1. Chapter 13: Word Consciousness
Teaching Reading Sourcebook 2nd edition

2. Word Consciousness
Word conscious students are curious about language, like to play with words, and enjoy learning about the origins of words.
A word-rich classroom fosters word consciousness through: dictionaries, thesauruses , word walls, word games and puzzles, literature and poetry books, and word play and joke books.

3. Adept Diction
Adept diction involves the skillful or artful use of words in speaking and writing.
Teachers can model adept diction by
their own choice of words;
drawing attention to the skillful use of words in texts that students are reading;
encouraging students to expand their own range of word choice in their speech and writing;
motivating students to recognize how words are used and where they appear outside of class. (e.g. Word Wizard)

4. Word Consciousness
Knowing categories of words helps students make finer distinctions in their word choice.
Synonyms: words very close in meaning
Antonyms: words that are opposite or nearly opposite in meaning
Homographs: words spelled the same with different meanings and different origins
Figurative language: similes, metaphors, idioms
These distinctions involve knowing words have
Denotations: literal meaning; and
Connotations: feelings associated with a word. (e.g. positive, negative, neutral)
See the Figurative Language chart on page 574.

5. Word Play
Word and language play engages students in active, social, learning and provides motivation to improve their language skills.
Word play is accomplished through
Names: eponyms, toponyms
Expressions: proverbs, slang
Word formations: acronyms, portmanteaus
Word games: puns, riddles, tongue twisters
Word manipulations: anagrams, palindromes
See Categories of Word Play on page 575.

6. Word Histories and Origins
Structure and origins of English
Anglo Saxon: Short everyday words used frequently in ordinary conversation. (book, table)
Latin: Longer, more formal words used in content area textbooks and literature. (instructor, predict) Latin is the basis for the Romance languages.
Greek: Specialized words used mostly in science and technology. (astronomy, grapheme)