Supergrade8spelling

Grade 8

Spelling Lesson & Worksheet Series

Lesson Activities Lessons: Spelling Exercises, Guided Reading, Spelling Workout, Guided Reading, Active Skills, Corrective Reading, Pretest, Word Match, Diamond Word Find, Multiple Choice, Word Maze, Deep Spelling Skills, Active Spelling,

Presented by: Teachnology

Lesson One Grade Eight Spelling Workbook 1

2

embarrassment unnecessary occasionally trespass dismissed

challenge forbidden accompany immediately exaggerate

3 possessive aggressive accessory compassionate cancellation

4 commemorate moccasin accumulate dilemma appropriate

From the columns above choose the correct word or its derivative for the following: The sign clearly read, “NO _____________________”1 but we decided to _____________2 that idea.

He was very _______________3 of his car collection and would not allow anyone to drive one.

The war memorial was designated to ________________4 the veterans who had fought during any war.

It was quite _________________1 to __________________2 me to the dentist.

She grew more and more __________________ towards the other girls and her behaviour was quite ________________________4. _____________________2 the new rules of the company will become official.

She preferred to wear ________________4 and jeans with bead ________________3 to school every day .

His medical problems were quite ____________________2 and he became an ______________________1 to his friends and family.

I have let my bills ___________________4 to the point where my credit cards will be _________________3.

She was _____________________ 2 to bring any friends home after school.

The soldier was given a pass to return home on ___________________ 3 leave.

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1

2

embarrassment unnecessary occasionally trespass dismissed

challenge forbidden accompany immediately exaggerate

3 possessive aggressive accessory compassionate cancellation

4 commemorate moccasin accumulate dilemma appropriate

1. From columns 1 and 4 state the root word or the origin for each word: __________________ __________________ _______________ _________________________ _________________ ________________________ _____________________ _____________________ _________________ _______________________ 2. State three new word derivatives from columns 3 and 2 for each word: Challenge ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ Forbidden _________________ ____________________ _________________________ Accompany _____________________ ____________________ ______________________ Immediately _______________________ _________________ ____________________ Exaggerate _______________________ _________________ __________________ Possessive _________________________ ___________________ ____________________ Aggressive________________ _______________________ _____________________ Accessory _____________________ _______________________ ___________________ Compassionate _______________________ ____________________ _________________ Cancellation ____________________ _____________________ __________________ 3. Join the word to its definition: 1. Exaggerate

_leather boots or slippers

2. Compassionate

_violent, hostile 3. Dilemma

_let go or released 4. Moccasin _quandary, predicament 5. Aggressive

_build up or amass 6. Dismissed

_overstate, embellish 7. Accumulate _escort or attend 8. Accompany

_sympathetic, concerned 4. Use one word from each column and write a short paragraph using any derivative: _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

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Cash Incentives to attend School and Get Good Grades Magazine, April 8, 2010

(Time

In junior high school, one of my classmates had a TV addiction — back before it was normal. This boy — we'll call him Ethan — was an encyclopedia of vacuous content, from The A-Team to Who's the Boss?

Then one day Ethan's mother made him a bold offer. If he could go a full month without watching any TV, she would give him $200. None of us thought he could do it. But Ethan quit TV, just like that. His friends offered to let him cheat at their houses on Friday nights (Miami Vice nights!). Ethan said no.

One month later, Ethan's mom paid him $200. He went out and bought a TV, the biggest one he could find.

Since there have been children, there have been adults trying to get them to cooperate. The Bible repeatedly commands children to heed their parents and proposes that disobedient children be stoned to death or at least have their eyes picked out by ravens. Over the centuries, the stick (or paddle or switch) has lost favor, in most cases, to the carrot. Today the petty bribes — a sticker for using the toilet or a cookie for sitting still in church — start before kids can speak in full sentences.

In recent years, hundreds of schools have made these transactions more businesslike, experimenting with paying kids with cold, hard cash for showing up or getting good grades or, in at least one case, going another day without getting suspended.

I have not met a child who does not admire this trend. But it makes adults profoundly uncomfortable. Teachers complain that we are rewarding kids for doing what they should be doing of their own volition. Psychologists warn that money can actually make kids perform worse by cheapening the act of learning. Parents predict widespread slacking after the incentives go away. And at least one think-tank scholar has denounced the strategy as racist. The debate has become a proxy battle for the larger war over why our kids are not learning at the rate they should be despite decades of reforms and budget increases.

