Unlike other vocabulary books, Vocabulary Plus High School and Up: A Source-Based Approach gives good advice about teaching vocabulary and provides ways to teach specific words by presenting sound theory combined with workable teaching materials. Grounded on the Nilsens' source-based approach, students and teachers are led through explorations of how, over the centuries, words have been enlarged and given additional meanings both through lexical extensions and metaphorical processes. Capitalizing on the basic concept of a source-based approach that words have "natural" connections to each other, the Nilsens provide ample applications to demonstrate how these words can be taught through what are called gestalts, webs or ladders. The abundance of materials provide students with ample practice in using contextual clues, not so much to figure out a meaning as to exclude the meanings of a word that are inappropriate. Each chapter includes "Workshop" pages ready for photocopying, along with suggestions for many other activities that will engage students' interest long enough that their minds will have time to absorb the meanings. An answer key is provided for each of the exercises.
Unlike other vocabulary books, Vocabulary Plus High School and Up provides good advice about teaching vocabulary combined with ways to teach specific words with sound theory and proven teaching materials.
Features of this new text!
- Ready-to-photocopy workshop pages in every chapter serve as conversation topics and as a way to refocus students' attention after they have been engaged in more free-flowing parts of each lesson.
- Photographs of student work and of students-at-work, found at the beginning of each chapter, provide a quick glance at the possibilities for hands-on, multi-sensory activities.
- Background reading for the teacher in each chapter.
- Open-ended, End-of-chapter activities found in every chapter constitute the PLUS part of this text, by providing tested suggestions for activities that go far beyond the typical “memorization” of word meanings and include writing, speaking, and art activities.
- Suggestions for eliciting participation from students in each chapter help internalize the meanings of new words and gain a sense of ownership over the material by exploring techniques other than rote memorization.
- Connection of word study with the development of higher order thinking skills in each chapter facilitate the preparation of students in passing the vocabulary section of the high-stakes tests given at the state level by teaching the thinking skills that will enable students to figure out meanings of words they have not met before both on tests and in real life.
- A full and unique chapter (Ch. 8) devoted to prefixes and suffixes providing useful background on how students can really learn using a source-based approach.