Recommending: Gentle Words

When I was young, my mom often bought the Reader’s Digest magazine in the check-out line at the grocery store.  Her favorite part was the section called, “It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power,” which was really just a simple multiple-choice vocabulary test of interesting words.  Maybe it was that introduction that sparked my interest in the power of words, because I’ve always been intrigued by the importance of finding the “just right” word for a situation. 

As a coach, it’s not necessarily the big fancy words that are important.  But choosing the word that has a kinder, gentler feel can make a big difference in how a recommendation is taken up.  When I say, “I’m wondering how a Venn diagram would work in this lesson,” it is an invitation for the teacher I’m working with to consider this tool.  “You should use a Venn diagram instead of that chart,” would not be received nearly so well. 

In the spirit of gentle words, I invite you to look over the table below and consider some soft words you might include in your conversations with teachers:

Harsh Words	Gentle Words
but	since
	so
you	we/us
should/must	could
always/never	sometimes
will	might
best	possible
determine	consider/wonder
wrong	different

Although these are small and simple words, I think you’ll find that they do enrich your word power!

This week, you might want to take a look at:

A video about changing from “have to” to “get to” – the power of language:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eNJaObd05YI

If end-of-year research projects part of teachers’ end-of-year plan, share this free online organizer for bibliographic information:

http://www.bibme.org/

Awesome diigolet is a simple tool that allows you to highlight and sticky note on web pages – and those markings are right where you left them when you revisit a website!  Info at:

https://www.diigo.com/tools/diigolet

Concept maps are a great way to organize information during research.  Try this free online organizer:

https://bubbl.us/

Lesson plans for informational texts:

http://www.ncte.org/lessons/nonfiction-texts?roi=echo4-25932451636-35121896-042de28d9de941830ecd0f124e7fa679&

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!