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But all this time, there has been only one real question, particularly in America's lowest-performing schools: Does it work?

To find out, a Harvard economist named Roland Fryer Jr. did something education researchers almost never do: he ran a randomized experiment in hundreds of classrooms in multiple cities. He used mostly private money to pay 18,000 kids a total of $6.3 million and brought in a team of researchers to help him analyze the effects. He got death threats, but he carried on.

The results, which he shared exclusively with TIME, represent the largest study of financial incentives in the classroom — and one of the more rigorous studies ever on anything in education policy.

The experiment ran in four cities: Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York. Each city had its own unique model of incentives, to see which would work best. Some kids were paid for good test scores, others for not fighting with one another. The results are fascinating and surprising. They remind us that kids, like grownups, are not puppets. They don't always respond the way we expect.

In the city where Fryer expected the most success, the experiment had no effect at all — "as zero as zero gets," as he puts it. In two other cities, the results were promising but in totally different ways. In the last city, something remarkable happened. Kids who got paid all year under a very elegant scheme performed significantly better on their standardized reading tests at the end of the year. Statistically speaking, it was as if those kids had spent three extra months in school, compared with their peers who did not get paid.

"These are substantial effects, as large as many other interventions that people have thought to be successful," says Brian Jacob, a University of Michigan public-policy and economics professor who has studied incentives and who reviewed Fryer's study at TIME's request. If incentives are designed wisely, it appears, payments can indeed boost kids' performance as much as or more than many other reforms you've heard about before — and for a fraction of the cost.

Money is not enough. (It never is.) But for some kids, it may be part of the solution. In the end, we all want our children to grow into self-motivated adults. The question is, How do we help them get there? And is it possible

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that at least for some kids, the road is paved not with stickers but with $20 bills?

Fryer runs an education-innovation laboratory that has a staff of 17 and an annual budget of about $6 million. His goal is to use the scientific method to figure out how to close the learning gap between America's white and minority kids by the year 2025. When I visit Fryer at his Harvard lab this spring, he hands me an agenda for the day and proudly introduces me to his team.

To read about the results see the Time Magazine at the Library and use a separate piece of paper to answer the following: 1. Please read the above excerpt from Time Magazine. Make a list of all the underlined words.

2. Use a dictionary to define the words to help you understand the excerpt.

3. What is the main focus or main point of the article? Do you think paying children to learn would actually work?

4. Why did it not work in some areas? What are your ideas?

5. Would you work harder and get better grades if this firm gave you money? Why or why not?

6. How can we stop children from having to be rewarded for everything they do?

7. Are parents and teachers doing their best to raise children in today’s society? Explain your answer.

8. The underlined words are your spelling words for the week. You have a test at the end of this section.

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Word

7

Cover up word and spell it in your head

Check the word

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Cover up and spell the word below

Check the spelling and correct

One last time to spell it

Have You ever been Bullied?

Time Magazine- October 2008

Playground gibes are a rite of passage for most school-age kids, but for some children, teasing at school can turn into outright violence and abuse. Researchers say that as many as 1 in 10 children suffer physical attacks, name-calling and other social aggression at school, and a new study suggests that a child's risk of becoming a chronic victim of bullying may depend on factors that appear very early in life.

"Studies also show that peer victimization becomes increasingly stable over time, with the same children enduring such negative experiences throughout childhood and adolescence," write the authors of a study on victimization, published in the current issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. "The consequences associated with high and chronic victimization are manifold and include depression, loneliness, low self-esteem, physical health problems, social withdrawal, alcohol and/or drug use, school absence and avoidance, decrease in school performance, self-harm and suicidal ideation."

Given the overwhelming slate of potential harm, the aim of the study was to identify early predictors of victimization, along with behavioral interventions that may prevent it. The bulk of past research on the matter involved primary-schoolage children, says Michel Boivin, a psychologist at Université Laval in Québec, Canada, and a co-author of the study; the new research tracks behavior in very young kids — as early as those in pre-preschool, when children first begin interacting with one another socially.

The research team studied data on 1,970 children — about half boys, half girls — and their families, all participants in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. The children were born between October 1997 and July 1998 and represented a socio-economic cross-section of Quebec society. Mothers were surveyed about their children during their earliest school years — every six months up to age 6 — in order to determine how often children complained of suffering physical violence at school, being called names or being teased by their peers. Subsequently, the study asked the same questions of teachers and the children themselves.

