Sources
of Words and Fun-With-Words in Print and On-line
University at
Word Websites
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm
The Merriam-Webster
OnLine Website. This website offers not only an excellent dictionary and
thesaurus, but also in the Word for the Wise section contains brief
informational and humorous articles on specific words or phrases (e.g., brass tacks). The Online dictionary is
free, and includes high-quality pronunciation(s) of the word (including
alternate pronunciations). Included with each entry is a link to the Top 10
Search Results for “Word” and a link to Britannica.com for more information on
the word.
In addition, there is a special
section for kids (tab at top of page Merriam-Webster FOR KIDS). This section
has a student dictionary and allows student to put their own words and definitions
into a dictionary (Build Your Own Dictionary link). There is also a cool link
called Daily Buzzword that presents each day a new word of the day, including
pronunciation, meaning, usage, and sample sentences that let the student test
whether they have learned the word or not.
There is also access
to Encyclopedia Britannica, Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, and Merriam-Webster
Unabridged Dictionary, but access to these is not free.
http://dictionary.reference.com
A Website that offers
dozens and dozens of links to word puzzles, language resources, dictionaries,
word of the day access. Also includes a thesaurus.
This Website
accesses more than 900 Online dictionaries and 5,000,000 words. It also
translates words and has a reverse dictionary page where you type a description
of the concept, and the OneLook Reverse Dictionary finds words that might match
that description. This is handy when you cannot find the word for something you
want to say.
http://www.hyperdictionary.com
An online
dictionary, no more, no less.
At this site you may
access the famous Roget's Thesaurus. This site is a
product of Project Gutenberg. It is simple to use; enter the word on the
minimalist home page and click submit. All the various meanings of the word
appear, each with a list of synonyms. This online thesaurus allows you to click
many of most of the various meanings or the differing synonyms which then lets
you further explore shades of meaning of your word or similar words.
This site contains an
encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, quotations, and English Usage
section. What’s great about it are links
to many references such as several online dictionaries, thesauruses, and books
containing quotations.
This site contains a
variety of vocabulary builders such as Word of the Day, Hangman, Hidden Word
Puzzles, and Word Scrambler. These are
great activities for students in the middle to upper elementary grades.
This site is called
This site uses Jeeves
as a search engine. When looking for a
definition, the user has the ability to obtain definitions from several
dictionaries at once. This site also
contains links to numerous online dictionaries and thesauruses.
www.cooper.com/alan/homonym.html
A list of homonyms—or
homophones. In grades two and three,
children enjoy challenging themselves to come up with as many homonyms as
possible. This site may be fun for
students to see the many homonyms that exist in our language. For more, see (http://www.taupecat.com/personal/homophones/),
another homophone Website.
An “Homonymical Poem”
by Janet E. Byford on this site. WebMaster tells Ms. Byford to Take a bough.
An Ode to the Spelling Chequer
Prays the Lord for the spelling chequer
That came with our pea sea!
Mecca mistake and it puts you rite
Its so easy to ewes, you sea.
I never used to no, was it e before eye?
(Four sometimes its eye before e.)
But now I've discovered the quay to success
It's as simple as won, too, free!
Sew watt if you lose a letter or two,
The whirled won't come two an end!
Can't you sea? It's as plane as the knows on yore face
S. Chequer's my very best friend
I've always had trubble with letters that double
"Is it one or to S's?" I'd wine
But now, as I've tolled you this chequer is grate
And its hi thyme you got won, like mine.
—Janet E. Byford
http://www.taupecat.com/personal/homophones/
A Website containing
hundreds of homonyms or homophones. More for fun than anything else, but most
upper-elementary teachers have to teach the concept of homophones or homonyms
some time, and this site makes it easier and more fun (and if you do not want
to share the site with your students, you can find thousands of homophones for
teaching and demonstration).
This site allows
children in grade levels K-8 try to guess the correct definition of a
word. If the child guesses incorrectly,
they are given the correct definition.
The number of people who chose each definition is also displayed. One neat feature is that the kids can submit
their own “fake” definition for a word.
