Fwd: Word of the Year for Elementary Students

[Grant Barrett]

Considering the recent thread about teaching language in schools beyond
parts of speech, I thought everyone might want to cheer this teacher
on, and perhaps answer her questions as well.

Début du message réexpédié :

> De: Roberta524 at aol.com
> Date: Fri 13 Dec 2002  19:36:05 America/New_York
> À: gbarrett at americandialect.org
> Objet: No Subject
>
> Hello!
>
> Last year I read when your organization chose a word of the year.  I
> thought
> it would be a great lesson with my fifth graders.  Somehow I got a
> list of
> the words of the entire century - was that from your organization as
> well?  I
> somehow lost the source of it.  I think I had read that the
> organization went
> back through history to choose words.  Was that your organization?  If
> so,
> while go through the list, I noticed "Ms." for 1952.  Also, "D-Day"
> for 1918.
>  Can you tell me why since we normally associates those two words with
> much
> later decades.
>
> Oh, last year I did the lesson after you had chosen the word.  This
> year I am
> doing it beforehand to see if anyone picks the word your group
> chooses.  A
> lot of kids chose "Iraq" although I don't think you have ever chosen a
> place
> that is a proper noun.  One of my colleagues thinks it will be DVD
> while I
> think it will be "weapons of mass destruction."
>
> Anyway, if you could answer my questions, I appreciate it.  Thank you.
>
> Roberta