The malapropism can be a genuine source of amusement for students. Today, we explored sentences like: I feel like I am fading into Bolivian. Or, when he came out fighting, his arms came up like large testicles. Screams of laughter. I think folks like the Bolivian one more...

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As we move through the vocabulary builder, students face new, more nuanced words like: inimical, probity, and leavening. When I asked in what context one might use the word: leavening, a student raised her hand and replied: "Baking". I thanked her for her contribution and sought out a different response. What struck me was how quickly they were willing to absorb the word's definition without exploring context and meaning. One can read a definition but it does not mean that one knows HOW to use the word itself. So there was a bit of work to do as we considered how one might use words in a particular context instead of merely shoving them in, pell-mell, into an unsuspecting sentence or an easily victimized paragraph.