They can then check back in a week to see how many people chose their
definition.
www.3.bc.sympatico.ca/teachwell/
This site claims to
be the site for people who love to play with words—and it is. There is a variety of word activity games
that are interesting and very creative such as a compound word game in which
riddles are used to figure out each part of the compound word, words within a
word, a list of oxymorons, as well as an invitation for kids to send in their
own oxymoron. This site contains
numerous word play games that would be highly enjoyable for middle to upper
elementary grade students.
www.agameaday.com/kidsindex.htm
The name of this site
is A Game a Day, and it is just for kids.
There are a variety of word games for kids to choose such as word within
a word and a compound word game. The
theme of this site is a word game for each day of the month.
This site contains a
variety of fun word games such as Hangman, Plaid Libs in which the user fills
in words to create stories, Word Scram which allows players to take turns
trying to make words out of a collection of randomly picked letters, and Brain
Teasers which places words into various shapes or positions to form a word or
saying. This is for students who read reasonably well, say grade five or
higher.
The Wild World of
Words offers its users a variety of word activities. The focus of this sight is spelling,
decoding, word building, and word meanings.
Each of these categories contains several word activities that focus on
that particular skill.
The “Word Play”
section on this site (on left in
Activities section) allows the user to play games such as find the
antonym. To play this game, a word is
followed by four meanings. Three of the
meanings are similar and one word is an antonym. There is also a section devoted to word
meanings in which a word is followed by five possible meanings. The user must choose the one that they feel
is the closest possible meaning. If the
user is incorrect, the correct definition is displayed. The games are not
instructional, other than correcting incorrect answers or acknowledging correct
answers.
www.anagramgenius.com/server.html
The name of this site
is The Anagram Genius Server. The site
allows the user to download a free copy of this software for windows. The visitor to this site types in any name,
phrase, or sentence and receives a slew of anagrams. This makes for an interesting play on words.
The title of this
site is The Linguistic Fun Page. This
site offers a variety of links that have fun with words such as color related
idioms, the book of clichés, and crazy English which discusses some of the
strange words that the English language contains. There are also links to sites that contain
articles about English as well as links to sites which contain puzzles and word
games. Site is in construction but functioning. This site is for good readers
at the middle-grade level or better.
Fun with
Words is the name of this site. There
are a host of different topics, types of words, issues, and engaging activities
available on this site. This site lists commonly confused words such as adverse
and averse, affect and effect. After
each set of words, there is an explanation of each of the words and its
use. This site would be interesting to
middle and high school students who have an interest in words.
www.wordspy.com/diversions/fave-words.asp
The title
of this site is The Word Spy. The author
of this site includes many interesting words that are fairly uncommon and
writes about their meaning and derivation.
The author also lists words that are “new” terms that have been spotted
multiple times in magazines and newspapers.
The word’s meaning, as well as a quote of where the word was spotted,
are included. This site is appropriate
for upper level middle and high school students. It is interesting to see the read about the
new words that are created in the English language. It would be a wonderful activity to challenge
high school students to locate a “new” word in print. There is also a lengthy
set of quotations.
http://library.thinkquest.org/J001156/games/sl_dictionary.htm
This site
includes a variety of word games that can be played in the classroom or at home
for example. In addition to the
games, there are many other interesting links and activities. The directions for the games are well written and are easy
to follow. Some of the games listed are
Hink Pinks (like riddles), Hangman, Scrabble, Mad Libs, and a homophone game
called Right Write. Many of these games
can be easily incorporated into the classroom language arts instruction.
Offers links to
dictionaries, quotes, thesauri, slang and word games. Strictly for upper grades
and college.
www.wave.net/upg/immigration/dot_index.html
This site offers a
fun way to explore the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Any student reading grade four or higher might find
this sight interesting for a short while.
The
best part of this site is the word of the day. Students may also have the word
of the day sent by email. Each word is not only defined, but is pronounced and
used in authentic texts.
http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html
This
Dictionary
of Symbolism
endeavors to provide some possible cultural significances of various symbols,
and suggest ways in which those symbols may have been used in context. Most
symbols are not code signals, like traffic lights, where red means stop and
green means go, but part of a complex language in which green can mean jealousy
or fertility or even both, depending on context. It is up to each of us to
explore works of art sensitively, and decide for ourselves how the symbols in
each work function. This website is offered as an aid in that enriching
activity.
