Childrens writers word b.., p.1
Children's Writer's Word Book, page 1
Children’s Writer’s
WORD
BOOK
Children’s Writer’s
WORD
BOOK
_____________________
2ND EDITION
_____________________
WRITER'S DIGEST BOOKS
CINCINNATI, OHIO
www.writersdigest.com
Children’s Writer’s Word Book, 2nd edition. Copyright © 2006 by Alijandra Mogilner and Tayopa Mogilner. Manufactured in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No other part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by Writer’s Digest Books, an imprint of F+W Publications, Inc., 4700 East Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236. (800) 289-0963. Second Edition.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mogilner, Alijandra
Children’s writer’s word book / by Alijandra Mogilner.-- 2nd ed.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58297-413-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-58297-413-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. English language--Glossaries, vocabularies, etc. 2. Children’s literature--Authorship. 3. Children--Books and reading. 4. Children--Language. 5. Vocabulary. I. Title.
eISBN: 978-1-58297-688-4
PE1691.M57 2006
428.1--dc22
2006004690
Editor: Amy Schell
Designer: Claudean Wheeler
Production Coordinator: Robin Richie
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Alijandra Mogilner started writing on a bet and sold her first piece of children’s writing to the Children’s Television Workshop publication “3-2-1 Contact” in 1982. Her work appeared regularly in that publication throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Her work has been translated into at least 37 languages, and she has appeared in children’s magazines, such as Misha (Russia), around the world. Besides writing for children, she has published several trade and text books and literally hundreds of magazine articles. She taught writing at the University of California at San Diego Extension and is currently an adjunct professor at Alliant International University. She serves on the Board of Directors of several companies including Faucon International Publications. She is married with three children and lives in California.
Tayopa Mogilner published her first story in a national publication at the age of 10 and had a regular column in a magazine by the age of 12. A graduate of Brandeis University, she works as an educator and author. She currently studies learning in the cognitive science department at the University of California at San Diego.
DEDICATION
Especially for Colin and Miles
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The road to this revised edition to the Children’s Writer’s Word Book has been a long one and has taken many turns. Wherever I have traveled my family has patiently helped me along the way, and I thank them all for their support and love. The world is a very different place than it was almost 15 years ago, but the people at F+W Publications are still kind and helpful, especially Jane Friedman, Amy Schell, Claudean Wheeler, and Robin Richie, who helped make this edition possible.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
How to Use This Book
SOME THINGS YOU’LL NEED TO KNOW
More on Words and Language
Theme and Content
Age Groups and Reading Levels
What Kind of Book Is It?
Technical Items That Help You Sell
Other Types of Writing
A Special Note on Mainstreaming
NATIONAL STANDARDS AND BENCHMARKS
National Reading and Comprehension Standards
Where to Find Information on Other Standards and Benchmarks
KINDERGARTEN
Kindergarten Word List
1 st GRADE
First-Grade Word List
2 nd GRADE
Second-Grade Word List
3 rd GRADE
Third-Grade Word List
4 th GRADE
Fourth-Grade Word List
5 th GRADE
Fifth-Grade Word List
6 th GRADE AND MIDDLE SCHOOL
Sixth-Grade Word List
THESAURUS
RESOURCES
Recommended Readings
Sources Used for Word Lists
Addresses for the Departments of Education for U.S. States and Territories
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WORDS
INTRODUCTION
One of the wonderful things about dreaming of becoming a children’s writer is that it is such a possible dream. Successful writers not only gain financially, but they also gain a loyal and generous readership. I can think of no more gracious and enthusiastic an audience than young readers. Children identify strongly with characters in their books and often want the same book read to them over and over again. That could be your book—the one that’s dog-eared and tattered from being someone’s cherished companion.
The original Children’s Writer’s Word Book set out to help authors achieve their goals of reaching young audiences. And with this new edition, the commitment to aiding authors is redoubled.
A great deal has happened in our world since Children’s Writer’s Word Book was first published in 1993. The World Wide Web has made dramatic changes in almost everyone’s lives. We’ve discovered that there was once water on the surface of Mars and are planning to terraform that planet to make it livable for humans. Nanotechnology is already changing the landscape of medicine, and scientists have actually been able to teleport small amounts of matter from one place to another. Closer to home, concerns with ecology, disaster preparedness, mainstreaming in schools, and the expanded role most schools play in integrating children into problem solving in appropriate ways have been added to the classroom curriculum in many, if not most, schools.
