Glossary

Below are links to terms to be used in this class.  As terms are discussed, definitions, examples, and links related to those terms will be provided.  At the end of each quarter, students are encouraged to download a copy of this page to be used as a study tool.

To create your own glossary of terms web page, click here and save the page to your hard drive.  You can then edit the page in Notepad, Dreamweaver, Microsoft Word, FrontPage, Netscape Composer or any other HTML editor you choose.  In this way, you can create a searchable index of terms that are new to you, and keep the index on a floppy disk

Literary devices and poetic terms are in green.


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Click on the first letter of the word you wish to find.


Other Word Links

Click here to see other glossaries on the web

Webster's Dictionary

Bartleby.com--find the word in a quote

Vocabulary.com -- Wonderful vocabulary enhancement site

Dillon Desk Test Links -- Links for vocabulary, analogies, and standardized test practice


















A



Analogies

An analogy is a set of two pairs of words that correspond in a metaphorical or figurative way.  There is a root pair, in all capital letters, and a matching item, usually found as an option among five other pairs, only one of which is appropriate.

Here is what one looks like:

HAT : HEAD

A.    foot : shoe

B.    armor : knight

C.    nose : clown

D.    glove : hand

E.    sock : foot

 

*  The answer is "D," because the relationship is: "A" is a decorative or protective covering worn on the "B."


 

Detailed explanation with examples:

In the pairs, the first term is called "A," and the second term is called "B."  You construct a meaningful sentence that connects the terms using the names "A" and "B." 

For example, if you are given the pair HAT : HEAD, you can see that the relationship is -- "A" is a decorative or protective covering worn on the "B."

If you are given "FOREST :  TREE," you could say -- an "A" is made up of (is a group/bunch of) "B's"

If you are given "DRIZZLE : DOWNPOUR," you could say -- "A" is the same thing as "B," but "A" is just a little and "B" is a lot.

Often on tests, you will not know one or both of the words.  If all you can do is decide whether or not they are negative or positive, then that is great.

Once you have your sentence, or once you have decided if the terms in the root are negative or positive, then you must examine the five items  to try to match the same relationship.

The relationship must be in the same direction and have the same meaning.  For example, "HAT : HEAD" does not equal "FOOT : SHOE" because they don't go in the same direction, since in the first example, the article of clothing comes first, and in the second the body part comes first.

Sometimes the relationships will be close, so make a very specific sentence.  For "HAT : HEAD," it is not good enough to say "you wear an "A" on your "B," because a hat does not serve the same purpose as a sock or a pair of glasses.

For more information on analogies, please visit the Testing Center.

  


 

Anthology 

An  anthology is a collection of stories, articles, poems, or other pieces of writing that are connected thematically or for their significance to the editor -- it is a book made up of little pieces of other people's writing.

Each student will create a personal anthology of pieces of writing that were meaningful, and will comment on the pieces in an introduction, to be no less than four pages typed, double-spaced, 12pt. Times New Roman.

Details about the assignment will unfold, but each week, students are expected to contribute two pieces to their reading portfolio, either copies of poems or song lyrics, or requests for photocopies or printouts of stories read in class.























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K-W-L
 
This stands for "Know-Want to know-Learned."  You can click here for an example chart in PowerPoint, which can be printed and reproduced. If you do not have PowerPoint, click here to get the viewer.

This is a method of activating prior knowledge by charting what a student already knows about a topic.  This sets up a basis for a preliminary discussion.  Students then write about what they want to know about the topic-- this usually takes the forms of questions to be answered. These questions are then the subject of class discussion and research, which is then documented in the "Learned" section of the chart.
























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L + Delta
 
This is a reflective journal, written each Friday in class as a review of the work done in the week.  Students are to write down five things they learned that week, three things they liked, and one thing they would change. This journal has an academic focus, therefore discussion should focus on events and experiences in the classroom rather than in personal lives.  Students will be provided a theme or question to prompt them towards an appropriate discussion.  