Those periodic interviews, Boivin said, allowed researchers to identify three "trajectories" of victimization risk that children tended to follow as they moved from preschool into kindergarten. Most kids (71%) fell into the low-trajectory

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camp; about a quarter fell into the moderate category. But "there was 4% — mostly boys — who are chronically, highly victimized," Boivin says.

Researchers found several key factors that predicted a child's risk of future victimization — namely, physically aggressive behavior in the child, harsh parenting methods (like "overly punitive" responses to kids' bad behavior) and low socioeconomic status. The best predictor, the study concluded, was early childhood physical aggression. "If a child is aggressive at 2 years of age, he's more likely to be in the higher-increasing trajectory," Boivin said. "If, in addition, the mother is hostile and reactive, the prediction risk increases." Adding the third element, low socio-economic status, increases that likelihood even further.

"At 30 months, there is a lot of physical aggression among kids," Boivin notes, but most children manage to adjust socially and eventually develop the verbal skills needed to negotiate peacefully within a group. "Aggression becomes less and less of a normative way to get things done," he says. But children on the high-risk path appear unable to develop those social skills; their aggression ends up turning on them. "As children get older, in grade school, they slowly shift their aggression and tend to withdraw into shyness," Boivin said.

Boivin's study was careful to distinguish aggression from hyperactivity in children.

While hyperactivity also often causes social problems and increases a child's risk of being victimized by about second grade, the authors did not find that it predicted peer victimization in young children. Rather, it was physical aggression in early childhood — behavior such as kicking, biting and bullying — that increased a child's odds of becoming a victim of that same behavior later on.

Identifying risk factors in preschool or even earlier helps parents and school administrators step in earlier too. Children who exhibit aggressive behavior can be counseled earlier, for example, and harsh parents can be taught a gentler form of discipline. The authors say further study is needed to answer questions of cause and effect. For instance, does children's aggressive behavior prompt harsh parenting or vice versa? And what about the role of older siblings? Psychologists know that older siblings often victimize their younger brothers and sisters, sometimes to great detriment; studying these family dynamics may help parents protect younger siblings starting in early childhood.

Certainly, the development of the victimized child needs more study, but the new paper offers some guidance for where to begin. Patterns of victimization begin as

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soon as children begin to interact socially, Boivin says, and parents and caregivers need to be alerted to the problem in the earliest years. "The message is that this ... is not unique to school-age children," Boivin says.

Read more about this article in Time Magazine at the library. Use a separate piece of paper to answer the following: 1. Make a list of all the underlined words and define them with reference to the article using a dictionary.

2. What was the main idea of this article? Will it help future parents raise their children?

3. Have you or a friend ever been bullied? How did it make you feel?

4. How do you think you can make a bully stop doing this to other children? Make a four point plan of action.

5. The underlined words are your spelling words so please prepare for a test at the end of this section.

Word

Cover up word and spell it in your head

Check the word

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Cover up and spell the word below

Check the spelling and correct

One last time to spell it

Eating Disorders- A Medical Problem

Time Magazine April 2010

The term "eating disorder" often suggests losing a dangerous amount of weight.

But there are people engaging in harmful eating behaviors who haven't lost much weight, or who gain some, and they are not getting the treatment they need, doctors say.

Some insurance companies will only cover treatment for eating disorders if the patient meets all of the criteria outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a guidebook for diagnosing mental illnesses, doctors say. Patients who don't match all the symptoms, which include severe weight loss, are labeled "eating disorder not otherwise specified" (EDNOS) and sometimes don't qualify for the level of care they need.

A new study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found more than 60 percent of patients with EDNOS met medical criteria for hospitalization and were, on average, sicker than patients diagnosed with full-blown bulimia.

That means more than 60 percent of patients with EDNOS may have trouble getting care covered by an insurance company, said Dr. Rebecka Peebles of the Department of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine.

"The diagnosis provides no meaningful information regarding the nature of the problem or appropriate treatment approaches," said Pamela Keel, professor of psychology at Florida State University, who was not involved in the study, in an e-mail.

Researchers looked at 1,310 children and adolescents aged 8 to 19 years.

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As many as 10 million women and 1 million men in the United States suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. Estimates put binge eating disorder, which currently falls under an EDNOS diagnosis, at an additional 25 million people.

EDNOS originally came about as a way of classifying people with dangerous eating behaviors and thoughts who didn't fully meet criteria for anorexia or bulimia, said Peebles.

