageous-halloween-houses-214835771--abc-news-house-and-home.html


Definition:  knowledgeable of something especially through personal experience


http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cognizant

In Context: The man was very cognizant of his neighbor's pain while suffering from the bird flu.

Level of Familiarity: Before I looked up the word, I did not think I was familiar with it. After looking it up, I believe I had heard this word before. I have heard the word from my graduate classes.

Reflective Commentary: Before I looked up for the definition I had a different meaning of the word in my head. I was saying the word in my head wrong so I did not think I had heard it before. I think that is because it is spelled with the letter z and I did not realize it was spelled with a z. I thought it was spelled with a letter g. This is just a good example of how we say things in our head that turn out to be way different than they actually are. For example, I thought Professor Snape from Harry Potter was called Professor Snap, not Snape. After believing that's how it was actually said for about two years, I one day said it aloud to my brother, who in turn made fun of me. I do think it would be a good term to know, especially since it relates to our program. Instead of saying 'aware' or 'know,' cognizant can easily replace them.

8:3 pantomiming

Where & When: I found the word, pantomiming, when I was reading an article from The New York Times with my 9th graders.

"Bonnie Ousley found Greg lying on his stomach, refusing to speak or even look at her. She sat on the edge of the bed and began stroking his back. In the telling, Greg slid into present tense, pantomiming his mother’s caress. 'And she keeps saying: ‘What’s wrong, honey? What’s going on with you? Talk to me. Just talk to me’' ” (Anderson, 2012).

Anderson, S. (2012, July 19). Greg ousley is sorry for killing his parents. is that enough?. The new york times, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/magazine/greg-ousley-is-sorry-for-killing-his-parents-is-that-enough.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Definition: Communication by means of gesture and facial expression.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pantomiming

In Context: When the actor felt that words could no longer express the words he wanted to say, he started pantomiming the story.

Level Familiarity: As far as I know, I have never heard this word before.

Reflective Commentary: I decided to define this word for one of my words this week because I had never heard it before and because I was unsure of its meaning after using context clues. Based on the word in the sentence from the article, I can kind of see how it means communication by facial expression and gesture. Now that I look back and reflect on the sentence from the article, it does make sense in the context. But I do wonder if he was pantomiming his mother's caress on himself or the interviewer? I suppose this is a good word to know. Instead of saying that he was communicating by facial expression, you could simply say pantomiming. The only problem is that I don't know if a lot of people would know it's meaning and thus could get confused. But if they know how to break down the word to understand its meaning, you can see the word mime in it. Mimes do not speak and communicate by hands or facial expressions. So if you are able to interpret that from the word, it would be easy enough to understand.

 

8:2 Corpulent

Where & When: I found the words corpulent and jaundice when I was reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower Tuesday night.

"He also said I should use the vocabulary words that I learn in class like 'corpulent' and jaundice.' I would use them here, but I really don't think they are really appropriate in this format" (Chbosky, 1999, p.14)

Chbosky, S. (1999). The perks of being a wallflower. New York City: MTV Books.

Definition:
Corpulent: large or bulky of body; portly; stout; fat.
Taken from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/corpulent

In context: After eating McDonald's every day for a year, the boy was rather corpulent and had to be rolled to school.

Level of Familiarity: I thought I had heard of this word before. It sounds familiar but the definition does not match what I thought it was.

Reflective Commentary: Previously I always assumed the word meant something along the lines of dealing with the penal system. I cannot exactly write out what I had thought it meant but I assumed it related to being bad or being punished. I curious what the words meant because they were words that should be known by 9th graders, at least the kids in the book. Ordinarily I would not struggle with not knowing two words in the same sentence. But in this case, the narrator, Charlie, did not provide
any context clues to go with the words. He was merely stating two words his English teacher wanted him to use in everyday context. This is what most of us want as teachers; to have students became familiar enough with the words to use them in every day sentences. I think everyone should know this word because if you want to insult someone by calling them fat, you can call them corpulent instead since they probably will not know what it means. But in all seriousness it is a great word to know instead of just saying fat or large.