With those changes, of course, came changes in children’s literature and in the materials used in the classroom. Those changes include new words to express the new world in which we live, and they also include a change in emphasis on subject matter in juvenile publishing.
While horizons of knowledge keep expanding, and with it the language we use to talk about our world, successful children’s writing requires more than just using the right vocabulary. To achieve your dream and become an author for this special audience, you first must understand the unique style necessary in children’s writing. The clarity, simplicity, and rhythm that should be present in a children’s book or story can be difficult to master. However, it’s these very ingredients that will make your book one that is read over and over again.
Children’s Writer’s Word Book will help you choose words children will both understand and be challenged by, words that will help them perceive the world as it is and imagine worlds that could be. You, as a writer of children’s literature, have a special commitment; along with the joy of creating for your readers comes the responsibility of writing honestly and clearly. This book will help you meet that responsibility. Anyone working in children’s literature, young adult literature, or educational writing will find it an invaluable tool.
Educators will find the book useful in creating classroom materials, such as vocabulary lists, and for creative writing projects with students. Teachers and day-care professionals can use the lists as a reference when developing classroom material. Since the first edition of this book, there has been a rapid expansion in home schooling. Once reserved for children who were ill or for families who moved frequently, home schooling has expanded dramatically. Today, more than one million Web sites are devoted to the subject; and many states, such as California, now have online “Virtual Academy” resources for home schooling.
The aforementioned professionals and aspirants will refer again and again to specific word lists to spur ideas. The lists can stimulate creativity and verify your perception of what’s appropriate. This book is for anyone who works with—or would like to reach—children and beginning readers, whether writing a story for fifth-grade boys or an adult reading text to improve literacy skills.
The original Children’s Writer’s Word Book has found a place both in the traditional classroom and in the home school environment. As a result, a variety of resources have been added that will help both those who write for the commercial market and educators with a much smaller audience in mind.
While the specific areas of study identified in the grade sections are still accurate, several new areas have been added. These include national standards for reading and comprehension that will help both the author and the educator.
In part because of mainstreaming, disability issues are being introduced at the earliest levels. These books are aimed both at the nondisabled child and the affected child, to whom the disability or ill ness is explained. Along with this, issues of sensitivity to race, religion, and culture are being introduced variously, depending on the subject, from kindergarten through fifth grade.
Issues such as divorce and the concept of death (usually through the death of pets) are now being introduced in the first three years instead of being put off until fifth or sixth grade.
Ethnic, cultural pride, and bilingual books have increased in number, although they do not yet constitute a large percentage of the publishing world for juvenile readers. I expect this to grow dramatically in the next few years.
Fantasy and science fiction stories are being introduced at a younger age, and the science and technology curriculum has expanded for younger students. Thus, terms like terraforming, browser, and URL need to be added to the vocabulary. Dozens of new words were not contemplated in the original book. For example, the World Wide Web was just beginning to become popular at the time.
The increased saturation of the Internet in everyday life and the use of educational television and other technological resources have had a great impact on a child’s vocabulary. Names of superheroes are recognized in reading, and concepts such as atomic energy and living in outer space are not unfamiliar to five-year-olds. The Internet is being introduced in kindergarten throughout the United States wherever the technology is available. Internet safety, ecology, and proposed changes in transportation, living areas, and even where people will live have become integrated into the school curriculum. The world, and society, will continue to change rapidly and will affect children at least as much as adults. Even the words used for the youngest reader have changed. SUV may now supplement car, and words such as Web (as in World Wide Web) and space have been added to the pre-k and kindergarten word list. The world of technology will continue to evolve ever more rapidly. Words and subjects that deal with new technologies should be considered appropriate for even the youngest readers if the author uses them carefully. If you want to use a new word, consider if it is popular enough in the culture where children would use it in their own daily vocabulary. If they would, it is probably safe to use.
As adults, we often forget that children can comprehend more than they can articulate, and we end up communicating to them below their level, leaving them bored. Or the opposite can happen: Children are growing up faster than we did and act very sophisticated although their vocabulary skills are undeveloped. Striking the balance between writing below or above their level is tricky. This book helps make the levels clear.
As a writer and teacher, I often needed to know what level a particular word or idea was and didn’t know where to look. That’s when I got the idea for a book I could turn to any time I had a question of this nature. As the idea evolved, it became focused on three areas: lists of specific words commonly introduced at each graded reading level, a thesaurus of these words listing synonyms with the level at which each is usually introduced, and a discussion of standard practices related to word usage in children’s writing.
