5:3 hone

Where and When: I encounter this word frequently throughout my weeks. If I type the word "hone" instead of 'home,' my iPhone fails to correct it to 'home.'

Definition: Hone: a whetstone of fine, compact texture for sharpening razors and other cutting tools.

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

In Context: The butcher's knife was sharpened using a hone.

Level of Familiarity: I see this word a lot as I am very quick to type on my iPhone and very quick to misspell words. 

Reflective Commentary: Auto-correct is usually my best friend. But I have noticed that whenever I mistype home as hone, it is never corrected. I am always curious as to why but never thought to investigate the meaning of the word. For this week I decided to investigate its meaning and use it in my vocabulary blog. Now I know that when I mean to say "are you home?" and instead say "are you hone?" I am really asking that person if they are at their whetstone, aka cutting block. I am sure most people do not own a whetstone. Should people know this word? If they are constantly misspelling home as hone on an iPhone, then sure. Or if you are asked one day "are you hone," you can create a witty response involving a sharpening stone or whetstone.

When I Googled hone, this picture popped up.

 

 

But I think this picture is a little more accurate.

 

 

5:2 friendlily text

Where and When: I found this word also from Dreher and Singer's article, "Friendly Texts and Text-Friendly Teachers" (2001).

"We define a friendlily text as one of that has features that facilitate learning from it" (Dreher and Singer, 2001, p. 1).

Definition: The word is define right in the sentence. It's a text "that has features that facilitate learning from it." The article also goes on to explain the eight features that make a text friendly.

1. Text organization:how the author arranges the information in a text
2. Signaling: when the structure and organization of the text is highlighted by titles, subtitles, headings, etc.
3. Discourse Consistency: a uniform style of presenting information
4. Cohesion:any grammatical element that relates one sentence or paragraph to another
5. Explication: degree at which an author states information as opposed to requiring the reader to infer
6. Conceptual density: rate at which new ideas and vocab are introduced
7. Metadiscourse: when writers talk directly to the readers to inform them about the text
8. Instructional devices: highlight a books organization, purpose, and content

In context: Based on the text's organization and ways it properly introduced words, the teacher determined it was a friendly text.

Level of Familiarity: I have heard this term before. This word has been a popular term to use throughout my education classes. It is always mentioned when asked to choose a grade level text when designing lesson plans.

Reflective Commentary: I picked this word because it is an important term to know. While we all know what it means, I wanted to look further into its meaning. The entire article was dedicated to this term so I figured that there was more to the word than what I already knew. I generally knew that the word had to deal with organization of a text as well its style and vocabulary, but I was unaware of the other parts to a friendly text. As a teacher, it is important to know what a friendly text is, all of its eight components, as well as what some friendly texts are.

 

5:1 subsume

When and Where:  I found the word subsume from this week's reading "Friendly Texts and Text-Friendly Teachers," by Dreher and Singer (2001).

"...sentence length and word difficulty (Kiare, 1984). These two factors evidently subsume numerous structural and semantic features that make a text readable" (Dreher & Singer, 2001, p. 1).

Definition: to include or place within something larger or more comprehensive : encompass as a subordinate or component element

from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/subsume
 
In Context: Vocabulary words and their meanings are subsumed in the text, making it easier for students to comprehend its meaning.

Level of Familiarity: I have never heard this word before until I read it in the text.

Reflective Commentary: I picked this word because I never heard it before. While I would have understood it's general meaning through context clues, I still wanted to know its correct definition. While I would have assumed the word meant include, I wanted to see how my context skills were. I have been working on this strategy with my students for the past few days and I wanted to assess mine. Based on what I thought it meant and it's actual definition, I was correct. But it was interesting to learn that it also meant "place within something larger or more comprehensive." I would have not guessed that based on the sentence. Personally I think this is a word worth nothing and would be a great word to use instead of the word include, when talking about something being part of something larger.

4:3 nondeclarative memory

When and Where: I found nondeclarative memory when I was reading chapter 1 from Fisher and Frey's text, for my jigsaw group.

"Nondeclarative memory, also know as implicit or procedural memory, is associated less with the hippocampus and more with the sections of the brain that house specific sensory inputs. For example, how to swing a bat is associated with the motor cortex, whereas recognizing a melody is associated with the temporal lobe. Nondeclarative memories involve routines, skills, and behaviors that cannot be expressed in a declarative way. Nondeclarative memories do not require conscious attention or recall. For example, walking is a nondeclarative skill that most of us don't have to think about" (Fisher & Fry, pp 15-16).

Definition: The definition can be taken right from the text.
Fisher & Frey define the word as:

"Nondeclarative memories involve routines, skills, and behaviors that cannot be expressed in a declarative way. Nondeclarative memories do not require conscious attention or recall."

To simplify this, nondeclarative memory is a skill, routine, or behavior that one does with conscious attention or recall. Its an action we do without much thought.

In Context: The teacher wanted the students to develop the skill of connecting the text to their own background knowledge as part of their nondeclarative memory so the students would not need her prompting to use this skill.