8:1 disingenuous

Where & When: While reading a Times article with my 9th graders, I stumbled upon the word disingenuous. The article is titled "Should the Law Treat Kids and Adults Differently?"

"Or are there other factors? Defense attorneys might offer a different argument: Since the bulk of the drop-off in juvenile crime predates most states' embrace of harsher penalties for young offenders, it is disingenuous to assume any connection between the two."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,110232,00.html#ixzz29Ttlufmy

Definition: lacking in candor; also : giving a false appearance of simple frankness : calculating

In other other words (what I told my students) it means not truly honest or sincere.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disingenuous

In Context: While playing poker, the girl was disingenuous when she told the players she was terrible at playing poker.

Level of Familiarity: I do not recall knowing the definition of this word. I believe I have heard the word before, but never sought out to learn it's meaning.

Reflective Commentary: I picked this word for a few reasons. If I am unsure of a word and I am using it for a lesson, I think it's important to know the word. Usually I can figure out its meaning using context clues, and save myself the trip to the computer. I had my 9th graders think of questions they asked themselves when I read the article to them. To get them started I gave them question prompts, such as asking what a word meant; I used the word disingenuous as an example. I think this is a great word to know as its synonyms are common words (insincere - false - devious - hollow-hearted).

7:2 caucuses

Where & When: I found the word caucuses  from the website I am using for part of my annotated text set.

"These factors will help determine the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the candidates in the months leading up to the caucuses and primaries."

http://bensguide.gpo.gov/9-12/election/primary.html

Definition: a closed meeting of a group of persons belonging to the same political party or faction usually to select candidates or to decide on policy; also : a group of people united to promote an agreed-upon cause 

Taken from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/caucuses

In Context: Before the election, the members of the Democratic party met for their first caucus in order to decide their campaign approach.

Level of Familiarity: I have heard this word before. I am sure at one point I knew what it meant since I took AP Government in high school. Since I never really paid too much attention to the election process until recently, I have forgotten what it meant.

Reflective Commentary: I decided this word was important to know for several reasons. First because the election is coming up and I should know what caucus means. Whenever I hear/see it, I think of carcasses. Which we know has no relation and is rather morbid. Secondly if I am doing the election process for my group project, I should know what this word means. If I am going to teach students this, whether it is my peers or imaginary students, I should know the material.

7:1 integrity

Where & When: I was watching Jersey Shore (please no judgement) and the word integrity was mentioned.

to quote Deena: "Integrity means like shame. Like, ‘I got a lot of shame, I got a lot of integrity.'"

Definition: Deena was incorrect about this word. It means the opposite.

"The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness."
*taken from the Google definition

In Context: The young adolescent, who attended church every Sunday, was deemed to have more integrity than the adolescents who stayed home and listened to rock n' roll.

Level of Familiarity:I have heard this word all the time as well as use the word quite frequently. Deena on the other hand, apparently does not. At least correctly.

Reflective Commentary: To explain why I was watching Jersey Shore: The debate was on so nothing else was on at 9. For anybody who happens to catch part of the show, there are many many words we could look up and define. This particular word caught my attention because Deena was using it wrong. While I use the word and hear it all the time, I do not know the actual definition. I know the general meaning of the word but was unsure of its exact meaning. Unlike Deena, I know that it has nothing to do with having a lot of shame. I do not remember if they said the actual definition of it on TV, but I hope all the impressionable youths watching the show realize integrity does not mean shame. 


The moment where Deena learned the real meaning of a word

6:2 clavicle

Where & When: I found the word clavicle when I was reading a news article from Yahoo.

"During a report on FOX's pregame show, Glazer explained that Amendola dislocated his clavicle, which actually popped in and could have threatened Amendola's trachea and aorta. The Rams' medical staff acted quickly, putting Amendola to sleep before popping the clavicle back into place and making sure it could not dislodge again."

