SUMMER 2015

DESIGN THINKING & ENGINEERINGSTRUCTURED WORD INQUIRY

THE NUEVA

JOURNAL

Lower & Middle Schools6565 Skyline BoulevardHillsborough, CA 94010

(650) 350 – 4600

Upper School131 E. 28th Ave.

San Mateo, CA 94403(650) 235 – 7100

communications@nuevaschool.orgwww.nuevaschool .org

34

STRUCTURED WORD INQUIRY AT NUEVA | GRADE 1

First graders use SWI to discover the morphology and etymology of the word <cardiovascular>

One day last semester, Luke’s first graders returned from P.E. with Zubin, where they were learning about the cardiovascular system, and asked Luke if they could use Structured Word Inquiry (SWI) to investigate the word <cardiovascular>. Luke put the word on a pad of paper and asked the students, “Do any of you know what this word means, or have any ideas of what it might mean?”

Sean responded, “It means your heart tube and your heart.”

“That’s very descriptive,” Luke said. “What do you mean?”

“The stuff that brings the blood to your body” Sean replied.

This kind of discussion is the first step in SWI: forming the initial hypothesis. While Sean spoke, Luke drew a heart and a sketch of blood vessels next to the word <cardiovascular>.

Then he asked the class the following: “Do you guys have any ideas of how to parse this word? Any theories about elements in it? Do you have any idea of what the base in it could be? Remember, this is just a hypothesis. You may have no idea and that’s fine, or just looking at it you might have some ideas.” Luke called on Ryan and asked him to spell the possible base.

“C-A-R-D,” Ryan answered.

After establishing that <card> could be the base of the word, Luke asked, “What do you think that base means?”

With this question, the class began the process of finding meaning in orthography, or the conventional spelling system of a language. Luke asked the class how the possible base, <card>, seemed to be related to the whole word, <cardiovascular>.

“It’s clearly related in the spelling,” he commented, “but is it related in the meaning?”

“No,” several students answered.

Caleb made a conjecture: “I think the base is <cardio>.”

Luke asked Caleb to spell the word while Luke wrote <cardio> on the board.

“And why do you think that, Caleb?” Luke asked.

“Because my dad is a doctor and he says ‘cardio’ a lot,” Caleb replied, bringing his own life experience to bear on the discussion.

The next step in the process of SWI is forming a word sum, or providing a formalized hypothesis about a word’s possible elements, in this case “cardio + vascular > cardiovascular.”

For the first graders, knowing that the hypothesis isn’t sacred but needs to be tested is a big deal. Luke’s students are most excited when they find that they can disprove something. With SWI, they practice writing and saying a word to understand that spelling is made of morphological elements as opposed to sounds.

After forming the word sum, the class looked up the word <cardiovascular> in the Oxford English Dictionary and found a reference to the word <cerebrovascular>. This new word suggested a need to adjust the initial hypothesis that <cardio> is the base of <cardiovascular>, since both words contain the element <vascular>. An English word needs at least one base, so looking at <cerebrovascular>, the students knew that <vascular> could be a base because they were seeing it in two places. Luke encouraged the formation of a new hypothesis, suggesting that students test out new theories, ideas, and suggestions.

Anton offered a thought on <vascular>: “I can prove that <vascular> is the base.” He wrote “cardiovascular” on the board, then added “cerebrovascular” under it as Luke and the class looked on. “So these are the same,” he explained, pointing at <vascular> in both words, “But these aren’t,” he continued, pointing at <cerebro> and <cardio>.

“Luke, could you look up what other words end with ‘vascular’?” Anton asked.

Luke went to his computer and pulled up the Word Searcher, a large, simple text searcher that uses a database of English language words, for the class to follow along.

HYPOTHESIZING <CARDIOVASCULAR>

35

STRUCTURED WORD INQUIRY BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

Parents and siblings have been drawn into the excitement and satisfaction that they see Nueva students getting from Structured Word inquiry

Kelly Ishida Sloan saw this excitement firsthand when her son was introduced to SWI in second grade. “I saw how it sparked excitement in my son about how to understand and read words,” she said. “He would come home abuzz and eager to continue exploring the investigation of words like antidisestablishmentarianism that he had started in school with his class.” 

Wanting to further build on this kind of enthusiasm, Nueva literacy specialist Gail Venable offered to teach a SWI primer for Kelly and other parents like her, whose children were just as excited as hers. Together they mapped out strategies for extending the learning process at home as a family. 

Jennifer Tyler Lee also wanted to bring SWI into the home after her son was introduced to it by his first-grade teacher, Emily Mitchell. What began as investigation into word study quickly morphed into a game at the family table. “It started with a curious question that my son posed at dinner one evening, ‘What is it called when a word is spelled the same

“Ah, isn’t that interesting. What did it come up with?” Luke asked. There were only two results for the word search: <vascular> and <cardiovascular>. The kids were so excited, everyone began talking at once, and Luke had to remind them to raise their hands. Several hands immediately shot up; Luke called on Alex.

“So, ‘vascular’ is the base because if it were a suffix or prefix, it wouldn’t be a word!” Alex exclaimed.

“Ding ding ding! OK, so, clearly that means some part of this element here [<vascular>] has to be a base.”

The students adjusted their hypothesis based on their learning. Caleb ventured into new territory: “I think it might be a compound word, because if my dad was using the word ‘cardio,’ it couldn’t be a prefix on its own.”

The class reviewed the new hypothesis. Because “cardio” can be used on its own, and because <vascular> must contain a base, <cardiovascular> may be a compound word.

“Who can raise a hand and share what he means by compound word? We talked about it in passing. Anna, what’s a compound word?” Luke asked.

“A word that’s made of two bases,” Anna responded. The class began to reexamine the word <cardio> yet again.

Anya presented another guess. “It might just be a shorter way to say <cardiovascular>,” she noted. Luke explained that <cardio> could be a “clip,” or a word that is more convenient to shorten, such as the word <taxi>, which is shortened from <taximeter>. The class next looked up the etymology of <cardiovascular> to learn more about its meaning and structure. Luke explained that the entry showed that the word <cardio> originally derived from the Greek word “cardi,” meaning heart. Because this element has a very clear meaning, the class could feel confident in thinking of this element as a base. The class also looked up <vascular>, and found out that it comes from Latin. One mystery then remained for the class to solve: What is the <o> doing there? Why is this word spelled the way it is?

Luke explained that in Greek and Latin words, we can often have compound words. Some words in English come fully from Latin, some come fully from Greek, and occasionally others can be mixed (a hybrid compound). When we make compound words in English using bases from Greek and Latin, there is often a connecting vowel, in this case an <o>. “Oh!” the first graders exclaimed.

“So it is a compound word,” Caleb chimed in. Mystery solved!

way, but has a different meaning, like wind (that which powers a sail) and wind (to turn)?’ I didn’t know the answer, so we set out on an adventure to find out together,” she said.

Realizing the impact of this kind of exploration, Jennifer wanted to spread the word about the power of SWI, so she incorporated it into her own book, The 52 New Foods Challenge. In it, Jennifer approaches the family meal as an opportunity for creativity and exploration, including SWI activities. There is a hunt for food-related homophones, like beet and beat or chews and choose, as well as more challenging word investigations of homographs like mint and buffet.

“Structured Word Inquiry transformed learning about language into a game for my kids,” said Jennifer. “It was a catalyst that led my whole family to look at language in an entirely new way.”

DISCOVERY AT HOME: NUEVA FAMILIES AND STRUCTURED WORD INQUIRY