Tell me a story

Stories are important things in our lives. Families are held together by stories ("remember the time we . . ." or "Dad always . . . "). It's only when we know and share people's stories that we can claim them as friends. Religions are full of stories. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism share many stories; when the stories diverge, so do the religions. Stories can heal or inspire, and if we aren't careful, hurt. Stories are powerful. And every teacher needs to be a good storyteller.

Being a good storyteller is especially important for a tutor, who works with kids in their area of greatest weakness. Words are not my students' friends, and it's up to me to make those words friendlier. One way I do that is by telling the story behind the words. Knowing their backgrounds reveals fascinating tales. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Every word is a fossil poem." That is so true; you have to have the heart of an archeologist and dig until you discover the poem within the word. A great source is the Oxford English Dictionary. In the absence of that, a good online etymology dictionary works.

A great example is the word answer. This is a killer for students to spell. WHAT is that stupid w doing in there? I find the story fascinating (okay, so I'm a word geek!). It comes from the Old English andswaru, which was formed from two words, and (against) and -swaru (to swear). While now it simply means "to reply to a question", it once had the meaning of "making a sworn statement rebutting a charge". We see a vestige of that meaning in the phrase to answer to. Once students hear that story and can see the fossil of the word swear, I find most never misspell it again.

If your student is having trouble with a particular word, look for its relatives. Is your child having trouble keeping the to/too/two group straight? Teach to first. Next, point out two's relatives: twain, twin, twice, twelve, twenty. Even though we don't pronounce the w, think of it as two's family name. You can see it in the word between, which comes from Old English bi (by) and tweon (two each). There it is in twilight, in which the meaning seems to be "half-light", although we once also spoke of the morning twilight. Twine originally meant "a double thread", while twist once meant "to spin two threads together." Do you think your student will ever forget that two is the number word? Not after all those stories! Last, too can be added with "too many o's."

So go to it. Start digging—find those fossils, find the poems, and tell those kids a story!