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/danny-amendola-injury-could-life-threatening-173715914--nfl.html


Definition: According to http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/clavicle, clavicle is defined as "either of two slender bones, each articulating with the sternum and a scapula and forming the anterior part of a shoulder; collarbone."

In simple terms, the clavicle is just a synonym for collarbone. 

In context: While the boy was running, he tripped over his neighbor's dog and landed on his shoulder. This resulted in him breaking his clavicle.

Level of Familiarity: I do not believe I have heard of the term clavicle before, however; I have heard of collarbone before. I am sure though if I have heard it, I skimmed over it just assuming is was some type of bone.

Reflective Commentary: I wonder why they used the term clavicle instead of collarbone in the article. Perhaps using clavicle made the injury appear to be more serious. Generally if I read about an injury and it uses a word I do not know, I assume it is a serious injury. After reading the article it is easy to see that it was a serious injury. The medics had to put the poor guy to sleep in order to fix the injury. It must have been very painful if they had to put him to sleep first. I used to dislodge my arm from the shoulder socket quite frequently when I was younger. I was too young to remember but my parents told me it was not pleasant. Especially when my doctor taught my parents how to do to avoid the frequent trips to the doctor's office. I doubt my dad enjoy popping my arm back in as much as I did. My brother actually broke his clavicle a few years ago during a bicycle accident. A man opened up his car door in front of my brother who in turn crashed into the door and went through the car window. This was a long and painful recovery for my brother, who would not have survived if it wasn't for his helmet or the fact that the car was a convertible (no metal door frame around the window). 

Based on my own background knowledge of dislocations and broke collarbones, I determine this to be a serious and painful injury. The player is lucky to have not broken it or have it puncture his trachea. This would have resulted in being out the rest of the season or worse, death. This word would be useful to know since it is a synonym for collarbone.

6:1 fracking

 Where & When: The word fracking has appeared frequently in my news articles that pop up on my home page. After seeing this article, I have decided it's time to investigate.

During hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," millions of gallons of high-pressure, chemical-laden water are pumped into an underground geologic formation (the Barnett Shale, in the case of northern Texas) to free up oil. But once fractures have been opened up in the rock and the water pressure is allowed to abate, internal pressure from the rock causes fracking fluids to rise back to the surface, becoming what the natural gas industry calls "flowback," according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Definition: The word is defined in context. Fracking means hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing is when millions millions of gallons of high-pressure, chemical-laden water are pumped into an underground geologic formation to free up oil. 

In Context: To help solve problems with the oil crisis, the crew flew to Alaska to do some fracking  in the lands of the wild.

Level of Familiarity: I have see the word plenty of times before. It always pops up on Yahoo news in news titles. But that is the extent to my exposure to the word.

Reflective Commentary: This word has haunted me for a long time. I always see it and wonder, what does fracking mean? For a while I thought it had to do with the government. Clearly I was wrong. The word interests me because it keeps showing up as a misspelled word. Word check thinks I mean 'racking' or 'tracking.' This leads me to believe it is a newer term and has not reach popularity or complete acceptance yet. I know Wikipedia is a unreliable source but my options to learning the origin of the term were small. And Wikipedia does a wonderful job of simplifying concepts for me. From Wikipedia I learned that fracking was first used in 1947. This brings me to wonder why it shows up as a misspelling still, and 50+ years. Interestingly the concept of fracking dates back to the 1860's. According to Wikipedia, "fracturing as a method to stimulate shallow, hard rock oil wells dates back to the 1860s." In other words this concept existed for 150+ years. Why is still showing up as a misspelling? Now this word greatly interested me because of the circumstance of why I had so many lines on the page. Should we know this? Maybe. If you want to use a big word when discussing hydraulic fracturing. But the odds of that happening are not very slim. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fracking