8.3 Hilarious

When and Where I Found It: I found this word while watching a Louis C.K. stand up comedy set on TV. He did whole skit about how people overuse the word and use it when something is only kind of funny, not extremely funny. This obviously isn't the first time I've heard this word and unfortunately I' one of those people that Louis C.K. is talking about.

What the Word Means: Accoding to dictionary.com hilarious means:

adjective
1. arousing great merriment; extremely funny: a hilarious story; a hilarious old movie.
2.boisterously merry or cheerful: a hilarious celebration.
3.merry; cheerful.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hilarious

Level of Familiarity: I am very familiar with this word as stated previously and use it very often. I really misuse the word unfortunately because I use it only when I'm being sarcastic or when something is kind of funny. Rarely do I use it when I can barely catch my breath from laughing.

Should I Know This Word? I think that the word itself isn't important but actually experiencing something that's truely hilarious is key. Though this term is a staple in my daily vocabulary, I could live without it. That said, I love using it and I don't think that it's going anywhere.

Should Others Know This Word? Who and Why? As I stated above, I think it's more important to experience something that's hilarious rather than know the term to descibe it although it is a fun word for everyone to use and I think it livens up someone's vocabulary. At the end of the day, I would say it's not a word that is a "must know" but it's a word that is so fun to know!

8.2 Query

When and Where I Found It: I heard this word in a conversation between two colleagues of mine. The word immediately stood out to me because it's such an "oldie but a goodie"! I haven't heard the word used in so long that I nearly forgot about it.

What it Means: According to dictionary.com query means:
noun
1. a question; an inquiry.
2. mental reservation; doubt.
3. Printing. a question mark (?), especially as added on a manuscript, proof sheet, or the like, indicating doubt as to some point in the text.
4. an inquiry from a writer to an editor of a magazine, newspaper, etc., regarding the acceptability of or interest in an idea for an article, news story, or the like: usually presented in the form of a letter that outlines or describes the projected piece.

verb
5. to ask or inquire about
6. to question as doubtful or obscure: to query a statement.
7. Printing. to mark with a query.
8. to ask questions of.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/query

Level of Familiarity: I am familiar with the word in that I have heard it before but because I rarely hear or use the word, it took me a minute to recall its meaning (although it did come to me). I more often hear and am more familiar with the term inquery rather than query.

Should I Know This Word? I think that being familiar with the word is good enough for me. I think that the term inquiry is more often used as a synonym and personally I think it flows better in writing and conversation than query.

Should Others Know This Word? Who and Why? Hmm this one's tough. I don't think it's a word that's crucial to know for most people although those who read higher level texts may see this word more often than someone who is reading middle or secondary school texts. I suppose it's best for the people who are completeing higher level readings to be familiar with this term so that it doesn't impede on their comprehension of the text. Other than that, it's nice to know to "snazz" up your oral and written expressions!

8.1 Brainstorming

When and Where I Found It: This isn't my first encounter with this word but most recently I encountered it in Daniels, Zemelman, and Steineke's (2007) book Content-Area Writing. Throughout my schooling career I have been asked to brainstorm or have brainstormed on my own to get my thoughts and ideas together on a particular topic. Even in daily life I've brainstormed for many different reasons.

Full Citation: Daniels, A., Zemelman, S., & Steineke, N. (2007). Content-area writing, every teacher's guide. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.

What The Word Means: According to dictionary.com, brainstorming means:

noun
1. a conference technique of solving specific problems, amassing information, stimulating creative thinking, developing new ideas, etc., by unrestrained and spontaneous participation in discussion.

2. intensive discussion to solve problems or generate ideas

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/brainstorming

Level of Familiarity: As stated previously, I have a high level of familiarity with this term. When looking up the definition, one thing that supprised me is that brainstorming is considered a noun even though I always saw it as something one did rather rather than participated in. Hey! I guess you learn something new everyday! :)

Should I Know This Word? Absolutely! This word has been such a big part of my personal, professional and academic lives that it would be hard to imagine if I didn't know and use this word. As an educator, I think that I need to know this word well and practice it so that I can help my students to use this strategy in their academic and personal lives. As a future literacy specialist, I'm sure I will use the strategy to figure out professional problems and dilemas as well has help teachers and students use it in their classroom.

Should Others Know This Word? Who and Why? I think that this is a great term to know no matter who you are because it is so useful in and aspect of your life! For example, as a person who participates in Christmas and birthdays, what can you get that special person?! This is when you brainstorm to come up with a list of ideas or possibilities. As a teacher, you can brainstorm the best way to help a struggling student. Literacy specialists use brainstorming also for the same reasons as anyone else would: to generate ideas and to solve problems!

7.4 Zone of Proximal Development

When and Where I Found It: I recently saw this word in the Clark and Graves (2005) article that we had to read for session 7. I have heard this term several times before in my educational career.

Full Citation: Clark, K. F., & Graves, M. F. (2005). Scaffolding students’ comprehension of text. The Reading
Teacher, 58(6), 570-580.

