The Broken Dictionary

Many of you know that I teach regular 8th grade English with special education kids mixed in. All-in-all my experiences co-teaching mixed regular/SpEd classes have been rewarding and, most days, I have a lot of fun at my job. Sometimes, however, things happen that even perplex me.

A few days ago my students were working on a writing assignment where they were allowed (even encouraged) to use a dictionary. As most of my students were diligently writing away, I noticed one of my slower workers thoughfully plodding along, deliberately selecting the best word to put on his paper. After a few minutes, however, he appeared to be stumped by something. He stopped, looked at his paper, and reached underneath his desk for a dictionary. After a few minutes his hand raised in the air and he said "Ms. D, your dictionary is broken."

Please imagine the look of curiousity that washed over my face.

"Excuse me?" I queeried.

"Your dictionary. It's broken." He replied matter-of-factly, like he was delivering a very important message which required my immediate attention.

Genuinely confused, I walked over to where he was sitting and asked him to explain what he meant.

"You dictionry's broken. It's missing all the U words."

"The U words?"

"Yes. Your dictionary does not have the U words. Do you have another one?"

In all my years as a student, a writer and a teacher and of all the dictionaries I've come across, I can't say I ever come across a "Broken" dictionary that was missing a group of words from one of the letters. So I looked down at the dictionary.

The dictionaries we use in school are hard back dictionaries with thumb tabs that seperate the letters and create an easy reference guide. The second-to-last thumb tab is labeled "U-W," which indicates that both before and after the tab itself are words beginning with the letter U to the letter W. The tab itself, however, falls smack dab in the middle: in this case, it falls among the W words.

This diligent student was flipping furiosly forward--which means he was going from wash to water to whistle to Wyoming to Xylophone to yak, to yellow and finally zebra. He looked at me triumphantly and on his face was written the words "Aha!"

Then I had to gently explain to this hard working child that the "U" words come before the "W words and that he had to flip backward.

After explaining the logistics of the dictionary, I finally just asked:

"Honey, what are you trying to spell that needs the dictionary?"

"Utah."

Uh huh.

*M*