The result is what you now hold in your hands. Children’s Writer’s Word Book is a desk reference intended to be kept close by for frequent and immediate access. When you need to know if a word you want to use is appropriate for your young audience, or how long your sentences should be, consult this book.
The grade level at which the words presented here are introduced is usually derived from more than one graded source. When there was a discrepancy between standard sources, the words are listed under the grade in which they were most frequently introduced. If there was no clear consensus, the words in this book have a bias in favor of the earliest usage. If that sounds a little inexact, it is—the ultimate judge is the child, and every child is different, as are school districts and parents. All these factors contribute to a child’s comprehension and vocabulary.
In your word choices and in your decisions about theme and concept, you’ll frequently be using your own judgment. This book will simply help make that judgment more certain.
The words in the lists were compiled from a variety of graded readers, several basic word lists, and other sources, and then subjected to my own testing. Certified reading specialists who work with children in the California school system checked the lists. Then, several panels of grade-school children reviewed words I was uncertain about. Beyond this word-by-word analysis, I received more general help from professors of education at San Diego State University and others from the University of California at San Diego, where I taught writing at the extension.
As with the earlier edition of the book, new words have been added at the level they were found in standard literature rather than the level being chosen using a mathematical formula. I have depended upon publications by organizations like NASA to integrate the latest ideas into the standard list. Some new words such as vertiport, microgravity, terraforming, and astrobiology do not have equivalent words because they are new to the language. As a result, these words have been included with only their definitions.
Not surprisingly, most of the vocabulary changes have to do with science. Since Word Book was first published, we have seen the creation of the World Wide Web, the first explorations of Mars, DVDs, the widespread use of cell phones, and a plethora of other technologies that directly affect our lives and the lives of the children we write for and work with. You may find words for readers as young as second grade that are even new to you. One example is rotorcraft, a flying machine that gets its lift and thrust from rotor blades. Though one does not hear the word daily, NASA uses it in its illustrated books for second to fourth grade and in its online cartoons. Although it is unusual, at least at the moment, it is used nationally and deserves a place in any graded vocabulary listing.
While this book gathers words from a wide variety of sources, the lists include those words that educators and publishers generally agree should become a permanent part of children’s word knowledge. Sources used to create the word lists are listed in the appendix.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
Children’s Writer’s Word Book is an easily read reference book—presenting word lists and a thesaurus set up to help, no matter how you write. In publishing, the classifications of children’s literature are broader than the grade-by-grade method employed here. However, before generalizing, you must first understand some of the fine distinctions in ages, grade levels, and word usage. Because a picture book is for children ages two to eight, it’s apparent the two-year-old will be listening to, not reading, the story. Somewhere in that span of six years, the child begins recognizing words; later she can recall the spelling of some of the words when the book is not in front of her. Obviously, this process of selection is different in each child.
So, when you’re writing a picture book, look for words at or below the third-grade level. Limit the amount of third-grade-level words you use because they are understood by the fewest picture-book readers. Publishers’ categories are further explained in the following chapter.
When writing for school-age children, you should be aware of the recent trend in publishing to classify books by level rather than grade. These level books span grades (level 1 being grades 1 and 2, for example) rather than being tied to a specific grade. If you deal with educational materials, you will find that sixth grade, traditionally part of elementary school and included here in that way, is now grouped with six through eight for middle school. Whether considered part of elementary school or middle school, the words, subjects, and concepts pretty well match those given in this expanded and revised edition.
There is also some movement toward taking the chapter book concept, in very short chapters, to grades one and two rather than waiting until level three or third grade.
Except at the kindergarten and first-grade levels, all permutations and tenses of a word are assumed to be introduced at the same time, with exceptions noted on the list. Even at the first-grade level, regular conjugations of a verb are introduced together. For example, only the word choice is given in the listings, but its presence indicates that choose, chose, and chosen may all be used. Word families, such as chemical, chemist, and chemistry or absorb, absorbed, absorbent, absorbing, and absorption are also introduced together. When a first-grade word changes radically, it may become a second-grade word; for example, reason is a first-grade word, but unreasonable would be considered a second-grade word because both a prefix and a suffix are appended to the root word. This is where that ever-sharpening judgment will come into play.
