Module 2: Activities 1 & 2

Activity 1:

Exercise #3c: Try essentially the same procedure again.  Write down a definition for these words:

Creech – screech

Droogs – dogs

Glazzies – glasses

Goloss – galosh

Malenky – lanky

Messel – mussel

Millicents – milliseconds

Poogly – poorly

Razrez – razors

Skorry – sorry

Spatted – spat

Zoobies - zombies

Actual meanings based on A Clockwork Orange  

Droogs – friends

Skorry – quickly

Glazzies – eyes

Messel – feeling

Goloss – voice

             Malenky – little

Did you notice yourself using any fairly consistent principle for determining what the words might mean? Discuss.

Prior to reading A Clockwork Orange, I tried to base my prediction of each word’s meaning off of words I already know.  I read the words aloud how I would expect them to be pronounced.  I repeated them a few times concentrating on what words I already knew that sounded similar. I expected each of the words to be very similar in spelling or sound to the word it represented in A Clockwork Orange. 

In each case, how do you finally determine what the word means?

I was actually really surprised when each of the words I found in the text really did not sound or look similar to the meaning they held in the text.  I truly had to use context clues to determine meaning for each one of the words.  I found it really helpful that many of the words listed were used more than once in the text.  There were a few times that I read one of the original words and was still unsure of its meaning.  I would reread, and even read on and hope to gain meaning once I gained more information.  In some cases it was really helpful to see the same word multiple times because it gave me a chance to reassess my determined definition.  It’s helpful, I think, that they are used in different contexts as well.  I also noticed that it took me a while to read the first chapter of the text.  I was concentrating more and worked much harder to read that text than most. 

Activity 2:

Read Exercise 7 on p. 85 and rather than showing it to an audience, complete the exercise yourself. Answer the questions, including the two at the top of p. 86.

1. ·       Who tried to read the words letter-by-letter?
   I did not try reading these words letter-by-letter.  Because of my experience as a reader, I know that letters often have more than one common sound.  Typically, the sound a letter makes is determined by the other letters around it. 
2. ·      Who tried to read the words mostly by chunking them into syllables?
          I did try reading the words mostly by chunking.  I looked for the syllables and did my best to pronounce different sections of the word. 
3. ·       Who tried to read the words by sampling the letters more or less all at once?
   This is not a strategy that I think I would be successful with; therefore I did not try it.  These words would be really overwhelming to me to sample, or attempt to pronounce all at once.
4. ·       What words do you know the meaning of, or think you know the meaning of?
   I only am confident that I know one word listed – sarsaparilla.  Sarsaparilla is a soft drink. 
5. ·       Did pronouncing the words give you insights into their meanings?
   Yes, reading these words, I paid attention to the affixes.  I did this particularly when trying to pronounce them because it seemed to be an easy way to chunk the words.  Not all of these words have affixes, but I did notice dis-, extra-, in-, sub-, de-, and -ment
6. ·       How do you handle unknown words when you encounter them in normal reading?
   I typically try my best to chunk words in order to pronounce unfamiliar words.  When trying to gain meaning, I try to use context clues.  I often reread if I don’t understand something as well. 
7. ·       What do you think are the implications of this experiment and discussions for how we should help students deal with unfamiliar print words?
   I think that this is a good activity for teachers to complete because it shows us how students feel in our classes when they don’t know a word.  I think it’s easy to forget that feeling of not knowing a word or how to say it, so it’s beneficial to see words like this that are unfamiliar.  This gave me the opportunity to really examine how I approach words, and it has given me good ideas for strategies to suggest to my students for reading unknown words.