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Breaking Down Compound Words A compound word is a word made up of two other words. An effective method for understanding the meaning of a compound word is to break the compound word down into its components. Examples: drugstore (a store that sells drugs), lifeboat (a boat that preserves life)

Affixes: Roots, Prefixes, Suffixes Students can also learn the meanings of words by breaking them down into their roots and affixes. The root is the base word; the affix can be a prefix placed before the root or a suffix placed after the root. Some roots can appear alone, as well as with affixes; others appear only with affixes. Examples: port = to carry prefix ex = out, out of ex + port = export, to carry something out of an area im = in, into im + port = import, to carry something into an area suffix able = to be able transport + able = portable, able to be carried ex + port + able = something that can be carried out of an area Additional Sources: Wikipedia List of PrefixesMichigan Proficiency Exams-List of Prefixes Michigan Proficiency Exams-List of SuffixesList of Suffixes (UK) Wikipedia List of Latin words with English derivatives (Latin roots) Online Etymology Dictionary

Idioms and Phrasal Verbs Students need to master idioms and phrasal verbs if they are to feel at home in English. Idioms (idiomatic expressions) An idiom is a phrase or an expression with a special meaning that cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its words. For example, to fly off the handle means to lose one’s temper or to get angry. You can find more idioms at http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/ Phrasal verbs A phrasal verb usually consists of a verb and a preposition, that together have a special meaning. For example, put off means to postpone. Sometimes a phrasal verb may consist of three parts. E.g., put up with means to tolerate. Note: Some phrasal verbs can be also be considered idioms (like put up with) when the meaning of the individual words is different from the meaning of the sum of its parts. You can find more phrasal verbs at http://www.learn-english-today.com/phrasal-verbs/phrasal-verb-list.htm Terminology  the technical vocabulary of a particular area. Terminology or jargon are words used to identify the technical vocabulary of a particular area or subject. For example, stethoscope, and blood pressure cuff, are terms used in the field of medicine. Word Games and Crossword Puzzles In addition to teaching your students strategies for dealing with learning new vocabulary, provide your students with vocabulary games and puzzles so they can practice. There are several great vocabulary games and puzzles in the word games area. ESL Voices Word Games

An argument is good; a fight is not. Whereas the goal of a fight is to dominate your opponent, in an argument you succeed when you bring your audience over to your side

In the world of rhetoric, argument by the stick is no argument. It never persuades, it only inspires revenge.

After every fight I’d ask him, “Did you get the other kid to agree with you?”

In rhetoric, lying isn’t just a foul because it’s wrong, it’s a foul because it’s unpersuasive

Pathos happens to be the root word for “sympathy.”

Logos, ethos, and pathos appeal to the brain, gut, and heart of adult and kid alike. While our brain tries to sort the facts, our gut tells us whether we can trust the other person, and our heart makes us want to do something about it. They’re the essence of effective persuasion.

When my children made an honest attempt to persuade me to let them watch television, for instance, I gave in whenever possible: The win felt doubly rewarding to them.

My kids grew so fond of debate, in fact, that they disputed the TV itself. “Why should I eat candy that talks?”

It was as if I’d given them advertising immunization shots.

Indeed, as my children get older and more persuasive, I find myself losing more arguments than I win. They drive me crazy. They do me proud.  

create your own big book for a story you have just read. Prepare 5-8 pieces of poster board for the book and write a description at the bottom of each page retelling each piece of the story. Working in groups, have your students illustrate what is described at the bottom of the page. Once all the pictures are complete, let your students decide what order they should appear in the book. Then secure the pages, read the book back to your class and make it available to your students during independent reading time

share his or her favorite moment from the reading selection, and have him write it on a notecard or write it on one yourself. Ask another student and then another to do the same. When you have about a dozen cards completed, ask your students to organize them in any way that is logical. There may be several organizations which are possible

create a map of the setting for the story or book. They can either draw the setting or create a three dimensional model of it using cardboard cutouts. Have your students include any characters in the map as well.