But that means this single category can apply to an obese person who binges but doesn't purge, a severely underweight person who almost meets anorexia criteria but continues to menstruate, and a normalweight individual who purges but doesn't binge, Keel said. For example, a person who regularly vomits after eating small amounts of food would fall under EDNOS, not bulimia.

"Sometimes criteria that can be used as guide can really end up being counterproductive," said Dr. Steven Crawford, associate director of The Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore, Maryland, who was not involved in the study.

Many think of eating disorders as not being that serious unless someone loses a lot of weight, meaning some people are not being screened who need help, Peebles said.

"Some patients who are normal weight or even overweight are still very medically scary," Peebles said. "They are probably, I would expect, the highest risk to get missed in the community by either their physicians or their parents."

Some insurance companies say when people are below 75 percent of normal body weight, they warrant in-patient care, experts say. But that means if patients improve from 66 percent of normal body weight to 75 percent, an insurance company may say they need to be discharged

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at a point that may be too early from a treatment point of view, Crawford said.

To read more about this article, please go to the library! On a separate piece of paper, please complete the following: 1. Make a list of the underlined words and define them with reference to the excerpt above.

2. The author is trying to say that many people with eating disorders are not being treated properly by_______________________________________________ _________________________________________________ 3. Have you or a friend ever had an eating disorder? Describe it anonymously if you wish and tell the story of what and why it happened and how you got treatment.

4. One half of the population seems to have an eating disorder of some description. Besides anorexia and bulimia, what is the other percentage suffering with?

5. How can both groups better feed themselves and end up healthy and happy?

6. Study your spelling words and prepare for a test.

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The Nuclear Arms Talks by Obama

Time Magazine April 2010

Ask an Obama Administration official why the President is bringing nearly 50 heads of state all the way to Washington just so they can collectively declare that loose nukes are bad, and you'll get a version of this: America can only be safe if international cooperation is strong.

That may be true, and hawks and doves in Washington agree there's little downside to the summit itself. But even the most idealistic internationalists know that the number of nuclear-armed states is likely to grow rather than shrink in coming years, weakening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and increasing the production of dangerous materials around the globe. So, a more accurate definition of the summit's purpose may be that it is, at best, a small step toward slowing the decline of international cooperation on nuclear issues.

The gathering will produce more paper than progress, Administration officials concede. There will be the nonbinding communiqué, wherein the leaders will declare the dangers of nuclear proliferation. They will pledge to take new national and international measures to secure nuclear materials within four years. The summit will produce a "work plan" of steps that individual states will take to secure their nuclear materials; that too will be nonbinding. And individual countries will announce their own measures, to the extent that they want to do more.

Such limited achievements are not without value. Since 2004, U.S. leaders of all stripes have agreed that the greatest threat to American security is the possibility of terrorists acquiring a nuclear weapon. The only plausible way that could happen is if a group could steal or buy uranium or plutonium from an existing store, and there are many poorly guarded stocks of uranium and plutonium around the world.

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Even the most hawkish members of the previous Administration support promoting cooperation to keep nuclear materials safe. The Obama Administration says that just getting so many heads of state to sit down and discuss the issue is an achievement. "The fact that almost 50 countries are coming to Washington, most heads of state, heads of government level, is indicative of the response that these countries are paying to this very important subject," says Obama's National Security Adviser, General James Jones.

But some countries have been more supportive in spirit than in fact.

Many countries participating in the summit have concluded that tightening security measures around their nuclear material is not worth the cost and effort. "There's disagreement over how much physical security is needed," says David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security, adding that Russia, India and some European countries have been skeptical of the extent of the danger posed by nuclear terrorism.

Convincing skeptics to make the necessary investment requires building credibility for international confabs like the one in Washington. But multilateral international institutions are not exactly dominating the strategic scene at the moment: the Bush Administration degraded them during its first term. Obama made reversing that approach a cornerstone of his campaign and his presidency. The reality is that neither Bush's unilateralism nor Obama's internationalism has slowed Iran's and North Korea's nuclear programs, nor have they halted the expansion of peaceful nuclear programs elsewhere around the world.

The Obama Administration counters that this week's summit is just one part of a larger strategy. It coincides with the release of the Administration's new, less aggressive nuclear posture and the signing of a new nuclear-arms-reduction treaty with Russia; it will be followed next month by the 10-year review conference of the NPT at the U.N. "The President has put this complicated interrelated strategy

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together," says a senior Administration official. "We're beginning to execute on the commitments [announced by the President a year ago in his speech in Prague]. Things are falling into place, and the President is showing leadership in arms control."

