Module 2 - Activity 1 & 2

Activity 1: Page 58 #3c

Words	My Definitions	Definitions after Reading
creech	A creaking sound	Shout
droogs	To feel sad	Friend
glazzies	Glasses
goloss	Shoes	Voice
malenky	To be bland	Small
messel	A pathway	Thought
millicents	A type of money	Police
poogly	Unbelievable	Scared
razrez	Razors	Rip
skorry	Scared	Quick
spatted	To spit
zoobies	Zombies

            I never read A Clockwork Orange in high school. I recall my teacher saying that it was an advanced book for a proficient reader. Therefore, I had no idea what these words were prior to reading the first chapter. In fact, I feel that the author invented a lot of nonsense words for this book. When one reads them out of context they make absolutely no sense; however, when you read them in context, they make perfect sense. I used context clues within the sentences as well as before and after the sentences to determine the meaning of these new words. I employed the syntactic context to find the meanings of the words, yet I also used the semantic context to understand the grammatical placement of the unfamiliar words.

Activity 2: Page 85 #7

·   I did not try to read the words letter-by-letter because I understand that our English language has patterns and blends.
·   I did try to read the words mostly by chunking them into syllables because most of the words were unfamiliar to me.
·   I did not try to read the words by sampling the letters more or less all at once because this leads to more miscues. Also, I relied heavily on the pronunciation key.
·  I only know the meaning of sarsaparilla since my husband studied horticulture in college. All of the other words are unfamiliar to me which made them difficult to pronounce.
·  I think pronouncing the words did not give me any insight into their meanings because they do not have root words that I am familiar with.
·  I use a lot of context clues (semantic and syntax) when I encounter unknown words when reading. I also use the “read on” strategy to see if the word might be described later on in the sentence or paragraph. If I still cannot figure out the meaning of new words, I use my Webster application on my cellphone to define the word.
·  I feel that this experiment showed that reading is more difficult when the words are in isolation rather than in context. I feel that I would have a better understanding of these words if they were put into context like in activity one.