Day 8: Vocab Pre-test

Today we took a quick break from writing to prepare for our vocabulary study through the Wordskills program (county-wide). Wordskills does not teach words, but rather word parts. By learning word parts and how to decode them, students can understand and identify a broader vocabulary with less memorization. Memorizing one word part, for instance the prefix de-, will help students de-code many more words than they would by memorizing the de-finition of any single word.

1. We took a 50-question vocabulary pretest.

Sample question:

a fractious child
a. submissive
b. egocentric
c. unruly
d. obedient
e. prococious

(See the answer at the bottom of the page!)

All students need to take this pretest. While I understand it is difficult, it is meant to be so–these are things we haven’t learned yet! Pretests help teachers gauge how much students already know coming in so that 1) we can address student weaknesses from the start, and 2) we won’t reteach anything students already know (because they hate that). Any absent students need to see me about making up the test before school, after school, or during lunch next week.

2. We continued writing our Name Piece or our Episode Piece.

Though all students should have complete drafts of both of these, I asked them to locate areas to add more description. I also asked if their sequence of paragraphs made sense. I also encouraged many of the advanced writers to add a final paragraph extrapolating the meaning from their experience: “Can this event be a metaphor for a larger part of your life? Why is it that you remember this day? Reflect on what this experience means to you now.”

Tomorrow, students will work with a partner or small group to get some feedback from peers on what works and what doesn’t in their piece. Students may choose either the Name piece or the Episode piece.

Reminder Part I: Students who did not get the summer assignment until this fall must complete it by Tuesday!

Reminder Part II: No school on Monday!

Answer to the vocab question: c. unruly, since the prefix “fract-” means “breaking” and the suffix “-ious” means “full of.” So a fractious child? Full of breaking.

Next year I will be rewriting this test to avoid stereotyping our students as fractious children.