To read more about this article please go to the library. On a separate sheet of paper answer the following questions about the article: 1. Make a list of all the underlined words used in the article. Define them as they relate to the article.

2. Will Obama be successful at this summit meeting to bring all the countries together? Why or why not?

3. Does the threat of a Nuclear War in the near future concern you at all?

4. What would you ask or comment on if you were in attendance at this summit in Washington?

5. How can your generation make changes in the way governments are run?

6. The underlined words are your spelling words for the week so prepare for a test.

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Coal Mining Disaster

CNN April 2010

Naoma, West Virginia (CNN) -- The last of the bodies of 29 men killed in a coal mine explosion were removed from the mine early Tuesday, officials said.

Authorities redirected airflow in the mine to decrease methane levels that had impeded recovery efforts on Sunday, said Jama Jarrett, spokeswoman for the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training.

The bodies of seven victims were recovered shortly after the explosion last week, and 13 bodies were removed Sunday.

Bodies of the remaining victims were removed overnight, Jarrett said Tuesday morning.

With the bodies retrieved, a state and federal investigation can now begin to fully study conditions inside the Upper Big Branch South Mine.

On Monday, U.S. Attorney Charles T. Miller announced federal prosecutors were "ready, willing and able" to pursue an investigation into the disaster.

If the investigation undertaken by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) reveals that criminal violations have occurred, we will work vigorously with investigators to pursue those offenses to the fullest extent of the law," Miller said in a statement released by his Charleston office.

The office said it does not typically confirm the existence of an investigation, but was making an exception "in light of the substantial publicity and numerous media inquiries, and in the interest of the community and public."

Until Sunday, U.S. flags on all federal buildings in the state will be kept at halfstaff per a proclamation that President Obama signed on Monday.

Richmond, Virginia-based Massey Energy Co., which owns the mine, said Tuesday it will work with officials to swiftly "determine the cause of this tragic explosion" and will attend to victims' families "to ensure they have the support they need."

"I want to thank the rescue teams from Massey Energy, teams from other coal companies and all others who worked tirelessly and selflessly for more than a week to recover the miners at the Upper Big Branch mine," said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Don Blankenship.

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"Coal miners are an extended family, and the dedication of our miners and miners from competitor companies who put their own lives at risk in the search and recovery effort is commendable."

In the wake of the blast, some have pointed to Massey's safety record. But the company said the mine has had fewer than one violation per day in inspections by MSHA and added the rate is "consistent with national averages."

Most of the blast victims were working in an area where long-wall cutting was taking place. The technique uses a large grinder to extract the coal and creates large amounts of coal dust and methane gas, both of which are explosive.

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin said Saturday that, even though the cause of the explosion is unclear, there needs to be a focus on better ventilation and on sensors to alert mine personnel when gas levels become dangerous.

The mining disaster was the worst in the United States since 1972, when 91 miners died in a fire at the Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho.

If you wish to read more about this article see the CNN coverage or those articles in your local newspapers. Use a separate piece of paper to answer the following questions: 1. Make a list of the underlined words and define them using a dictionary with reference to the article.

2. From what you have read and heard, why is this mining explosion such a tragedy?

3. Is the company, Massey, to be held accountable for the many violations it has had in the past?

4. Why are all the townspeople so closely knit and so devastated by this tragedy?

5. Would you be able to work underground every day?

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Pretest of all Spelling Words: 1. Make up a master list of all the spelling words used so far in the articles or lessons. _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ 2. Pick 10 of those words and state the root words of them: ______________ _________________ ______________ ________________ ______________ ________________ ______________ ________________ ______________ ________________ ______________ ________________ _______________ _______________ _______________ ________________ _______________ _________________ _______________ _________________ 3. Pick five words which are the hardest to spell and write them 3 times each: _____________ _______________ ______________ _____________ ______________ ________________ _____________ ______________ ________________ _____________ _______________ ________________ ______________ ______________ _______________

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Match the Word to the Meaning Answer ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______

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Word

Definition(s)

