Vocabulary from Classical Roots ~ What's it look like in your house?

[Diana B]

We're going to give Vocab from Classical Roots a shot. I'm not sure we need it, but I want to give it a try at least. {He has a pretty good vocab, but I want to show him a new way of looking at the words. Also helping it will help him with spelling!}

 

But I'm not really sure how to make it work. Do I need to teach it? Or can he do it mostly himself? It's not broken up into multiple days, so how do I break it up into a week's worth? Does it need to be done daily? 

 

What do YOU do with it? 

[HeWillSoar]

We just started this and I wondered how others were using it as well.    We went over the meanings of the roots, and then we did the questions.  Another day we discussed and made up sentences, and then I had him write sentences with the words.  I quizzed him on the words verbally and tried to apply the words to our daily conversation.   Also, I found corresponding tests on quizlet and we did that, not for a grade but for extra practice.  So far the roots and some of the words seem to have stuck. 

[LJPPKGFGSC]

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/526330-vocabulary-from-classical-roots-to-mcts/?do=findComment&comment=5885008

 

Did the link work?  If so, I linked to a prior discussion where I explained what we do for Vocabulary from Classical Roots!  I really like it.  I think that students can acquire a considerable number of words for a reasonable amount of time and effort.  I would recommend it to anyone!

[Momto6inIN]

Maybe I'm not doing it right, but I just handed the workbooks to my kids and said read every word & definition, look up the challenge words you don't know, and do the exercises.  ;)  They're smart kids and all, but they're not geniuses or anything like that, and it still only takes them 30 minutes tops a week to do 1 lesson.  And I do see/hear them using these words and recognizing the roots in our history and science studies, so the knowledge is being retained and used.

[My3girls]

We do it 3x a week. Day 1 read and do the worksheets. Day 2 define the challenge words. Day 3 use the challenge words in a sentence.

[Cottonwood]

we do it 2x a week.   It's brand new to us right now so I am teaching my 7th and 8th grader at the same table.   They both have a tendency to skim and try to wing it on the exercises on stuff like this.  It's the only thing in all of their curriculum I teach them directly.....for now.

 

 First day we start at the top of a lesson, familiarize ourselves with the 'theme'...then the roots in the lesson, then read everything together up to Exercise A. We discuss questions that come up, pull out interesting words, make connections with similar words/roots we can think of and keep a dictionary handy to look up challenge words we aren't sure of.  If there is time left, we do the exercises.  The exercises, all of them, take the kids like, 10 minutes, tops.  They check each other's work as I call out answers.  We discuss corrections.  This takes about an hour to an hour and a half.  It goes quick though.  They really seem to like it. 

 

Day 2 - By day 2 I have created either a crossword puzzle, unscramble puzzle, fill in the blank, etc exercise for them to work on 'blind'.  Without referring to the book.  I want to see retention.  They do this work in pencil.  Then, when they are sure they can fill in nothing more, they choose a colored pencil, open their book and do the rest of the work in that color, so that when I check it, I can see how much they retained and needed no help with (pencil) and how much they needed to look back on (colored pencil) .  I make the puzzles up here:  http://www.puzzlefast.com/?gclid=CKjOpPu--LkCFeqDQgodVXYAaA

 

I also carry every single word over to the next lesson.  So, to date, every single word we have learned, plus this week's lesson is involved. The words are really adding up now so I do omit the ones they know well as I create puzzles. 

 

During day 2 sometimes I choose to do 'antonym' work, where I ask them figure out the correct antonym to each words and use it in a sentence. 

 

Sometimes I type out a sentence for each word and they have to do fill in the blank.  

 

Sometimes I have them write a 1 page story using all of the words in the current lesson, or every word we've learned, whatever I feel like. 

 

Sometimes I give them a list of the words and the correct definition and I have them go to the dictionary for each word I've listed and write an alternate definition below it.

 

Sometimes I quiz them on the roots in the lesson PLUS suffixes in the lesson that I pick out.

 

Sometimes we spend an extra day ONLY the suffixes (after we've completed the lesson).  I take the suffix info given in the book next to the words/definitions.. and I make a crossword (or other) puzzle out of those.  Extra credit can be earned sometimes by writing all the suffixes with new prefixes of their choice (they would have to really go together as a word lol), give me a sentence with the new word  that makes sense.  They love doing that one. 

 

This all comes to me sort of on the spot.  They can do most everything through Exercise C in 1 to 1.5 hours so on day 2 I have to come up with things like this to do to use the words in a way that extends the lesson.  It may seem that I am doing a lot of typing to do these things, but I just type out one lesson's worth of words/definitions a week then copy and paste as I need to.  I only type extra if I decide to work on suffixes.

 

Did anyone also order a teacher's manual?  I've read that some don't but I don't see how you would know if things are being done right w/o the TM. 

 

And what does everyone do for tests?  Quizzes?  the reviews after so-many lessons don't seem to be enough of a quiz for mine.

[Cottonwood]

We just started this and I wondered how others were using it as well.    We went over the meanings of the roots, and then we did the questions.  Another day we discussed and made up sentences, and then I had him write sentences with the words.  I quizzed him on the words verbally and tried to apply the words to our daily conversation.   Also, I found corresponding tests on quizlet and we did that, not for a grade but for extra practice.  So far the roots and some of the words seem to have stuck. 

 

Thanks for the quizlet mention.  I checked it out and it will streamline a couple things I'm manually doing.  THANKS!

[Garga]

I like slow and steady so I spread out each lesson over an entire cycle (week).  I've cut and pasted here my notes on how I use it.  Note: I follow 30 6-day cycles rather than 36 5-day weeks to get in my 180 school days. I like having 6 days to rotate my elective through.

 

I will get done one Vocab from Classical Roots book in 16 cycles.  (You may get it done in 16 weeks).  I have plans to use other materials to round out the school year rather than doing two Vocab from Classical Roots books a year. Here are my notes on how to teach it:

 

 

Vocabulary from Classical Roots

 

16 lessons = 1 lesson a cycle. 

 

Day A: Read and look up 1st half of unknown words

Day B:  Read and look up 2nd half unknown words

Day C: Exercise A

Day D: Exercise B

Day E: Exercise C         

Day F: Crossword puzzle or Logan does the previous 2 chapters review page  

Crossword puzzle (or other types of worksheets) maker:  http://worksheets.theteacherscorner.net/make-your-own/crossword/

 

Notes to the OP:

1.  I break down learning the words into two days.  We read everything together.  I've found that if we skim too fast they just don't sink in.  Doing them all in one day leaves my boys only hearing Wah-wah-wah as I speak.  

 

2.  The early books do NOT have a review page.  The later books have a review page every other chapter.  I use my 6th day to do the review pages for my older student (in book A) and I create a crossword puzzle for my younger student (in book 4).

 

3.  The exercises are quick and easy for my younger student but the words get harder as they get older.  Even though the exercises are relatively fast for my older to complete, he does have to pause and think on them a little longer than he's used to.  He does great in vocab on standardized tests and has been a little surprised that these words give him pause.

 

4.  I allow us up to 20 minutes for Vocab each day, but most days we're done in well under 10.  The 20 minutes is for two students doing two different books.  Day A and B are the longest because I spend 10 minutes with each boy separately discussing their words.  If I had only one student, I wouldn't allow more than 10 minutes for vocab a day.

 

 

[Garga]

double post

 

 

[Shellydon]

For my kids, I had them the book and say "go." :laugh:   I check their work once week or so.