Quote: "It's much easier to learn to recognize whale than what, because whale conjures up the image of the huge aquatic mammal, but what is abstract." Tompkins 189
Comment: I think that this quote is very true because most times children feel that words represent something, which in many cases they do, but then we through a word that is abstract at them and they cannot understand it. I just think reading and writing are very complicated processes we need to learn, but are practically understandable.
Question: How as teachers do we teach students what abstract words like what mean. How do we make it easy for them to understand?
Karalee that is a great question that I kept on thinking about as I read that part of the reading a couple of days ago. Maybe what we could do to help with abstract words like "what" is have them posted around the classroom and make a scavenger hunt where the students need to find the words in various parts of the classroom. For example, you could make a riddle, such as "I am a question word, and part of the basic questions (who, when, where) but you can't see me. What am I?" That way kids can have a fun way to find out what abstract words are.
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