During some insomnia last night, I was thinking about the saturate/soak
vocabulary discussion:
In my Los Angeles area 2nd grade classroom, I work with many
Mexican-American second language learners (and a few otherlanguage learners
plus some language-deprived English only students). Often, a child may tell
me something like,"It was so hot Saturday I wet myself." I have explained
many times that in English the word "wet" can be an active verb as in "Wet
the paintbrush by dipping it in the cup of water." Or a passive
verb/adjective in "I got wet when I slipped in the puddle." But that in
common English, I wet myself means I peed my pants! The students giggle, but
continue to misuse the word.
I was thinking about how teaching more specific vocabulary would help
eliminate this confusion. They could learn:
Moisten the towel. or Make the towel moist.
Soak the paper. or Be sure the paper is soaked.
I dried my soaking wet hair. or I dampened my hair before styling it.
I got wet in the sprinklers. I sprayed my sister. I squirted my
brother.
I drenched my dad. I splashed my mom. We were all dripping wet. Even our
underwear was drenched.
All this language to teach and so little time it seems! Carol
-----Original Message-----
SATURATE BEFORE SOAK: EARLY LEARNERS CAN HANDLE BIG WORDS
Researchers now believe that students in primary grades can acquire
more advanced words earlier than previously thought, reports Laura
Pappano in her article "Small Kids, Big Words: Research- Based
Strategies for Building Vocabulary from Pre- K to Grade 3" in Harvard
Education Letter. "You can learn saturated' before you learn
soak'."
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