When and Where I Found It: My wife likes to read some of my articles for class when I am through with them. The other day, when she was reading the article Playful Textbook Previews: Letting go of Familiar Mustache Monologues by Karen Garber-Miller, she asked me what the word auxiliary meant. Garber-Miller (2007) is describing different strategies for previewing text and offers "use summer birthdays to cover auxiliary features within the book (e.g., appendixes)" (p. 286).
Garber-MIller, Karen. (2007). Playful textbook previews: letting go of familiar mustache monologues. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 50(4), 284-288.
Meaning: According to Webster's online dictionary, the word auxiliary is an adjective which means "offering or providing help".
Level of Familiarity: I was aware that auxiliary verbs were "helping verbs" but I was not 100 percent positive that helping was a synonym for auxiliary. With the clue in parenthesis - "e.g., appendixes" I predicted that it had a similar meaning in this case, but wanted to be able to be sure of the definition before I told my wife. I was correct in my prediction, and my wife learned a new word too!
Do I Want to Know This Word Well? Why? The word auxiliary is a useful word that I want to know. It is a word that can be used specifically when teaching literacy, but also is used outside of ELA instruction. It is important for me to be familiar with terms that have anything to do with teaching in general, and, as a literacy educator, even more important for me to have an in-depth working knowledge of terms that are specific to teaching literacy.
Do I Want Others to Know this Word Well? Who and Why? All teachers should know the word auxiliary and how to use it as it as it relates to literacy. When teaching parts of speech, both teachers and students should have the ability to use this word to describe verbs. A thought just came to me - my grandmother was part of the Ladies Auxiliary for our local fire department. I bet she would have thought that it was important for people to know that the this organization was focused on helping and supporting the fire fighters. Yes, the word 'auxiliary' is important for members of our society to know as well. If we teach it to our students, they can develop both specific knowledge of the word (auxiliary verbs) as well as general knowledge of the word (auxiliary groups).
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