Module 2: Activities 1 & 2

Pg. 58 Activity 3c

In order to provide a definition for these words, I tried two different approaches. First I used grammatical knowledge to determine if I thought the word was a noun, verb, or adjective. This helped me to them think of a word that sounded like word that was also a noun, verb, or adjective. For example, I thought the word creech was likely a verb. I then thought of verbs that sounded like creech. This brought the word creep to mind. Thus, I guessed that creech meant to slowly approach something.

creech: to slowly approach
droogs: a large group
glazzies: those who are disengaged from something
goloss: rain boots
malenky: easy going or laid back
messel: someone who is annoying
millicents: a group of happy people
poogly: flimsy
razrez: something sharp
skorry: unhappy
spatted: to leave angrily
zoobies: a group of animals

After reading A Clockwork Orange:

droogs: friends
spatted: to fight
skorry: quickly
malenky: small amount
zoobies: food
millicents: police or law enforcement

In order to determine the meanings while reading A Clockwork Orange, I relied heavily on context clues. I looked at the sentences before the word as well as the sentences after the word. Some words were easier to determine than others. Many of the words could have meant many different things based on the context. I still used the grammar of the sentence to determine if the word was a noun, verb, or adjective. Once I established that, I relied on the context of the story to help me come up with a definition. Although I used these strategies, I am not confident that my definitions are correct.

pg. 85 Activity 7

I did not try to read the words letter by letter. Because these words were unfamiliar to me, it would have taken too much time to read the words letter by letter. Instead, I recognized some word chunks that helped me in reading the words. For example, when reading the word submandibular, I chunked it to read it sub-man-dib-ular. This helped me break up a long and unfamiliar word in a way that made it easier for me to read.

I was not familiar with any of these words, however, I could derive some meaning based off word parts. Word parts like sub-, sapo-, -aur, extra-, and -ate help me establish some understanding of the word. To determine the definition for submandibular, I knew that sub means under something. From my knowledge of anatomy, I know the mandible is the jaw. So, submandibular must mean something about being under the jaw.

Pronouncing the words really didn't give me any insights into the meanings of the words. If anything, it helped me determine what part of speech the word was, but it did not help with the actual meaning of the word.

When I encounter words I am unfamiliar with, my first reaction is to use context clues and parts of speech. This is similar to what I did in activity 3c. If I am not able to determine meaning using these two strategies, I will typically read on. If I feel the word is necessary to my understanding of the text, I would then look it up in a dictionary.

In order for students to deal with unfamiliar words in print, we as teachers need to teach the reading process. This process should teach them how to quickly and correctly identify words they are unfamiliar with. This includes teaching them to use context clues to determine meaning. Rereading that portion of the text could also help them to understand the unknown word.If they aren't able to determine meaning from the context, they should then be equipped with the tools to look up the word.