Level of Familiarity: I have heard this term used before, in many of my other literacy classes. But I haven't heard the term used in a while so I wanted to refresh my knowledge on the word's meaning since this is an important term to know.


Reflective Commentary: This term, nondeclarative memory, is an important word to know for literacy. We learn about this during LTED 600 when talking about the dimensions of literacy. It is important for students to have developed the necessary reading skills that help them comprehend the text when reading. Students only have grasped the full extent of these skills when they are able to complete them without knowing it or needing help. Once students use the skills without thinking about them, it is part of their nondeclarative memory.

4:2 proxy

When and Where: "The purpose of this discussion is not to enlighten you on the nuances of cell phone technology, but rather to illustrate how vocabulary is a proxy for content knowledge (Fisher & Frey, p. 13)."

The vocab word was taken from this week's Jigsaw reading of chapter one from Fisher & Frey.

Definition: authority or power to act for another

Taken from: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proxy
 
In Context: The girl's writing had the proxy to express the words and feelings she was unable to say.

Level of Familiarity: I have heard this word before but in the context of a health care proxy. After seeing this I was curious to see what it mean in the context of the text, vocabulary as a proxy for content knowledge.

Reflective Commentary: I could have easily used context clues to understand the meaning of the word but I was curious by it's definition. I was slightly confused on how a health care proxy was relevant to this entry but after researching the term I realized a proxy simply isn't just for health care. This word is fitting in it's context and would be a great word to know and understand. I think after a few times using it, I'll be comfortable using it in a sentence; I was having trouble thinking of a good sentence to use it in.

4:1 cerise

Dictionary.com Word of the Day - cerise: moderate to deep red

When and Where: I found this word through my Nazareth email account. I was checking my email and I noticed above the inbox that it gave me a word and a definition, which I found intriguing. I had never noticed this before. I went back later to check and see if there is always a word there but it varies from news to words to other random tid bits. 


What it Means: According to the definition provided, it means moderate to deep red.

In Context: While the girl went apple picking, she notice an apple that was so shiny and cerise, it stood out among the other red apples.

Level of Familiarity: Until Nazareth email enlightened me with this definition, I had never heard of this before.

Reflective Commentary: While I do not seeing myself dropping this new word in every sentence, unless perhaps I'm apple picking or it's Valentine's Day, I can myself using this word again. This would be a good word to teach kids to using when they are writing, especially if they are trying to describe an object that is cerise.

3:2 beleaguered

When and Where: Almost every time I go to check my Yahoo mail, I browse through the top featured stories on Yahoo's homepage. After selecting an article on a mass prison break out, I was only able to read a few sentences before stumbling on an unfamiliar word, beleaguered . 

"More than 130 inmates escaped through a tunnel from a Mexican prison on the border with the United States in one of the worst jailbreaks the country's beleaguered penal system has suffered in recent years."
 Here's the article http://news.yahoo.com/more-30-escape-mexican-prison-u-border-010342552.html

Definition: 1) To surround with military forces. 2) To surround or beset, as with troubles.

Taken from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/beleaguered

It's hard to tell exactly which is the best definition for the word in context, as they both fit. But I think definition 2 is more fitting after reading the rest of the paragraph.

In Context: After getting in several fights, the beleaguered boy was sent to a new school.

Level of Familiarity: Until the article, I do not think I had ever encountered this word before. But I could have easily read this word in a story before and simply ignored it.

Reflective Commentary:I think this is an interesting word and would be a useful word to know. While I would not think to teach this to my students, I think it is a word that would be good for upper level courses. But since this word is from a news article, it must be a word of some importance. Some people might be able to decipher its meaning using context clues but some may not. I'm curious why the author of this article chose to use that word.

3:1 lachrymose

When and Where: Today I stumbled on this mysterious word through one of my 11th grade students. At the end of my third period class, one of my students asked me if I ever heard of the word lachrymose before. I told her no and asked her where she heard of it. She informed me she gets the word of the day sent to her phone and that was the word of the day.

Definition: suggestive of or tending to cause tears; mournful.
taken from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lachrymose  

Meaning in Context:After the funeral, the lachrymose family left together in the car.

Level of Familiarity: Until my student sprung this word on me, I have never heard of this word before. I doubt many people have even heard this word before.

Reflective Commentary: I picked this word for one of my words because it is an interesting word. Words like this amaze me because it's such a long word for such a simple concept. This word is also relevant because we were talking in class last nigh about vocabulary, more particularly the VSS strategy. While I doubted that my students would be intrigued by the idea of finding vocabulary words on their own, I was surprised. My student willingly gets a word of the day sent to her phone so maybe I doubted my students willingness too soon. Although she and I discussed the VSS strategy after she told me the word of the day, and she agreed with my hesitation about introducing that strategy to the other students as they would not participate. While this word is intriguing, I do not think it is necessary to know this word and I do not even see myself using this word in the future.

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