1. vacuous

A. analytic or investigative

2. volition

B. various and diverse

3. substantial

C. routes or paths

4. innovation

D. cynical or disbelieving

5. chronic

E. message or announcement

6. manifold

F. exposure to air

7. trajectories

G. merit or deserve

8. dynamics

H. considerable or significant

9. criteria

I. unintelligent or inane

10. warrant

J. wish or will

11. summit

K. novelty or improvement

12. communique

L. meeting or peak

13. indicative

M. breach or defiance

14. cornerstone

N. constant and unending

15. skeptical

O. remove or dig out

16. methane

P. vibrancy or energies

17. violation

Q. praiseworthy or admirable

18. ventilation

R. a poisonous gas

19. commendable

S. foundation or basis

20. extract

T. decisive factors or measures

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Word Search P M O G A S C F I C Q U S V N J K O G M K E N P X H Q M F M F N O M V Y E C G M I I K T V X U T D T E WF E C T V I A J N V U D X WWL V N R O K L T B Q Q WV T L P M T B WD Y S D A I J B C T P V U X J T Y V M Q A C C B T O J B R M L E WN C K H P C H U Z B O Y M I N T C Q V F P E H G T L N G S D I V O L K Q X O Q O T O A T C U V T P I T I P L B B Y E T B Q N P G A G D F WR Y K M V I O L A T I O N Z F F H Y H Y O X F O S J T S K E P T I C A L L WM K B S S A F WZ G O J Z C H R O N I C B T Q N V C O R N E R S T O N E L T R A J E C T O R I E S G K S Z B C S Q M J D N J S D X Y O P X P V Q K E U T W V B E R I X I U Z Find the spelling words in this diamond of a search!

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Multiple Choice 1. vacuous A) considerable or significant B) merit or deserve C) unintelligent or inane 2. volition A) wish or will B) praiseworthy or admirable C) meeting or peak 3. substantial A) various and diverse B) decisive factors or measures C) considerable or significant 4. innovation A) vibrancy or energies B) novelty or improvement C) routes or paths 5. chronic A) constant and unending B) analytic or investigative C) breach or defiance 6. manifold A) praiseworthy or admirable B) foundation or basis C) various and diverse 7. trajectories A) a poisonous gas B) foundation or basis C) routes or paths 8. dynamics A) novelty or improvement B) vibrancy or energies C) constant and unending 9. criteria A) decisive factors or measures B) considerable or significant C) constant and unending

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10. warrant A) unintelligent or inane B) merit or deserve C) foundation or basis 11. summit A) meeting or peak B) praiseworthy or admirable C) decisive factors or measures 12. communique A) remove or dig out B) meeting or peak C) message or announcement 13. indicative A) exposure to air B) cynical or disbelieving C) analytic or investigative 14. cornerstone A) praiseworthy or admirable B) foundation or basis C) vibrancy or energies 15. skeptical A) message or announcement B) cynical or disbelieving C) exposure to air 16. methane A) novelty or improvement B) constant and unending C) a poisonous gas 17. violation A) novelty or improvement B) breach or defiance C) decisive factors or measures 18. ventilation A) remove or dig out B) exposure to air C) a poisonous gas

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Directions: You must navigate your way through maze. Using the clues, spell out the words in order.

Start from the letter marked "START". Make your way through the maze until you reach the letter in BOLD LETTER. The clues at the bottom of the puzzle are in the same order as they words appear in the maze. You can move up, down, left, right, and diagonally to spell out the words.

