I just had to share ds8's words for this week - his teacher took them from her daughter's medical chart LOL - "atrial septal defect"; "hypoplasia of the optic nerve"; "adrenal aplasia"; "pulmonary hypertension"; "respiratory failure"; "neonatal pneumonia"; hypotension; "metabolic acidosis". Last week his words included her diagnosis - panhypopituitarism. He also has to figure out what the words mean, using the Greek/Latin root words/prefixes. Isn't his teacher great ??

I don't think those are very useful words or terms to learn, frankly.

I do agree with Jack's mom.
teacher is throwing some medical jargon??

I like that the teacher is giving challenging words, but I think the teacher isn't being too thoughtful re: release of his kid's private medical condition. I wouldn't be too happy when I grew up to have someone say, "Oh, I know you. I had your dad as a teacher and learned all about your medical condition in spelling." He could do similar things with roots with words that might have more usefulness to the kids (e.g., related to something they are studying).

may be if you are in medical field, you think knowing those words is not useful

I can't help but notice that she skipped over the psychiatric diagnoses: Major Depressive Disorder might have been a good one. Or, for a spelling challenge, schizophrenia.

LOL

Personally, my all time favorite -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

I see hypo-, hyper-, a-, -ia, -ism, neo-, -nat-, -tens-, pan-, etc. - all great things to know the meaning of.

I should probably have mentioned that the teacher's child (1 year old) is in my care at my daycare - so my son is well aware of all of her medical conditions. He absolutely adores her. I just thought it was fun that the teacher was giving him words that he could relate to via her daughter - as well as learning the Greek/Latin prefix/roots etc at the same time. Spelling words don't have to be boring all of the time

Leave it to this group to overanalyze your happy news.

While I do see a benefit to learning the prefixes, roots, etc, I think the best part of the lesson is teaching the kids that they can figure out any word if they work at it/break it down. It reminds me of dd's Montessori math, and how they learned to carry almost immediately with 4 and 5 digit numbers. They never had any fear of "big numbers".

Ok, having dealt with medical charts, complicated diagnoses, and trying to have copacetic conversations with doctors, I personally love that this teacher is giving a very bright child the option of breaking down complicated medical jargon into bite-size pieces that they can understand by learning the roots that make up the words.

I second the praise, having seen success with similar word lists in my vocab classes for gifted kids.

They couldn't get enough of the posters I put up illustrating the oft-repeated statistic about the percentage of English vocab in the sciences that is derived from Greek and Latin (90). I eventually had a rotating pool of over two dozen, about everything from astronomy to particle physics, cell structure, evolution, viruses, the Constitution, and the budget of the U.S. government.

Not only does this teacher's approach give kids the tools to break down seemingly unfamiliar words; it stimulates interest in a wide range of scientific fields.

I think its awesome! The kids learn about breaking words down into their parts, they learn to not be afraid of big words, and they also learn to be literate in biological sciences. As a nurse I find my job is much easier if the patient that I'm trying to talk to/teach is somewhat familiar with the human body and its parts. These kids don't have to file away and remember each of these particular terms now but down the line it will put them in a position of being able to have more information at a time when it may well be critical.