·
Click B
·
Click Bee or Bat
http://www.libraryspot.com/dictionaries
An amazing site, with
hundreds of links to important references, including words. Created by
Northwestern University, this page is like going to a reference desk (some of
the major links are shown following this paragraph). Links to eight or nine
major online dictionaries, including American Heritage, Cambridge,
Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster and OneLook Dictionaries. A good page to start
searches for word meanings. This site is not for elementary school students
unless they are superior readers.
Acronyms
Almanacs
Associations
Ask an
Expert
Biographies
Business
Calculators
Calendars
Countries
Current
Events
Dictionaries
Directories
Encyclopedias
Genealogy
Government
Grammar/Style
Historic
Docs.
How To
Images
Legal
Maps
Medical
Music
People
Public
Records
Quotations
States
Statistics
Thesauri
Time
White
Pages
Yellow
Pages
Zip Codes
http://pbskids.org/lions/games/wordplay2.html
Not a site for
meaning vocabulary, but many interesting activities for word reading
activities. Sir Gawain’s jousting game with onsets and rimes is cool.
http://www.funbrain.com/words.html
Many word
activities—as well as math, science and all other topics—but little focus on
word meanings.
Crosswords probably
do little to increase vocabulary specifically, words used in them are seldom
recalled or useful in writing or speaking. But crosswords might facilitate
interest in words.
Crosswords, scrambled
words and hundreds of other non-word games.
Houghton Mifflin
Website. Kind of lame for such a big company. Geared to primary and early
elementary grades.
www.kidskonnect.com/Games/WordGames.html
Mostly consists of
links to other word Websites.
Some
very cool “Wordies,” which is to translate the arrangement of letters, numbers,
and symbols into a familiar phrase, saying or cliché (e.g., what is
r/e/a/d/i/n/g—“reading between the lines”).
Learning
new concepts is the essence of meaning vocabulary. This means that students
need to learn many new things—objects, ideas, actions, feelings. Some use the
word “stuff” instead of things. This Website tells how things work or what they
are: e.g. , how an internet search engine works, how a hand grenade works, how
batteries work, how airplanes work. Many concepts are presented—and the words
that signify them. If you want to know how bowling pinsetters work:
Areas
include ComputerStuff, ScienceStuff, HomeStuff, MoneyStuff and more.
http://www.sikids.com/games/slang
The entire SIKids Website is cool, and that includes the three sections on slang in sports: one each for baseball, basketball and football. Animated with sound, these are up-to-the-date sites with the edge to them you would expect from SI.
Latin and Greek Roots and Affixes on the
Web
http://www.quia.com/jg/223list.html
Greek and Latin Root Skills: This page presents 20 Greek and Latin roots, teaches their definitions (without using support words or sentences), then offers an online flashcard quiz, a game of concentration, a word search, and a matching activity to help students practice and memorize the roots. The activities are fun; it is a shame more roots are not covered.
http://www.wordfocus.com/refs-alpha.html
Focusing on Words: This page gives a list of many Greek and
Latin roots and their definitions. Some of the roots cross-reference to other
pages containing games, etc., but one must be a subscriber to access these more
advanced functions.
http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/roots.dict.html
Practice Quiz on
Vocabulary containing Greek and Latin Roots. Sixty roots are covered thoroughly
with both a multiple-choice test using sentences with context clues and a final
multiple choice exam. This page seems to have been designed by a teacher who
wanted his students to practice and develop mastery of roots using this
game-like format.
http://www.knownet/users/Ackley/vocabroot.html
A teacher-designed
activity designed to reinforce 20 Latin and 14 Greek roots.
http://www.kent.wednet.edu/KSD/M4/resources/greek_and_latin_roots/transition.html
This page contains
lists of Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes, and their meanings. The
list was
compiled by teachers in the Kent School District.
The Dictionary Game Long a favorite in my
household when my kids were young. this game is easily played with even seven
and eight year olds. It is a great game for free-time in upper elementary
grades. Directions for playing this game taken from the ThinkQuest Website are
included.