START

B D S V O K J W A N E M N T T C L M Q D

K N A U I N C H M I F G D O R J E A S N

O C O T B G O R I C O L R I A P V X Z X

U S U L X W I T A R S V R T N C T O I M F A M Y D I I S E E W Q X X I H O V K X

V O I T N A O M M U N P C V U N A L A D

Q T F A I I N Z M S A R I S C R H M E C

S F F A L K N U F T N R R O E T I T I I

G W V R B U C P K D F Q W Q N I C W B R S H A V Y W R I L A K J E S T P L E M D

Z J U I L U I O D Q A R A E J T Z E I O

H E P U V I E N D C O T N R I S N T L N

O P A Q J Q X F I G C E I S O O V A L C

E G G F N L Q W L F P E V P T N M E O I

G D B K Z H T K L A B A C K U D E M N T

M H O J Q T F F L H Y T Q A B A N W I Z

P F K D Q S F G B A O T E L R V O I S F

U U B F Z N E J B A D W N E I T L P V O

G B U T U D K N H X K K E G X F P C Z R

B J A S O V Q D U F W R P L A B M B I H

O J A B J N Q Q I R Y X L J N C D F C N

M N Y H A F L G E A J T L K I K Q E E Y

E G M R Q U A Q F E N Y M N S E V M X X

H G A Q A P W P M L V X N V O K X H T U

Clues : 1. UNINTELLIGENT OR INANE

2. WISH OR WILL

3. CONSIDERABLE OR SIGNIFICANT

4. NOVELTY OR IMPROVEMENT

5. CONSTANT AND UNENDING

6. VARIOUS AND DIVERSE

7. ROUTES OR PATHS

8. VIBRANCY OR ENERGIES

9. DECISIVE FACTORS OR MEASURES

10. MERIT OR DESERVE

11. MEETING OR PEAK

12. MESSAGE OR ANNOUNCEMENT

13. ANALYTIC OR INVESTIGATIVE

14. FOUNDATION OR BASIS

15. CYNICAL OR DISBELIEVING

16. A POISONOUS GAS

17. BREACH OR DEFIANCE

18. EXPOSURE TO AIR

19. PRAISEWORTHY OR ADMIRABLE

20. REMOVE OR DIG OUT

Does Spanking induce Aggressive Behavior? Time Magazine April 2010

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Disciplining young children is one of the key jobs of any parent — most people would have no trouble agreeing with that. But whether or not that discipline should include spanking or other forms of corporal punishment is a far trickier issue.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) does not endorse spanking for any reason, citing its lack of long-term effectiveness as a behavior-changing tactic.

Instead the AAP supports strategies such as time-outs when children misbehave, which focus on getting kids to reflect on their behavior and the consequences of their actions. Still, as many parents can attest, few responses bring about the immediate interruption of a full-blown tantrum like a swift whack to the bottom.

Now researchers at Tulane University provide the strongest evidence yet against the use of spanking: of the nearly 2,500 youngsters in the study, those who were spanked more frequently at age 3 were more likely to be aggressive by age 5. The research supports earlier work on the pitfalls of corporal punishment, including a study by Duke University researchers that revealed that infants who were spanked at 12 months scored lower on cognitive tests at age 3.

"I'm excited by the idea that there is now some nice hard data that can back up clinicians when they share their caution with parents against using corporal punishment," says Dr. Jayne Singer, clinical director of the child and parent program at Children's Hospital Boston, who was not involved in the study.

Led by Catherine Taylor, the Tulane study was the first to control simultaneously for variables that are most likely to confound the association between spanking and later aggressive behavior. The researchers accounted for factors such as acts of neglect by the mother, violence or aggression between the parents, maternal stress and depression, the mother's use of alcohol and drugs, and even whether the mother considered abortion while pregnant with the child.

Each of these factors contributed to children's aggressive behavior at age 5, but they could not explain all of the violent tendencies at that age. Further, the positive connection between spanking and aggression remained strong, even after these factors had been accounted for.

"The odds of a child being more aggressive at age 5 if he had been spanked more than twice in the month before the study began increased by 50%," says Taylor.

And because her group also accounted for varying levels of natural aggression in

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children, the researchers are confident that "it's not just that children who are more aggressive are more likely to be spanked."

What the study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, shows is that outside of the most obvious factors that may influence violent behavior in children, spanking remains a strong predictor. "This study controls for the most common risk factors that people tend to think of as being associated with aggression," says Singer. "This adds more credence, more data and more strength to the argument against using corporal punishment."

Among the mothers who were studied, nearly half (45.6%) reported no spanking in the previous month, 27.9% reported spanking once or twice and 26.5% reported spanking more than twice. Compared with children who were not hit, those who were spanked were more likely to be defiant, demand immediate satisfaction of their wants and needs, get frustrated easily, have temper tantrums and lash out physically against others.

The reason for that, says Singer, may be that spanking instills fear rather than understanding. Even if a child were to stop his screaming tantrum when spanked, that doesn't mean he understands why he shouldn't be acting up in the first place.

What's more, spanking only models aggressive behavior to a child as a solution to problems.

For children to understand what and why they have done something wrong, it may take repeated efforts on the parent's part, using time-outs — a strategy that typically involves denying the child any attention, praise or interaction with parents for a specified period of time (that is, the parents ignore the child). These quiet times force children to calm down and learn to think about their emotions, rather than acting out on them blindly.

Spanking may stop a child from misbehaving in the short term, but it becomes less and less effective with repeated use, according to the AAP; it also makes discipline more difficult as the child gets older and outgrows spanking. As the latest study shows, investing the time early on to teach a child why his behavior is wrong may translate to a more self-aware and in-control youngster in the long run.

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1. Make a list of all the underlined words and define them using a dictionary as they pertain to the article.