 The entry should take the first fifteen minutes of class, meaning that care should be put into its creation.  There should be a minimum of three well-constructed paragraphs.  Drawings and mind maps are acceptable as alternatives, provided they demonstrate an equivalent amount of effort, and that there is at least one paragraph of analysis of the artwork.

These essays will be assessed in three ways.  

As the students write, the teacher will circulate and assign a participation grade on the 4-point scale.  

Students will then be able to use their L+Deltas for an extra credit opportunity.  The teacher will display words, on the board or on the television, that touch on learning that happened during the week.  Student teams who can explain that term and demonstrate that each student touched on it in their essay will receive points that can be used as extra credit on quizzes or tests.

Finally, every nine weeks, students will turn in two typed pages of excerpts taken from their L+Deltas.  The excerpts must be proofread and edited, with the original drafts attached.

 

L-G-L-- List-Group-Label

List-Group-Label is a cooperative activity that activates prior knowledge on a topic.  Individually, students list items that meet the requirements of a prompt, usually a term unfamiliar to the group as a whole.  After they have their list, the students get into groups and categorize the terms into clusters.  Finally, they assign names to the clusters based on the attributes.


























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Reading Log
 



























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SSR  -  Silent Sustained Reading

Once a week, each student will spend 30 minutes reading silently in class, most often reading a book that the student has checked out from the school or classroom library.

Each nine weeks, each student will be asked to give a five-minute presentation on a book read during this time, and each SSR period will result in an entry in the student's reading log, which consists of recording the title, author, number of pages read, and a paragraph of thoughts, feelings, and questions about what they read.





Style Sheet

In order to ensure uniformity of papers that are handed in to class, each student will be expected to to create during the first two weeks of class a "style sheet" that follows the directions posted here.






















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Templates

A template is a set of instructions that tell a piece of software how to format a document.  You open the template and then change the content to customize for you.  Many of the templates on this site belong to the MOCT collection, available from Microsoft on CD.

Students are free to use these templates as guidelines in the creation of their own work at school. 

Think-Pair-Share
 
Think-Pair-Share is a small group activity designed to begin discussion on a topic.  Students write in their journal individually on a prompt or to answer a question.  Then, they pair up with another student to discuss what they wrote.  Finally, the teacher calls on students in whole class discussion, so that they have an opportunity to share their ideas after talking them out with a classmate.


























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Vocabulary
 
Vocabulary refers to the set of words that a person has at their disposal to use to express themselves with language.  It is not the words in the workbook you have to learn for Friday's quiz and it is not a measure of how intelligent you are.

However, in order to demonstrate that you have certain knowledge, you need to know certain words.  For the most part, we will acquire vocabulary in the natural way-- as we read things that interest us.  But, because we are in high school, we also need some incentive to learn words and add to our personal lexicon, or vocabulary list.

Therefore, we will have a set list of twenty words each week that we will learn as a group to spell and to use in conversation and writing ten of the words will come directly from the context of schoolwork in all of the academy classes (science terms, people and places and concepts in social studies, etc.) and ten of the words will be chosen based on the theme of the week in in English class and the likelihood that you will either see the words on a standardized test or need to use them later to prove how smart you are. By the end of the year, you will have six hundred words on six hundred cards.

Students will be required to keep these words on notecards, which will be assigned as homework each week and will be checked on Friday.  Each word will have its own card, and on the side of the card opposite the word, the student will write or draw a definition of the word.

Each student will come up with a color scheme for the cards, which will correspond to the nature of the words (Words about violence and wear will be written in red ink, words about happy or serene emotions will be in green, etc.) 

Once a week, there will be a pop quiz on the vocabulary terms, usually matching or sentence completion.  The quiz will never be given on a Friday, but could occur any other day, and will cover the words that were assigned the previous week.  

On the syllabus, students are asked to purchase  300 3"x5" notecards.  The students are to cut these in half to make 600 cards, 2.5" x 3", all of which will be used for vocabulary words.
























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