The French word 'phare' means lighthouse — and headlight. It comes from Pharos, the Greek island where the most famous lighthouse in history was built around 280 BC. So famous it stopped being a name and became a word. New word card in the Wordhord — bit.ly/4voQXvp

The more that you read only works if you can read. Decoding isn't a phase you leave behind — it's the foundation everything else sits on.

The Old English word for 'ceiling' was 'hūsheofon'. House-sky.
By 1503 it was gone - replaced by 'celynge', meaning to cover or conceal. But the Latin 'caelum' (sky) may have influenced 'ceiling', so there's a ghost of sky still hiding in it.
(Image: Henry VII Lady Chapel, Westminster Abbey)

Kipling said this to surgeons. He wasn't talking about spelling lessons. But the mechanism is the same: words do things. Which is why it matters which ones a child has access to.

Four in a Row for the 'ss' sound. Works like Connect 4 - she has to read the word to claim the square.
Games over word lists. The decoding still happens, but her attention is on winning, not on the effort.
She always beats me.
Why this works (and why guessing isn't reading):

'The limits of my language mean the limits of my world'

Wittgenstein meant this philosophically.

The transfer to vocabulary is direct: learn the prefix, learn the root, and you're not acquiring words one at a time anymore.

#morphology #vocabulary #SENtuition

Fluent readers don't experience reading — they just do it, the way you don't notice air. Which is why it's hard for them to understand what it costs a struggling reader to get through a page.

Annual review. 30-page EHCP amendment document. 2,000-word email to a SENCo. 7-page document requesting changes to an SEN plan.

Two out of four children. One day.

This work is painful — these are your own children you're describing.
Parent carers do this constantly, alongside everything else.

I love getting messages like this at the end of a teaching week.

#structuredliteracy #scienceofreading #dyslexia #dyslexiasupport #spelling #morphology #etymology #literacyintervention #send #sendteacher #ukteachers #tutorlife

Crocuses surfaced here after weeks of cold rain.

‘Crocus’ comes from Greek ‘krokos’, meaning saffron — a dye and spice that travelled Mediterranean trade routes long before English lawns.

New Wordhord post:
greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-word...

#WordOrigins #StructuredLiteracy #SpringVoca

Daffodil begins as Greek ‘asphodelos’.

Its botanical twin, ‘narcissus’, comes from ‘narkissos’.

In parts of Europe it’s the ‘Easter lily’.
In older English, the ‘Lent lily’.

One flower. Two histories.

Full Wordhord study:
greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-word...

#etymology #daffodil #sprin

Snowdrop.

A word that falls through winter.

‘snow’ + ‘drop’.

A transparent compound.
Meaning built from two visible parts.

German: ‘Schneeglöckchen’ — little snow bell.
French: ‘perce-neige’ — pierce-snow.
Swedish: ‘snödroppe’ — structurally parallel.

Different languages. Different noticing.

T

Snowdrop.

A clear English compound: ‘snow’ + ‘drop’, first recorded in the seventeenth century. German and French forms reveal different noticing — shape, movement, season.

Etymology as structured vocabulary teaching.

#etymology #structuredliteracy #winterwords

A ‘seuil’ is not the door.
It’s the stone beneath it.

From Latin ‘solea’ – the sole of a foot or shoe – the word names the place where the foot lands when you cross in or out. A threshold is contact before concept. bit.ly/ateliermots

A ‘clé’ is what opens. A door. A system. A piece of music.
From Latin ‘clavis’, a key or bolt that controls access.
Whether written ‘clé’ or ‘clef’, the logic is the same: access comes first. bit.ly/ateliermots

A ‘clé’ is what opens. A door. A system. A piece of music.
From Latin ‘clavis’, a key or bolt that controls access.
Whether written ‘clé’ or ‘clef’, the logic is the same: access comes first. bit.ly/ateliermots

‘Mozzarella’ means ‘a little cut piece’—from Latin ‘mutilus’ via Italian ‘mozzare’. A word shaped by the same gesture that forms the cheese. greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-words-words/mozzarella

Ricotta comes from Latin recōcta ‘recooked’—a word that still carries the heat of Roman dairies. Explore its story: greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-words-words/ricotta

Ours still isn’t as thin as a true Neapolitan, but the word ‘pizza’ has travelled further. First written in 997 AD, it may come from Greek ‘pitta’ for ‘cake’ or Lombardic ‘pizzo’ greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-words-words/pizza

From Latin sal ‘salt’ to Italian salame, salami still means ‘a salted thing’. Explore its journey from Roman kitchens to modern delis: greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-words-words/salami

‘Spaghetti’ began as Italian for ‘little cords’. Its roots reach from Arab Sicily to Neapolitan kitchens, carrying a story of shape, language, and shared food culture. bit.ly/GEEwords greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-word...

A ‘sentier’ is a narrow path made by repeated walking.
From Latin ‘semita’, a small footpath. I’ve been uploading words like ‘maison’, ‘bâtiment’, ‘ancien’, this week. ‘Sentier’ belongs alongside them. I use etymology to help my dyslexic Y7 learner make sense of French vocabulary.
bit.ly/ateliermots

A ‘poignée’ is the part of something you hold with your hand. Door handles, drawer pulls, bag handles. From ‘poing’ meaning ‘fist’, via Latin ‘pugnus’. A word anchored in the action of the hand closing, not in how an object looks. bit.ly/ateliermots

A ‘poignée’ is the part of something you hold with your hand. Door handles, drawer pulls, bag handles. From ‘poing’ meaning ‘fist’, via Latin ‘pugnus’. A word anchored in the action of the hand closing, not in how an object looks. bit.ly/ateliermots

‘Volet’ is the French word for a window shutter. From Latin ‘volare’, ‘to fly’, naming a panel by how it moves.
Photographed in Cordes-sur-Ciel.
bit.ly/ateliermots

A ‘sentier’ is a narrow path made by repeated walking.
From Latin ‘semita’, a small footpath. I’ve been uploading words like ‘maison’, ‘bâtiment’, ‘ancien’, this week. ‘Sentier’ belongs alongside them. I use etymology to help my dyslexic Y7 learner make sense of French vocabulary.
bit.ly/ateliermots

‘Spaghetti’ began as Italian for ‘little cords’. Its roots reach from Arab Sicily to Neapolitan kitchens, carrying a story of shape, language, and shared food culture. bit.ly/GEEwords greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-word...

From Latin sal ‘salt’ to Italian salame, salami still means ‘a salted thing’. Explore its journey from Roman kitchens to modern delis: greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-words-words/salami

Ours still isn’t as thin as a true Neapolitan, but the word ‘pizza’ has travelled further. First written in 997 AD, it may come from Greek ‘pitta’ for ‘cake’ or Lombardic ‘pizzo’ greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-words-words/pizza

Ricotta comes from Latin recōcta ‘recooked’—a word that still carries the heat of Roman dairies. Explore its story: greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-words-words/ricotta