May 23, 2005
new words
I was a substitute teacher for a biology class today. They had to do a worksheet with the word abiotic on it. I suggested that they take the word apart and use the bits and pieces of it to figure it out. So if they take the A off the front, they see biotic, which they know. And then add the knowledge that an A at the beginning means "not", and suddenly, the worksheet has one more question done without even looking in the book.
One thing, though. As much as I like to think that's helpful, I'm not so sure it truly is. Just like phonics, the promise of intuitive discovery is disappointing.
We discover that animals aren't actually what they are named. Dinosaurs are not actually great lizards, although their name says that they are. Phonics, while promising to eliminate impediments to literacy, spells its stupid name with a ph. Sound that one out.
So I've tossed these tenth grade folks information that was tossed to me when I was in tenth grade. Yeah, the use of root words and skills such as those do help, but I should have tossed them a caveat, too:
N.B. Few things are as simple as they could be.