two notecards and have him write true on one and false on the other. Then, read aloud a statement about the selection your class read. Make sure some of your statements are true and others are false. Each person should hold up his vote and his card after you read each statement. Have students check each other to make sure all agree. For the false statements, ask your students what they would need to do to make them true.

act out in class with this post reading activity. Ask individuals or groups of students to pose as the characters in the story in a particular scene. Then, take a photo of your students. After printing the pictures out, bring them to class the next day and ask your students to explain what it happening in the book at the moment they are acting out!

ask pairs of students to write a description of each of the characters in detail. Then, have the pair decide which of their classmates is most like the characters in the story. If you like, you may want to have the students then reenact parts of the story.

"Streaming…advantages those who are already high attainers, disadvantaging those who are placed in middle or lower groups who are deprived of working with those who are more advanced."

Bottom stream pupils are more likely to have behaviour problems, to be from poor backgrounds and to have less educated mothers, the researchers have shown in the past.

Government policy is currently[when?] promoting 'specialisation' whereby parents choose a secondary school appropriate for their child's interests and skills. Most initiatives focus on parental choice and information, implementing a pseudo-market incentive to encourage better schools. This logic has underpinned the controversial league tables of school performance.

Privacy Settings Are Not a Veil

Who Do You Follow? It’s really awkward when you meet a brother at the masjid who is married with kids, follow him on Instagram, and then see that while he posts normal pictures, he is following 200 swimsuit models on Instagram.

Unseen Consequences In the book It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, the author makes a point about how teens consider their public spaces private. In other words, if they’re posting goofy photos with their friends and leaving comments, they can’t fathom why a random adult who has nothing to do with them would view it. While logically that may be true, it’s just not the case. The internet is forever.

Your profile is not limited to just a Facebook page. Your profile encompasses the sum of what you post, people you follow, and pages you’ve liked. Two questions that are great points of introspection: Would I be ok with how my social profiles look if I were to suddenly pass away? Would I be comfortable with my profile if I was “friends” with the Prophet (saw) online? Or if he was to see my Snapchat story history?

Societal Pressure

Embarrassing Others

Indeed, those who like that immorality should be spread [or publicized] among those who have believed will have a painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter. And Allah knows and you do not know (24:19).

“Oh you who have believed with their tongues yet faith has not entered their hearts! Do not back-bite the Muslims, and do not seek to discover their faults, for whoever seeks after their faults, Allah will seek his faults. And if Allah seeks after someone’s faults, He will expose him even (what he committed) in his home.”

The meaning of this Name is that Allah (swt) is aware of our sins, and yet He covers them up. He does not allow our embarrassing actions to become known to others. He protects us by keeping our faults from becoming public. He keeps even our largest sins hidden from those closest to us.

He is Al-Sitteer, and He covers your sins, asks you to repent, and He loves that you cover the sins of others

The teacher's role in the classroom will become that of a coach. The instructor's goal is to move each child towards pre-determined outcomes rather than attempting to transmit the content of Western civilization to the next generation in a scholarly fashion

the focus is no longer on content. Feelings, attitudes, and skills such as learning to work together in groups will become just as important as learning information--some reformers would argue more important.

Where traditional curricula focused on the past, reformers argue that outcome-based methods prepare students for the future and for the constant change which is inevitable in our society.

Reformers advocating an outcome-based approach to curriculum development point to the logical simplicity of its technique. First, a list of desired outcomes in the form of student behaviors, skills, attitudes, and abilities is created. Second, learning experiences are designed that will allow teachers to coach the students to a mastery level in each outcome. Third, students are tested. Those who fail to achieve mastery receive remediation or retraining until mastery is achieved. Fourth, upon completion of learner outcomes a student graduates.

According to William Spady, a reform advocate, outcomes can be written with traditional, transitional, or transformational goals in mind. Spady advocates transformation goals.

