ENGLISH III HONORS VOCABULARY JOURNAL

Assignment Overview: This journal will be an ongoing strategy for developing vocabulary and analyzing diction throughout the year. Please use the following format for your entries. For each reading, you will self-select a minimum of four words. Choose words you will possibly encounter again, not text-specific words such as character names. We will refer to this journal in class and it will be regularly assessed. This assignment is designed to develop your personal vocabulary knowledge and help you practice selecting meaningful words in a variety of contexts. Feel free to add pictures, symbols, or mnemonics to your entry if this is helpful to you. Sample entry from reading Letters from an American Farmer: 1. Unfettered (adjective), from fetter (noun or verb) a. A fetter is like a physical shackle or chain, or metaphorically like a restraint or limitation. Something that is unfettered would be free and unrestricted. b. This word implies captivity, like in slavery or in a prison. c. The author chose unfettered to describe America to emphasize the freedom that Americans have as opposed to Europeans, who are still restrained by a more controlling government. d. 4 - I understand this word pretty well, but I would like to see it a few more times.

Journal Format # Word & Part of Speech The specific diction - what word are you analyzing? After the word, list the part of speech in parentheses.

Denotation

Describe the word - what does it literally mean? This should be an explanation that makes sense to you (not necessarily a dictionary definition). What other meanings are implied by this word? One sentence discussing why the author chose this word - how does it add to the meaning of the text?

B C

Connotation Explanation

Rating

Rate your understanding of this word and how it can be used on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 equaling a very clear understanding and 1 being a very unclear understanding.

Created by D. Miller and T. Boyer-Brown, ChiArts 2011