What The Word Means: According to Clark and Graves (2005), this term was developed by Vygotsky who claimed that "every mental funstion in a child's development first appears in collaboration with an adult. The collaboration occurs in... the area between what children can do independently and what they can do with assistance" (p.571).

Level of Familiarity: I am familiar with this word. As stated above, I have come in contact with this word several times especially through the conversation of scaffolding.

Should I Know This Word? Yes! I am an educator and future literacy specialist and I think that a term that lays the ground work for an important concept like scaffolding is a must in my vocabulary!

Should Others Know This Word? Who and Why? Anyone in the education field should have a good understanding of this word. It is a concept that is the foundation for a practice that we are strongly encouraged to use in our classroom (scaffolding). If we understand this idea of ZPD and use it to guide instruction, we may better meet the needs of more students and provide more meaningful instruction.

7.2 Decoding

When and Where Did I Find This Word: I think that I first heard this word when I entered the Literacy program at Naz. Since then, I've heard it on nearly a weekly basis and most recently in our assigned reading of the Reading Handbook by Kamil, Mosenthal, Pearson, and Barr (2000).

Full Citation: Kamil, M. L., Mosenthal, P. B., Pearson, P. D., & Barr, R. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of reading research: Volume III. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

What the Word Means: According to dictionary.com, the word decode has the following definitions:

1. to translate (data or a message) from a code into the original language or form.
2. to extract meaning from (spoken or written symbols).
3. Television. to unscramble (an electronic signal) so as to provide a video picture for cable subscribers.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/decoding

Level of Familiarity: I am very familiar with definition 1 and 2 from above but definition 3 never really crossed my mind. As I stated above, I come across the word a on a regular basis and have a good understanding of most of its meanings.

Should I Know This Word? Absolutley!!! As a future literacy specialist and as an educator I think that it is crucial to know this word. Decoding is an intricate part of the reading process and it is necessary to understand what it is and how it works in order to help students to read. Decoding can interfere with comprehension and other crucial aspects of reading and therefore knowing the term as well as strategies to help promote decoding proficiency in the classroom are crucial for any educator or literacy specialist.

Should Others Know This Word? Who and Why? I think that all educators and literacy specialists/coaches should know and understand this word for the reasons listed above.

7.1 Macropropositions

When and Where Did I Find It: I came across this word while reading Chapter 30 of our beloved Reading Handbook. This was the second time reading this chapter and I had the word circled from when it was assigned in LTED 600.

The sentence that I found this word in was the following:
"Sometimes unterstanding occurs from the bottom up with the reader procesing many individual ideas in text (and sometimes referred to as propositions) and how the ideas are related to one another by the text to construct a general understanding of the text's meaning, whith such summary meanings sometimes referred to as macropropositions." (p.549)

Formal Citation: Kamil, M. L., Mosenthal, P. B., Pearson, P. D., & Barr, R. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of reading research: Volume III. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

What the Word Means: According to Kamil, Mosenthal, Pearson, and Barr (2000) macropropositions are the summary of meanings/ideas (propositions) that an individual processes while reading. Considering that propositions are the individual ideas behind text the macropropositions are more like topics (summary of ideas).

My Level of Familiarity: I must admit that this word and its meaning is completely unfamiliar to me. After looking it up, I know its basic meaning but I am still unsure of its overall concept.

Should I Know This Word? I think that it's a good word to understand and a concept that I as a future literacy specialist should be familiar with. Comprehension seems to be affected by this concept of combining propositions to create a topic of summary of propositions. This sounds confusing (and personally understanding this makes me feel pretty smart) but I think that at the base of this jibberish this word can play a crucial role in students' abilities to comprehend. Combining small ideas together to create one broad idea. I think that as a teacher I ask my students to do just the opposite by thinking of the small ideas and meanings that relate to a topic and it's important to understand this other concept of comprehension.

Do I Think Others Should Know This Word? Who and Why? I think that literacy specialists and reading teachers should know this word for the same reasons listed above. In my experience it's rare that teachers approach reading in this narrow to broad way and I feel as though it's something to be able to recommend to classroom teachers if necessary.

6.2 Quartier

When and Where Did I Find The Word: I found the word while reading Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay.

Citation: Rosnay, A. D. (2007). Sarah's key. New York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin

What the Word Means: According to merriam-webster dictionary quartier is a district or neighborhood especially in a French city.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quartier

Your Level of Familiarity: This was the first time that I encountered this word. I think that my lack of familiarity with the word is due to the fact that it's a specialized French word.

Should I Know This Word?: Considering that it's a French word that I will probably not encounter again, I don't think it's a crucial word to know.

Should Others Know This Word? Who and Why? I don't think that others in the US need to know this word unless they are traveling to France. I think that this word is so rarely come across in popular American literature that it isn't a necessary word to know.

6.1 Pilfer

When and Where Did I Find the Word: I first heard of this word in chapter 6 of our LTED 625 text, Content Area Writing Instruction.

Full citation: Daniels, H., Zemelman, S. & Steineke, N. (2007). Content-area writing: Every teacher's guide. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

What the Word Means: Accorning to dictionary.com, pilfer is a verb that means "to steal, especially in small quantities."

