Words Open Worlds II
Bill Long 6/8/08
The Middle School "Words" Curriculum
With my philosophy and materials needed having been presented in the previous essay, I now turn to the content of the curriculum. It consists of about 20 units, though these units can be considerably expanded in number; I presume that before you finish reading this essay you will come up with many other subjects. Each "unit" represents at least one day in class; usually they represent two or three, or even a week, depending on how many words you find in each category. Further essays can lay out many, many other words. Finally, many of these units require outside "expertise" or "props" that serve to make learning fun. It may cost the school district a few dollars, but it will be money well spent. I believe that if you implement these things in your classes, the parents of children will be begging to get in!
Unit Titles
Let me just list the titles of the units and then probe a few to show you what I mean: (1) fabrics of the world; (2) colors; (3) Renaissance and Early Modern dances; (4) Italian musical terms; (5) names of drums, instruments from throughout the world; (6) foods from other countries; (7) Spanish cheeses--a special example of the preceding; (8) swords; (9) armor from medieval times; (10) terms describing parts of the human face; (11) Linnaean and common names of flowers; (12) Linnaean and common names of various mammals/animals; (13) sports terms from obscure or not-very-well known sports; (14) diving into the dictionary--focusing on near neighbors; (15) from geographical terms to objects; (16) classical roots of modern terms; (17) Japanese terms used in English; (18) Yiddish words--familiar and not so familiar; (19) "Portmanteau" words; (20) classical or biblical words that have become a part of our language.
Illustrating a Few Units
Let's begin with fabrics. Everything we wear, inner and outerwear, is made from some kind of fabric. But there are hundreds of terms for fabrics, and the differences among them are often quite small. The online Phrontistery lists more than 290 terms, such as bengaline, bombazine, borato, boucle, brilliantine, broadcloth, just to name a few. What this unit would consist of is a local fabric merchant, in consultation with me/the teacher, bringing in about a dozen fabrics. Students who "elect" this unit (can middle school students "elect"?) would do three things. First, they would write down the names of each of the fabrics brought into class. Then, they would feel and study the fabric, taking their time to understand what it consists of. This would be preceded, of course, by a short explanation of it. Then, they would return to their seat and write two or three sentences regarding what it "felt" like. Finally, at the end of the class, they would be given a spelling test on the words. Maybe the presenter would bring in extra swatches so that each student could take home a small section of his/her favorite.
We could do the same with foods and cheeses (though these we would eat, of course!). Then, let's move to dances. There are dozens of Renaissance and early Modern dances, such as the pavane, cotillion, tzigane, galliard, branle, flamenco and others. All, of course, couldn't be learned. But this "unit" would concentrate on teaching students the basic steps of these dances, as well as the origin and spelling of the words. We would take special attention to trying to incorporate dances from Eastern Europe and Latin America; I predict this "unit" would be wildly successful. After students learned some steps of a dance, they would be required to write a few sentences about their experience. Perhaps they would even study a little of the culture or people who danced these dances.
The most "traditional" of the units is the "Greek/Latin" roots of modern English words. We shouldn't ignore these; indeed, I think these would call for an entire week or two weeks of instruction. We could do this unit in two ways, focusing either on the roots that begin the words or the endings of the words. An example of the latter would be a cide or tomy ending. You begin with the word suicide (don't worry; students are able to handle the word...). Then, ask them what other things people kill. If you want to kill a rat, you have rodenticide; a fungus, and you have fungicide; a king and you have regicide. Here is a web site that lists about 85 of these terms; the skill (and entertainment) in presenting them is only limited by the imagination of the teacher.
Speaking of tomy, derived from the Greek word for "cutting," I think that many of the guys might be interested in historical terms for (and actual examples) of knives, torture devices or weapons. You should be able to get someone who runs a shop that has these items; failing that, there are adequate pictures online of what it is. When we speak of weapons, however, we are brought into the world of classical armor. I would think it is wonderful to get a person who collects antique armor to come in and "clothe" some of the guys with a heaume, or to slap on the greaves or other parts of it. Ask the guys what it feels like; whether they feel constricted, what they would do to improve the technology, etc.
One of my favorite would be sports terms in sports that perhaps aren't so familiar to us in America as the "big three" or "four" which everyone watches on TV. Equestrian terms are listed on several web pages; one of the most fascinating set of words are those used in the sport of jai-alai. The ball is the pelota, the basket used to catch and throw it is the cesta, a chula is where the ball hits the lower angle between the base of the back wall and the floor coming out without a bounce, the cancha is the court. I also think that learning some of the rules/terminology of cricket would be fun. While on these "lesser" sports, I would also think that learning the names and rules for historical (and perhaps obsolete) card games might be interesting.
Conclusion
There would be so many other things you could do! It takes little imagination to suggest them. I even love the exercise of studying consecutive words in the dictionary, because they often have nothing to do with each other and each one opens up such rich worlds that you would never have discovered these worlds had you not taken some time with the words. Here are a few essays that show the results of one such journey I made...
Once a student gets started on this task, I would anticipate that a goodly percentage would simply want to keep exploring. And, when you get people excited about learning, you simply can't turn them off. That is what happened to me..
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