WFMAD 5: Word Geek
August 5, 2009
Dear Teacher,
I completely fail at vocabulary exercises. Sure, I can use your words in a sentence, but they sound like words I was told to use in a sentence. They never sound like anything natural. No matter how much I try to rephrase or revise, they all sound wrong.
Maybe it’s that there’s no context. Just a floating sentence with some new word. Maybe context would help.
Shive: She looked at the three sets of hungry eyes staring up at her and then back at the bare crust of bread in her hand. She turned to the counter, away from their faces, and shived and slivered the crust into three transparent slices, hoping they wouldn’t see the tears that fell on the board as she worked.
Hmm. Not really. That sounds like some toss off from a Grapes of Wrath draft. Or some really awful Lifetime movie about a welfare mother. The word didn’t even get to have star-billing. It didn’t feel right without the “and slivered” bit. Just not right. Definite FAIL.
Why do teachers want us to write these vocabulary sentences anyway? Do they really think that this is going to help us actually use these crazy words? Maybe they don’t want us to use them. Maybe we’re just supposed to recognize them in some Shakespeare thing later. I just don’t see the point, but w/e. I’ll write your sentences.
Dwale: “It’s pure dwale to presume that someone will learn a word just by dropping it in an awkward sentence that they’d otherwise never write,” she said to her English teacher, Mrs. Grimes.
WFMAD stands for “Writing for Fifteen Minutes a Day.” Author Laurie Halse Anderson
Teachers can use a similar project to discuss writing successes and challenges (as well as get some fast drafting done). As my Inbox blog entry this week explains, it’s an easy way to build community in just 15 minutes!