28 September 2011

Arduous: Hard on Us




As an aide at CMS, I got to different classes each period with different students. In one of the sixth grade reading classes, the word of the weeks is arduous. When I was in seventh grade, that was one of our vocab words. 

WHO REMEMBERS THEIR 7th GRADE VOCAB WORDS?!?!? 

Answer: People who had a teacher who used rhymes for remembering. She'd put up an overhead [oh I'm old!] with the word, the rhyme, the definition, and the picture. And it worked.

Examples: 
  • Arduous: hard on us
  • Aloof: on the roof
  • Churlish: girlish
  • Asunder: split by thunder
  • Chattel: cattle
  • Chicanery: like Sean Connery
Not only did she use rhymes, but rhymes which hinted at, or directly gave, the definition.  This teacher, whose name I cannot even remember, taught me vocab words I can still recall. She taught us a prepositions song, most of which I can still sing. 

I never thought of her as anything special, but I guess she was.  

2 comments:

Tenika Dennis said...

The one I will always remember is "We lament that Joe was buried in cement." It still pops into my head all the time!

Tenika Dennis said...

P.S. Her name was Gibbs.