Dictionary Dabble (a published game similar to the dictionary game) [Alna Inc. One
Industrial Drive, Windham, NH 03807]
Chicanery: Dictionary Trivia (a published game similar to the dictionary game)
[©Jamotta, Inc.; Distributed by Crisloid Inc., Providence RI 02095]
Origins (a published game about the origins of words and expressions) [Flights
of Fancy, 800 / 966-8004]; a card for a cliché is shown.
|
|
A
Cliché or Expression—In the 17th century, criminals on the run
learned to throw pursuing bloodhounds off their trail by dragging a cured
fish across their tracks. This cliché refers to any effort to directly
mislead. Red Herring |
|
Baumann, James F., Kame’enui, Edward J.
(2004). Vocabulary instruction: Research
to practice. New York: Guilford.
This edited book is divided
into three sections: teaching specific vocabulary (i.e., direct teaching of
specific concepts and words), teaching vocabulary learning strategies (affixes
and context), and teaching vocabulary through word consciousness and language
play. Each of the contributors has an excellent reputation in comprehension and
meaning vocabulary.
Beck, Isabel L., McKeown,
Margaret, G., & Kucan, Linda. (2002). Bringing
Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. New York: The Guilford Press.
Beck, McKeown, and Kucan have spent their careers
researching and writing about meaning vocabulary acquisition, most especially
its impact on reading comprehension. This book results from their many studies
and their need to teach meaning vocabulary in their instructional strategies
for improving the teaching of reading comprehension. They recognize the
difference in teaching meaning vocabulary in the primary grades and in the
upper-elementary and middle-school grades. Their discussion of Tier 1, 2, and 3
words, though not necessarily scientifically based, is useful and probably
accurate. They are enamored with teaching students to use context for word
meanings, but they do cover the topic. A readable, useful book.
Blachowicz, Camille, &
Fisher, Peter J. (2002). Teaching
vocabulary in all classrooms (2nd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Merrill Prentice Hall.
Peter Fisher
earned his Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo, and his dissertation was on
meaning vocabulary. Their review of research, teaching methods, and curricular
materials is solid
Johnson, Dale D. (2001). Vocabulary in the Elementary and Middle
School. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
This is an excellent book that also reviews research on the
teaching and learning of meaning vocabulary and the methods and materials of
teaching meaning vocabulary.
Nagy, William E. (1988). Teaching Vocabulary to Improve Reading
Comprehension. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
This is a particularly brief book, but the writing is
outstanding. Nagy is one of the two or three leading researchers in meaning
vocabulary (with Margaret McKeown at U. Pittsburg and Stephen Stahl at U.
Georgia). I used this book as a text for several years, and cannot actually
state why I changed to Blachowicz and Fisher. Nagy’s book is still excellent,
but does not have the breath of coverage of methods and materials of teaching
that others do.
Stahl, Steven A. (1999). Vocabulary Development. Cambridge, MA:
Brookline Books.
Another very short volume that covers the research on meaning
vocabulary and touches on methods and materials of teaching meaning vocabulary.
Anderson, R. C., & Nagy, W.
E. (1991). Word meanings. In R. Barr, M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, & P.D.
Pearson, Handbook of reading research:
Volume II (pp. 690-724). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Baumann, J. F., Kame’enui, E.
J., & Ash, G. E. (2003). Research on vocabulary instruction: Voltaire
redux. In James Flood, Dianne Lapp, James R. Squire, & Julie M. Jensen
(Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching
the English language arts, 2nd Ed. (pp. 752-785). Mahwah, NJ:
Erlbaum.
Beck, I. J.,
& McKeown, M. (1991). Conditions of vocabulary acquisition. In R.
Barr, M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, & P.D. Pearson, Handbook of reading research: Volume II (pp. 789-814). Mahwah, NJ:
Erlbaum.
Miller, George A. (1991). The science of words. New York:
Scientific American Books.
A truly phenomenal read.
Easy to read history of words, speech and word relations, words and thinking,
word meanings, and the growth of vocabulary.
Nagy, William E., & Scott,
Judith A. (2000). Vocabulary processes. In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D.
Pearson, & R. Barr, Handbook of
reading research: Volume III (pp. 269-284). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Cunningham, A.E., & Stanovich,
K.E. (1998). What reading does for the mind. American Educator. 22(1/2): 8-15.