11.1 Catawampus or Cattywampus

When and Where Did I Find It:   I was reading my daily email from A.Word.A.Day and this was the word featured on Tuesday 11.08.11.
Full citation A.Word.A.Day. (online).  catawampus. http://wordsmith.org/words/catawampus.html (11.11.11).

What it means: According to the website, it is an adjective which is used to describe something as  1. Askew; crooked.   2. Diagonally positioned: catercornered.
Also interesting to note is the etymology of the word:

From cater (diagonally), from French word quatre (four). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kwetwer- (four), which also gave us four, square, cadre, quadrant, quarantine (literally, period of forty days). Earliest documented use: 1840. The word is also spelled as cattywampus.

Level of Familiarity: I knew what this word meant, but I admit, I had completely forgotten the word even existed until I saw it.  

Do I Want to Know This Word Well and Why?   I think this is a really fun word.   I like to say it (I like the way it sounds).  Also, even though it is a word that was created to help in literally describing a particular geometric shape/angle, I think it is a really useful word to use to describe one's emotional or physiological shape.   If someone said to you, "I'm feeling cattywampus today,"  you would know to be very careful with how you interacted with this person. 

Do I Think Others Should Know This Word Well...if so WHO and WHY?   
To be fair, I suppose I cannot expect others to find this word as interesting and memorable as I do.  However, I do think knowing this word would help those who are interested in art, interior design, mathematics, geometry, and writing figuratively.  

7.2 Content Literacy Inventory

When and Where Did I Find It:   I found this term on page 45 in the section of McKenna and Robinson's (2002) book which was shared with the class.  

Full citation:  McKenna, M.C., & Robinson,R.D. (2002).  Teaching through text:  Reading and writing in the content areas (2nd ed.), p. 45.  Boston, MA:  Allyn & Bacon.     

What it means: McKenna and Robinson (2002) state, "the content literacy inventory, at its core is a series of questions posed over a small section of the textbook.  The student's success at answering these questions after reading the section is used to predict probable performance on the text as a whole" (McKenna & Robinson, p. 45, emphasis added).

Level of Familiarity:  I have a well-developed understanding of this type of classroom based assessment tool.   Another example of this type of assessment tool would be the Strategic Content Literacy Assessment (SCLA) tool which is also used to predict probable performance on the text.  

Do I Want to Know This Word Well and Why?   Yes, I do believe it is important to for me to understand the ways reading guides can be developed and utilized as assessment tools rather than instructional tools.   The key is the design.   What types of questions are included on the tool/guide and for what purpose.  

Do I Think Others Should Know This Word Well...if so WHO and WHY?:   I certainly think my LTED 625 students (as well as all teachers) should understand the assessment goals which can be served by creating a tool which is very similar in design to an instructional reading guide.     

3.1 Transportability

When and Where did I find the word:  In our course text (Fisher & Frey, 2008) Chapter 1, pages 26/28.

What it means:  This word is a specialized word which refers to a particular benefit from knowing the word.  If I say a word has transportability, it means that the word is used in a variety of ways and knowing what the word can mean would be helpful in advancing one's knowledge of the subject.  Fisher and Frey (2008) imply that the word transportability is used to identify a feature of words that would indicate to the teacher whether or not the word should be selected for direct and/or sustained instruction.   The authors say, "words that are transportable; words that may be used in other content areas as well" (p. 28).  

Level of Familiarity: The word itself was not new to me, but this particular specialized meaning of the word was new to me.  If an employee at Staples had said to me, "these boxes are useful because of their transportability from plane to car"  I would understand that she meant that these boxes will fulfill their purposes (keeping shipped items protected/safe) as they were moved from one place to the next, possibly using different motorized vehicles.   However, I had never heard this same descriptor used to qualify the particular quality of a word's usefulness or meaning. 

Do I Want to Know This Word Well and Why? I do want to know this word well because I think it helps me to use a more defined criteria for selecting the words/concepts I want my own students to learn.  At the same time, I feel responsible to teach my students what this word means.  I think if this concept was introduced in LTED 600, it might even help students better understand the HRR chapters they read on Word Knowledge and Vocabulary Instruction.

Do I Think Others Should Know This Word Well...If So, WHO and WHY?:  I think literacy specialists should know this word -- and every content teacher should know this word -- because it will help them to have a more precise answer to the question "why do I want students to learn this word."