National Council of Teachers of English Logo Unraveling the
Language Puzzle  Unraveling the Language Puzzle  There are over
500,000 words in the English language. My students, armed with a
20-word list every two weeks for each year in high school, were
on the path to conquering the English lexicon. Except, with only
36 weeks a school year, and assuming they had impeccable recall
and zeal, my students would only have 1,440 checked off by
graduation. For a year, I boycotted the list and tried to teach
vocabulary in context.  But an idea began to take root; quite
literally: tree roots descended from my classroom ceiling,
burgeoning with remnants of Greek and Latin. Through student-
created vocabulary lists and activities, we studied the finite
number of smaller words, like ab, mal, and duc, the roots of our
vast language. Together, with whiteboards, cartoons, and
etymologies, we examined word pieces, so that, on their own,
students could continue to unravel the language puzzle.
Danielle Hartke Milwaukee, WI 3 ye