Words Work

by Carnicelli, Thomas A.

• ISBN13: 9780867095654
• ISBN10: 0867095652
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-10-18
• Publisher: Greenwood Heinemann

Summary

This book integrated activities in which students explore words and, at the same time, develop their language arts and thinking skills.

Author Biography

THOMAS CARNICELLI is a professor of English at the University of New Hampshire. As director the English Teaching Program there from 1979 through 1999, he has helped prepare hundreds of secondary teachers, offering courses in the teaching of writing, literature, and language study. In addition to his college teaching, he has taught English in both middle schools and high schools.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	x
Foreword	xi
Jim Burke
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(10)
Part I: Getting Started with Word Study
Verbal Charades	11	(14)
Three Sketches	11	(2)
Setting Up Verbal Charades	13	(1)
More Sketches	13	(2)
Students Write Their Own	15	(7)
Acting out Sketches	22	(3)
Word Clusters	25	(12)
Introducing Clusters	25	(1)
Steps for Intensive Word Study	26	(11)
Part II: English Words in Historical Perspective
A Brief History of the English Vocabulary	37	(26)
Where English Words Come From	40	(14)
The Ancestors of English	40	(2)
The Three Stages of English	42	(12)
A Closer Look at Etymologies	54	(5)
Applications	59	(4)
Etymology: Root Meanings and Current Meanings	63	(21)
Indo-European Roots	64	(3)
Latin Roots	67	(10)
Latin Roots Across the Curriculum	77	(4)
Getting to the Root of Problem Words	81	(3)
Part III: Exploring Word Choice and Writing Style
Native Words and French-Latin Loan Words: Seeing the Differences	84	(9)
An All-Native Style?	93	(12)
Applications	102	(3)
What Native Words Can Do	105	(12)
Ernest Hemingway	105	(5)
George Orwell	110	(5)
Applications	115	(2)
Creating a Balanced Style	117	(12)
Henry David Thoreau	119	(2)
Robert Frost	121	(5)
Applications	126	(3)
Part IV: Words and Cultural Values
Native and Borrowed Words in American Society	129	(20)
Setting Up an Area Search	129	(19)
Sports	131	(2)
Food	133	(2)
Clothing	135	(1)
Values and Relationships	136	(3)
Government	139	(3)
The Military	142	(2)
Education	144	(4)
What Students Can Learn About Our Language and Culture	148	(1)
Words and Gender	149	(15)
Gender Assumptions and Attitudes: Results of a Questionnaire	149	(7)
Is This Word a Compliment?	156	(3)
Strong, Hard Words and Weak, Soft Words	159	(5)
Homosexuality: The Words We Use to Talk About It	164	(11)
Defining Assumptions: What's Wrong with Homosexuality?	165	(1)
Straight and Its Opposites	166	(2)
Mainstream Words: Homosexual, Lesbian, Gay	168	(2)
Negative Words: from Sodomite to Fag	170	(2)
The Final Question: Is It Fair?	172	(3)
Kinds of Intelligence: Words and Metaphors	175	(14)
Finding the Master Metaphors: Bright, Quick, Sharp	176	(6)
Einstein, Your Auto Mechanic, and Grandma	182	(4)
Applications	186	(3)
Familiar Quotations: Exploring Concepts in Depth	189	(20)
A Literature Unit on Courage	189	(5)
Talking About Ideas	194	(8)
A Unit on Violence and Nonviolence	202	(7)
References	209