Well, okay, they aren’t really BIG words, like antidisestablishmentarianism. And you should know that the kids involved are fourth graders. By “big words” their teacher, Kari Johnson, means unusual words for fourth graders—and, let’s be honest—for far too many adults.
Every Wednesday, they play with new "big" word. Plethora. Iota. Fabrication. Whatever comes up. Visiting this classroom every year to do a writing residency, I’ve usually tried to bring a word they don’t know. So far I haven’t managed to stump them. That’s probably why I forgot to try this year. I think I stopped trying when they actually knew (and I don’t mean one or two of them. I mean the whole class) copacetic. How many fourth graders do you know who can use copacetic in a sentence?
Which brings me to my point. Kari claims she doesn’t do anything special. There’s no technique here. It’s just that she has a passion for language and it rubs off. No extra funding. No special workshops. One of the kids in her class this year, Kaitlyn, told me that, “It’s fun not to use the same boring old words.” Fun, then, and a love of language. A light touch. The last I saw, the kids were finishing their big word posters. I can’t recreate their pictures for you, but here are some of the captions:
“Ava took a gander at the dapper boy who ambled through the park.”
“Incorrigible Ivy has an immaculate room.”
“Bill boasted that he thought the Stallions would trounce the Hawks in football.”
“Patriotic Patty was punctual at the party.”
Do I have to point out that Kari has also taught them alliteration? Oh, and every time someone uses a simile, everybody in the room snaps his or her fingers. They do hand flutters if they hear one of the “big words.”
My sense is that these kids feel a little smarter—and a little more likely to take an intellectual risk—than otherwise. But that’s just my unscientific intuition. I believe in the magic of an adult who loves language infecting kids.
However this works, it sure beats long lists of vocab, huh?
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