Did You Look it Up?

Teaching Pre K-8, Jan 2005 by Drasek, Lisa Von

In this age of the Internet, reference books are sometimes forgotten about - here are some you won't want to miss

Reference Books. When reading that phrase, what comes to mind? A. Multi-volume encyclopedias? B. Five-pound doorstop dictionaries? C. An exciting resource for information? C.! That's right!

Dictionary skills range from understanding alphabetical order, spelling, finding definitions and identifying parts of speech. It's truly amazing how rich a dictionary lesson can be.

But why use the book when the Internet is so speedy? Tom Harrington, a sixth grade teacher, guides his class through dictionary races each September. He notes that the physical book is often faster, especially if you are not sure of the spelling of a word.

How a dictionary race works

Students are paired each with his or her own dictionary. We use a collection of different dictionaries from Scholastic, Macmillan, Merriam-Webster and American Heritage and begin by holding up a dictionary and asking the students to estimate what letter the book is open to. Then the students do the same in their pairs three or four times.

Supplies for the race are pencils, and paper and a dictionary for each participant. After the preliminary discussion of alphabetical order, we talk about the distribution of the letters.

The teacher then gives a word like lion. The students open their dictionaries to the page they think the word is on. Their partner writes down the, page they went to and they then look: for the word and write down the exact page lion is on. The score is the difference in pages. Then it is the partner's turn. The students soon become adept at estimating where a word might be found and their scores grow progressively lower.

This lesson can be followed up with a discussion of the guidewords found at the top of each page. The students also realize that the ones who were lucky enough to use our copies of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Houghton Mifflin, 2000, ISBN: 0-395-82517-2) have the advantage. Weighing in at eight pounds, it's no one's first choice but the students soon discover that the handy thumb index enables them to quickly go to the section they're looking for.

Of course, I don't know any classroom teacher with the budget for 30 copies of a $60.00 dictionary therefore, my recommendation is to have one copy that can only be used with the permission of the teacher. It's a valuable resource that the teacher will model using. When reading aloud The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick, 2003, ISBN: O763-61722-9) to our third graders and the author firmly instructs the reader to look up perfidy (treachery), I nearly leapt off my tall stool for this teachable moment.

For more lessons, take a look at www.macmillandictionary.com/essen tial/resources/classroom-tips.htm for easy-to-follow lesson plans for increasing dictionary skills in the classroom. This site gives tips on looking up words and finding the necessary information, learning more about words and language and using the extra information about words and language.

Another great website is the www.wordcentral.com, sponsored by Merriam-Webster. The word of the day is displayed with its definition, how it is used in a sentence and a pronunciation guide. If you click on "Hear it," you can hear the word said aloud.

Recommendations for each desk

First and second grade:

American Heritage First Dictionary (Houghton Mifflin, 2003, ISBN: 0-61828007-3). Each entry contains one and two syllable words, full-sentence definitions and full color photographs and drawings.

Scholastic First Dictionary (Scholastic Reference, 1998, ISBN: 0-590-9678-6).This first dictionary is illustrated with fullcolor photographs and features the main entries in bold green. The easy-toread format with early elementary vocabulary lends clarity to the full sentence definitions.

Third to sixth grade:

Webster's New World Children 's Dictionary (Wiley, 1999, ISBN: 0-028-63125-0) was written and designed specifically for children ages 8 to 11. This is a terrific resource for bridging up to the more hefty volumes. The definitions are clear and contain example sentences to place words in context. In addition to full-color photographs and maps, there are spelling tips.

American Heritage Children's Dictionary (Houghton Mifflin, 2003, ISBN: 0-61828002-2) With over 13,000 entries, this updated edition is an essential purchase if your present volumes are missing words like Internet, byte, Cyberspace. Contains more that 1,000 full-color photographs and drawings.

Sixth through eighth grade:

The American Heritage Student Dictionary (Houghton Mifflin, 2003, ISBN: 0-61825619-9). This revised and updated edition is designed for middle school and early high school students. Contains more than 3,000 new words. The new full-color design includes 2,000 informative photographs and drawings. .;

Merriam-Webster's Intermediate Dictionary (Merriam-Webster, 2004, ISBN: 0-87779579-7) This revised edition contains over 70,000 entries and includes over 1,000 illustrations that will help middle school students improve their dictionary skills.