5:2 Malodorous

When and Where Did I Find It: I discovered this word while reading chapter 6 of Fisher and Frey’s, “Word wise and Content Rich: Five Essential Steps to Teaching Academic Vocabulary”

What It Means: Fisher and Frey (2008) exclaim, "For instance, the physical education teachers used malodorous  to describe the condition of the locker rooms" (p.127). Malodorous means very unpleasant smelling; having a bad odor; highly  improper.

Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2008). Word wise and content rich: Five essential steps to teaching academic vocabulary. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 

Level of Familarity: I am unfamiliar with this word and have never seen used it before.

Do I Want to Know This Word Well and Why? I am not interested in becoming any more familiar with this word. I decided to look investigate it because I have never seen it before and wanted to know what it means. However, if I took more time to analyze the word I would have seen the root word ‘odor’ and then termed ‘mal’ to describe something as negative or bad. This would have prevented me from further investigating this word.

Do I Think Others Should Know This Word Well..if So who and Why? I do not think that this is a highly useful word for people to become familiar with. I would assume that if this word could be used in conversation, it would be on a very unpleasant topic.

5:1 Magnitude

When and Where Did I Find It: I chose this word while reading the article Lauren chose for her reciprocal teaching. This article is “Teaching Students to Comprehend Informational Text Through Rereading” by Laura R. Hedin and Greg Conderman. The sentance it was located in is as follows; "Astronomers measure how the stars' magnitudes, or brightnesses, and rotations change.

What It Means: In this context, magnitude refers to the level of brightness of a star. According to http://www.dictionary.com/, Magnitude is defined as size; extent; dimensions of something, or it could also mean of great importance or consequence.


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

Level of Familarity: I am familiar with this word to a small degree, but have never used it in a sentence or conversation before.


Do I Want to Know This Word Well and Why? I would like to learn this word and become more familiar with it because it can be used in a variety of different ways. Also, this word seems strong and bold to me. I feel like this word is taken and used in very serious or important conversations. This word has a high level of transportability.

Do I Think Others Should Know This Word Well..if So who and Why? I think this is an interesting word for people to familiarize themselves with. It is used to describe something of significance and can give a conversation a more serious tone when used. As I already meantioned, this word is highly transportable. This means people can use the word in many different contexts and discourses.

4:2 Alchemy

When and Where Did I Find It: I came across this word while reading Laurie Halse Anderson's "Catalyst" for a class assignment. It was used as the title of one of the chapters in the book.

What It Means: I retrieved this definition from http://www.dictionary.com/. Alchemy is a form of chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. However, another was alchemy can be used is to describe any magical power or process of transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value.

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

 

Level of Familarity: I have never seen or used this word before.

Do I Think Others Should Know This Word Well..if So who and Why? Unless you are involved in science and chemistry, I do not think it would be an important term for others to become familiar with.

Do I Want to Know This Word Well and Why? I was very interested in learning how this word would be defined when I saw it as the title of chapter five. Now that I know the definition, I find it highly unlikely that I will use it again.

4:1 Containment

When and Where Did I Find It: I found this word in my Social Studies textbook World History: Connections to Today (Ellis and Esler, 2005).


What It Means: Ellis and Esler (2005) state, "The Truman Doctrine was rooted in the idea of containment, limiting communism to the areas already under Soviet control" (p. 793). Containment refers to the Cold War policy of limiting communism to areas already under Soviet control.

Ellis, E.G., & Esler, A. (2005) World History: Connections to Today, Needham, MA: Prentice Hall.

Level of Familarity: I am very familiar with this word as it comes up every time there is a discussion of the post-World War II period.

 Do I Want to Know This Word Well and Why? This is a very important word to know as a Global teacher. It serves as one of the main ideas and foundations of the Truman Doctrine


Do I Think Others Should Know This Word Well..if So who and Why? I think this word is an important term for Social Studies classrooms and history majors to know and understand. However, I do not think it is of great importance outside of its content area. 

3:2 Expository

When and Where Did I Find It: I found this word while reading "Teaching Reading in the Content Areas" by Rachel Billmeyer and Mary Lee Barton.

What It Means: This definition was retrieved from http://www.dictionary.com/. The word "expository" means to set forth, explain, clarify, define, instruct or inform. The context in which this word was used was another way to refer to informational text. Examples of this type of text include textbook chapters and newspaper and magazine articles.

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

Level of Familarity: As a Social Studies teacher, I am very familiar with this word since a majority of my teacher is based on informational, or expository texts. Specifically, the majority of the course comes from the textbook. However, this is not a word that I often use in my everyday vocabulary.

Do I Want to Know This Word Well and Why? I would like to become more familiar with this word because of its significance to my content area in the school setting. Expository, or informational text is one of the most common types of text found in school classrooms. It can be organized in many different ways including; chronological sequencing, description,  episodes, and comparison and contrast.  These are just a few of the many effective ways in which students can increase their comprehension.



Do I Think Others Should Know This Word Well..if So who and Why? I think that others should make the effort to become more familiar with this word. As teachers, this is a word that we all should have background knowledge on. Students are working with these types of texts every day and we need to be aware of the most effective ways to work with these types of text.

3:1 Reciprocal

When and Where Did I Find It: I have come across this word many times while performing Reciprocal Teaching Lessons with my peers during my graduate experience at Nazareth College. I most recently encountered this word in Annemarie Palinscar's, "Reciprocal Teaching: Can Student Discussion Boost Comprehension" which was a required reading for LTED 625.

What It Means: Palinscar (1987) states,"Reciprocal teaching provides a framework for students to work together with you to understand what was read" (p. 56). Reciprocal, with respect to reciprocal teaching, means given, performed, or done by each to the other; interchanging, and mutual.

Palinscar, A. (1987). Reciprocal teaching: Can Students discussion boost comprehension? Instructor, 98(5), 56-60

Level of Familarity: I am not very familiar with this word. I have seen it used many times in math, science, and literacy education, however I do not have a good understanding of the actual word in and of itself.

Do I Want to Know This Word Well and Why? I want to become familiar with this word mostly because I have participated in many reciprocal teachings yet never fully understood what they stood for. I also think it is a word that is important in many other contexts as well.

Do I Think Others Should Know This Word Well..if So who and Why? I think that people should become familair with this word because it can be used in many different ways. Especially for those in education, it is an effective concept to use with students.