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pilfer

Level of Familiarity: As stated above, this is my first encounter with this word and while reading, I had to stop and re-read the context that it was in to get an idea of what it meant.

Do I Want To Know This Word Well? I have survived many years without knowing this word and to be completely honest, the synonyms have served me just fine. I don't think it's a word that I need to know but it's one that I recognize when I come across it in the future.

Do I Think Others Should Know This Word Well? Who and Why? For the same reasons listed above, I do not think that this word is something that needs to be in everyone's vocabulary. It's not something that we see very often in texts and I don't think that it's a term that is crucial to know and understand.

5.3 Hypertext

When and Where I Found It: While reading chapter 20 in the Handbook of Reading Research Volume 3 (2008) for session 5 I came across this term. In an increasingly digital era, most people have probably used hypertexts several times throughout their life. It seems as though more recently, we assume that the skills and knowledge used when utilizing links is innate because they're so common while this is not the case.

Full Citation: Goldman, S. R., Rakestraw, J. A., (2008). Structural aspects of constructing meaning from text. In M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. Pearson & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading reasearch (vol. 3, pp.311-335). New York, NY: Routledge

What It Means: According to dictionary.com, hypertext is " a method of storing data through a computer program that allows a user to create and link fields of information at will and to retrieve the data nonsequentially." To further explain what a hypersext is, Goldman and Rakestraw (2008) discuss their difference from traditional texts in that that "hypertexts have embedded in them explicitconnections to other texts. These embedded links allow readers to take jump easily to other texts." (p.325).

Level of Familiarity: In an era in which the internet and online texts thrive, I have completed most of my high school and college education. I am very familiar with this term as well as how to use hypertexts. In other classes I have had to create my own hypertexts while posting on a blog or creating a blog. It seems as though you cannot navigate the internet without using at least one hypertext! It's pretty crazy when you think about it!!

Do I Want to Know This Word and Why? I think that it's definately important to know what a hypertext is as well as how to use them. As stated above, the internet is a part of our everyday lives and I think that I need to stay on top of the ever-changing technology.

Do I Think Others Should Know This Word...Who and Why? I think this term is becoming crucial for just about everyone to know and understand in order to be a successful digital user. I think that educators and literacy specialists need to understand the skills and knowledge needed to use these hypertexts so that they can help students to successfully manipulate these links.

5.2 Learner Autonomy

When and Where Did I Find It: The first time I ran into this term was in Session 5's reading of the Handbook of Reading Research Volume 3 (2008). It was a component of the developmental view of learning from text.

Full Citation: Alexander, P. A., & Jetton, T. L. (2008). Learning from text: a multidimensional and developmental perspective. In M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. Pearson & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading reasearch (vol. 3, pp. 285-310). New York, NY: Routledge.

What It Means: According to dictionary.com autonomy means "independence or freedom, as of the will or one's actions." Learner autonomy would then mean that a learner is independent or free due to their own actions. To further understand the meaning of this term, Alexander and Jetton (2008) mention that "autonomy involves learner choice, and is, therefore, a manifestation of self-determination" (p.302). Those students who are intrinsically motivated when it comes to their education is linked with learner autonomy.

Level of Familiarity: I am somewhat familiar with the term "learner autonomy" but more so with the idea that it represents. In my own teaching practices, I find that giving students choices in their education activates their intrinsic motivation which in turn leads to self-determination and independence.

Do I Want to Learn This Word Well and Why? Yes, I do want to know learner autonomy well because I think that it's an important concept to know, understand, and utilize as a teacher and future literacy specialist.

Do I Think Others Should Know This Word...Who and Why? I definately think that educators need to know this word! Intrinsic motivation and self-determination are very important in a students' education and I think that educators (such as those in out LTED 625 class) should understand the importance of promoting choice and learner autonomy in the classroom.

5.1 Anchored Instruction

When and Where Did I Find It: The first time I came in contat with this term "anchored instruction" (p.288) was in LTED 600 when I first read chapter 19 in the Reading Handbook )vol. 3) yet I paid little attention to it. The second time around, it caught my eye and I realized that Ireally wasn't sure of its meaning.

Full Citation: Alexander, P. A., & Jetton, T. L. (2008). Learning from text: a multidimensional and developmental perspective. In M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. Pearson & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading reasearch (vol. 3, pp. 285-310). New York, NY: Routledge.

What it Means: According to dictionary.com anchored instruction is "a technology-based learning approach which stresses the importance of placing learning within a meaningful, problem-solving context, esp. the bonding of the content to a realistic and authentic context." I love this because it seems to be an approach that is supported by research due to its incorporation of authentic learning practices!

Level of Familiarity: I am somewhat familiar with the concept of the word but the term itself isn't something that I would say that I am familiar with. I would have to say that I need more exposure to anchored instruction because I would like to know and understand the implementation procedure and how technology is brought into this "strategy."

Do I Want to Know this Word Well and Why: Honestly, this word intrigues me. I think that in this new media age, anchored instruction is a strategy that is particularly beneficial to know. It not only incorporates technology but allows for authentic instruction to take place. I love this!

Do I Think Others Should Know This Word...If so, Who and Why: I think that