Literacy Matters
INDEPENDENT READING ADDS TO SIGNIFICANT WORD EXPOSURE
If students read just 17 minutes a day outside of the classroom, this adds up to 2 hours a week.
Minutes Per Day Reading |
Word Exposure Per Year |
| 65 | 4,358,000 |
| 21.1 | 1,823,000 |
| 14.2 | 1,146,000 |
| 6.5 | 432,000 |
| 1.3 | 106,000 |
(Adapted from Anderson, Wilson and Fielding)
There is simply no downside to reading frequently, widely, and voraciously.
SJPC WORD OF THE WEEK
WEEK 9 DEMEANOUR
DEFINITION: a person's appearance and behaviour; the way someone seems to be to other people.
IN A SENTENCE:
She has the demeanour of a lady who is completely content with her life.
There was nothing in his demeanour to suggest he was anxious.
ORIGIN: The root of demeanor is the Latin word minari, which means to threaten and was used mostly to describe the sounds made by cattle herders. By the time the word reached Anglo-French, it meant “to conduct,” and it was in Middle English that it acquired the form “demenen” and the meaning “to conduct oneself.”
WEEK 10 EXEMPLARY
DEFINITION: deserving imitation because of excellence; deserving honour, respect and admiration.
IN A SENTENCE: During my illness I was looked after in an exemplary fashion, and I have nothing but praise for the doctors and nurses.
ORIGIN: The word and its close relatives, example and exemplify, derives from the Latin noun, exemplum, which means, ‘example’.