Traditional outcome-based programs would use the new methodology to teach traditional content areas like math, history, and science

Many teachers find this a positive option for challenging the minimal achiever

An outcome-based program would prevent such students from graduating or passing to the next grade without reaching a pre-set mastery level of competency.

Transformational OBE subordinates course content to key issues, concepts, and processes. Indeed, Spady calls this the "highest evolution of the OBE concept." Central to the idea of transformational reform is the notion of outcomes of significance.

Spady supports transformational outcomes because they are future oriented, based on descriptions of future conditions that he feels should serve as starting points for OBE designs

little mention is made about specific things that students should know as a result of being in school.

The focus is on attitudes and feelings, personal goals, initiative, and vision--in their words, the whole student.

It is in devising learner outcomes that one's world view comes into play. Those who see the world in terms of constant change, politically and morally, find a transformation model useful. They view human nature as evolving, changing rather than fixed.

Advocates of outcome-based education point with pride to its focus on the student rather than course content. They feel that the key to educational reform is to be found in having students master stated learner outcomes. Critics fear that this is exactly what will happen. Their fear is based on the desire of reformers to educate the whole child. What will happen, they ask, when stated learner outcomes violate the moral or religious views of parents?

Under the traditional system of course credits a student could take a sex-ed course, totally disagree with the instruction and yet pass the course by doing acceptable work on the tests presented. Occasion-ally, an instructor might make life difficult for a student who fails to conform, but if the student learns the material that would qualify him or her for a passing grade and credit towards graduation.

If transformational outcome-based reformers have their way, this student would not get credit for the course until his or her attitudes, feelings, and behaviors matched the desired goals of the learner outcomes.

Another goal requires students to know about and use community health resources. Notice that just knowing that Planned Parenthood has an office in town isn't enough, one must use it.

transformational outcome- based reform would be a much more efficient mechanism for changing our children's values and attitudes about issues facing our society

the direction these changes often take is in conflict with our Christian faith

"Who has authority over our children?"

Outcome-based education is an ideologically neutral tool for curricular construction; whether it is more effective than traditional approaches remains to be seen. Unfortunately, because of its student-centered approach, its ability to influence individuals with a politically correct set of doctrines seems to be great. Parents (and all other taxpayers) need to weigh the possible benefits of outcome-based reform with the potential negatives.

who will determine the learner outcomes for their schools

consideration of what learner outcomes the public wants rather than assuming that educators know what's best for our children. Who will decide what it means to be an educated person, the taxpaying consumer or the providers of education?

If students are going to be allowed to proceed through the material at their own rate, what happens to the brighter children? Eventually students will be at many levels, what then? Will added teachers be necessary? Will computer-assisted instruction allow for individual learning speeds? Either option will cost more money. Some reformers offer a scenario where brighter students help tutor slower ones thereby encouraging group responsibility rather than promoting an elite group of learners. Critics feel that a mastery- learning approach will inevitably hold back brighter students.

With outcome-based reform, many educators are calling for a broader set of evaluation techniques. But early attempts at grading students based on portfolios of various kinds of works has proved difficult. The Rand Corporation studied Vermont's attempt and found that "rater reliability--the extent to which raters agreed on the quality of a student's work--was low." There is a general dislike of standardized tests among the reformers because it focuses on what the child knows rather than the whole child, but is there a viable substitute? Will students find that it is more important to be politically correct than to know specific facts?

whether or not school bureaucracies will allow for such dramatic change? How will the unions respond? Will legislative mandates that are already on the books be removed, or will this new approach simply be laid over the rest, creating a jungle of regulations and red tape?

although districts may be given input as to how these outcomes are achieved, local control of the outcomes themselves may be lost.

Many parents feel that there is already too much emphasis on global citizenship, radical environmentalism, humanistic views of self-esteem, and human sexuality at the expense of reading, writing, math, and science.

education may become more propagandistic rather than academic in nature