If you ask a roomful of students to close their eyes and to picture a person who is suffering from acrophobia ("a morbid fear of great heights"), what will they visualize? Some students might picture a person timorously peering off a cliff while other students might envision a person refusing to clean the gutters of their house's rooftop.  Continue reading...

Provide young readers with a fun phonics workout by having them visit these web sites that teach phonics through fun games and activities:

Starfall

BBC Schools TV

AdrianBruce.com: Games

While teaching roots and affixes may help students make sense of unfamiliar words, supplying students with long lists of "word parts" can sometimes be overwhelming and unproductive. In this excerpt from Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement: Research on What Works in Schools, academic vocabulary expert Robert J. Marzano explains how to focus instruction on those affixes and roots that will give you the most vocab-enriching bang for your buck!  Continue reading...

Have you browsed through a dictionary (the kind printed on paper) lately? If you have, the publishers of it are probably glad you did, while being aware that you may be part of a dying breed. This month the Lounge is the first of a two-parter examining some implications of dictionary-making in the digital age.  Continue reading...

Linguist Geoff Nunberg questions the aversion to the passive voice inherited from Strunk & White. Listen to his "Fresh Air" commentary or read an extended transcript.