#SOLSC24
Today I visited my elementary school’s library to inquire if I could borrow a dictionary to use with my students as we read Tuck Everlasting. This novel has a ton of exciting words that my fifth graders have never encountered before. I used to have a set of dictionaries in my classroom but as space was tight they were boxed and either placed in the e deep, dark storage basement or possibly thrown away. I imagined my students reading and suddenly noticing a word they didn’t know. They’d reach for the dictionary and they’d squint as they looked up the word among the gazillion teeny tiny printed words on the same page. You can imagine my shock and dismay at learning that there wasn't one single dictionary in the library. None. Nada. I often see those photos on Facebook of objects from my childhood that are now relics, but it had never occurred to me that a dictionary is an antiquated object. A sadness overwhelmed me. All these elementary age students will never feel the ;weight of a huge dictionary that they can barely hold and need to quickly find a table to place it down upon. They will never be overwhelmed with the thousands upon thousands of words that cover each thin page from top to bottom. They will never think to question how it took linguistic researchers generations to gather all these words that have roots in languages and places of which many no longer exist. These young minds will never look up a word only to get caught noticing how similar so many words are. They won’t have the opportunity to notice how one single word can have multiple meanings and interpretations. They will never use a dictionary to learn the pronunciation of a word, or be confused about what parts of speech the word is when used in combination with others in a sentence. What a heart wrenching tremendous loss.
2 Comments
3/3/2022 04:12:13 pm
Hm... interesting to contemplate the loss of dictionaries in young people's lives.. I never really thought about it. I currently have a gigantic dictionary that I place under my computer to raise it up when I zoom, Actually, it's underneath my computer all the time. It turns out I use only google when I look up words, and no longer ever use a dictionary. Glad you're doing this SOL challenge, Eva. Yay.
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3/3/2022 06:28:31 pm
This is such a great loss. I still have two in my classroom, but we rarely us them I have a small "hand dandy" dictionary that I use more. Actually I think I might have my slice for tomorrow! :)
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Eva KaplanSea glass, found on beaches, is naturally worn and smooth by tide and time,. As a wife, mother, Bubbe, teacher, reader & life-long learner, and of course, sea glass collector, I aspire to use writing to help me understand myself and the world around me. Archives
March 2024
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