2. How do you feel about spanking as a behavioral deterrent?

3. Were you or your siblings spanked as youngsters? Did it work or did it just escalate the problem? Explain.

4. What would be four good ideas to try and set a good example for a misbehaving child you have to babysit or look after?

5. The underlined words are part of your final test so add them to your master list and study them.

Word

Cover up word and spell it in your head

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Check the word

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Cover up and spell the word below

Check the spelling and correct

One last time to spell it

Child Obesity in America written by Winston Craig Health professionals have described it as a national epidemic. About nine million kids are affected. That amounts to 15 percent of American children, aged 6 to 11 years, who are considerably overweight. This number has actually tripled in the past 30 years. And the rates for obesity are actually greater for minority children.

Over 25 percent of Black and Hispanic kids are overweight.

A Salad and A Pedometer Not only is the pediatric population as a whole getting fatter, but the fatter children are also getting more obese, with super‐obesity having increased almost 100 percent over the past two decades. Obese children are at high risk of becoming obese adults, and the more obese the child becomes, the greater the risk of obesity when they reach adulthood.

After some time the overweight child may experience elevated blood lipids, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and other problems. The risk of an elevated blood cholesterol level is greatest among children with body weights above the 90th percentile.

Almost 7 million American children and teenagers are believed to have high cholesterol levels. Results from the Bogalusa and Muscatine studies indicate that children with elevated LDL cholesterol levels are at high risk of becoming adults with elevated LDL cholesterol levels.

Overweight kids are on a fast track to cardiovascular disease and diabetes, diseases that we usually associate with middle‐aged adults. Pediatricians are alarmed at the rapid rise in the incidence of type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents. Recent reports reveal that up to 40 percent of children with newly diagnosed diabetes have type 2 diabetes, the type closely associated with obesity.

In addition to physical health problems, the overweight child also experiences emotional and social problems.

What are the reasons for the increased obesity we see in children today? Lifestyle

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factors are surely to blame. Many young people today follow a very sedentary lifestyle. Leisure time is so often spent watching television and DVD movies, playing computer games, surfing the web, or chatting on the internet, rather than outdoor play and activities. The government wants both children and adults across the nation to add to their lifestyle the habit of walking every day in an effort to curtail the obesity epidemic.

We have observed that the eating habits of children have substantially changed over the past two decades. Children are obtaining a greater proportion of their calories from fast foods and snacks that are typically high in fat, salt and sugar.

These foods include ice cream, soda pop, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, pizza, french fries, shakes, chips, and candy bars, rather than fiber‐rich foods such as fruits and vegetables.

Furthermore, portion sizes have increased quite dramatically leading children to consume more food. Over the past two decades, the average portion sizes of food has increased by 50 to 135 calories, while the average beverage serving increased from 8 to 20 ounces. As the portion sizes increase so do the waistlines of our children.

Another factor that impinges upon the nutritional quality of a child's diet is the fact that many American families don't eat meals together very often. Research shows that when children eat meals with their parents they eat a more nutritious diet. The nutritional quality of a child's diet is positively influenced not only by having a pleasant family atmosphere at mealtime, but also by having a good parental role model as far as food preferences are concerned.

Children who eat by themselves tend to eat foods high in fat, sugar and salt. But poor nutrition is not the only downside of allowing children to fend for themselves. Regular family meals also provide order, discipline and emotional security for a child. Psychologists have found that positive child‐parent interactions improve a child's development and their cognitive ability.

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It is really important that changes be made to help stem the national child obesity epidemic. Firstly, children should be encouraged to engage in a greater amount of physical activity including walking, cycling, and other outdoor activities.

Body weight could be better managed if each child wore a pedometer and walked about 2,000 steps every day. School lunch programs need to provide more low‐fat and low‐calorie choices. Proper meal patterns should be established for the entire family with parents role‐modeling good eating habits. Children should be encouraged to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, and less fast‐food and processed food that is high in fat, calories, sugar and salt.

1. Add to your list of spelling words and define these words as they pertain to the article.

2. It has become an epidemic in America. What is it?

3. How many friends or classmates do you know who suffer from obesity?

4. Do they get enough exercise and outdoor play each day?

5. What is their daily food diet like and where could they make an improvement?

6. Make a daily food chart of all the food you eat for five days and share it with your classmates. See where you could make a change.

Get ready for that final test of all the spelling words. You can make the test into groups of 20 words to make it more manageable.

Have fun!

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