Chapter 1

Word Smart

Quick Quiz

Do you:

love to read?
like to tell stories?
write stories or poetry?
enjoy learning foreign languages?
have a good vocabulary?
spell well?
like to write letters or emails?
enjoy talking about ideas with others?
have a good memory for names or facts?
play word games such as word scrambles, hidden word puzzles, Scrabble, or crossword puzzles?
like to do research and read about ideas that interest you?
have fun playing with words (puns, tongue twisters, and rhymes)?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you just identified some of the ways you’re Word Smart!

What Does It Mean to Be Word Smart?

You’re Word Smart if you like words and the ways that they can be used in reading, writing, and speaking. You may be sensitive to how words sound, what they mean, and how they are used. You may enjoy playing with words or creating word games. You can show this intelligence by being a good poet or writer, a super speller, a bookworm, an excellent storyteller, a compelling debater, or a whiz at learning languages.

You’re already Word Smart whether you realize it or not. By reading this book, even if it’s hard for you, you’re being Word Smart. When you talk to your family, read the sports page or your favorite comic, or write emails or letters to your friends, you’re being Word Smart.

What can being Word Smart do for you?

You can communicate with others through speaking or writing.
You can help yourself do well in school. A lot of things you do in school are Word Smart activities—reading, writing, spelling, memorizing facts, making presentations in class, and discussing ideas.
You can visit new places, meet interesting people, and see mysterious things—all through books.

Everybody is Word Smart. If somebody ever comes up to you and says: “I don’t think I’m Word Smart” you can say to them, “In order for you to tell me that, you had to be Word Smart!” (Because the person used words to communicate.)

The Spoken Word

Being Word Smart is about good communication skills. What’s the simplest way to communicate? By speaking and listening, of course. Those are two things that just about everyone everywhere does every day. Speech is a fundamental part of being Word Smart. Why do people speak? They speak to communicate, inspire, persuade, lead, teach, and entertain. That’s a whole lot of talking going on!

Think about how often you use speech throughout your day. You talk to your friends at school. You answer questions from your teachers. You may use speech to argue with your brother or sister about all sorts of things—or to teach your younger sister how to do a math problem. You might use speech to convince people to join causes or buy things for school fundraisers. These are all ways of being Word Smart.

You may have difficulty reading or writing but still be very Word Smart in the way that you speak. Many people who’ve been labeled dyslexic or reading disabled are actually wonderful storytellers, speakers, actors, comedians, or politicians. Some examples include actors Tom Cruise and Keira Knightley, comedians Whoopi Goldberg and Jay Leno, and singers Cher and John Lennon.

If you’re a good speaker (and listener), you may be someone who others turn to when a speech needs to be made. You may be known as a good storyteller or the “class clown.” Maybe you shine when doing oral reports. On the other hand, maybe getting up in front of a group of people or raising your hand in class scares you.

If you don’t like speaking up, take some comfort from the fact that a lot of other people (grown-ups included) don’t like to do it either. So, what’s so hard about speaking? Many people don’t like drawing attention to themselves. Or they worry that they will say something stupid.

If you’re scared about speaking up in class:

Do listen to what everyone else is saying in class.
Do start speaking up more often. Try speaking up a little more each day. You don’t have to do it all at once.
Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks when you talk.

If you’re scared about an oral report or a presentation:

Remember to breathe. It sounds obvious, but try it anyway. Breathing helps you calm down.
Speak loudly, clearly, and slowly. You’ll probably want to whisper, mumble, or rush—but if you do, you might have to do the speech over again.
Practice in front of someone like a good friend or a parent. You’ll get used to saying the words aloud and how it feels to make the presentation in front of an audience of one. This will make it easier to stand up in front of a bigger group.
Highlight the important points in your report, so that you can find them easily when you’re talking. If you practice enough, you may find you don’t need your notes at all!

Speaking doesn’t have to be scary. It can be as fun and simple as telling jokes or stories to your friends.

Telling jokes and stories is a good way to entertain people, but telling stories can also be very important. Storytellers have been valued members of cultures all over the world. Not only have they entertained their audiences, but they often have been the keepers of history and myth for their cultures. Family histories and religious traditions have been passed along this way for generations.

The Written Word

If you think about it, being able to read is one of the most amazing things in the world. These are just simple marks of ink on a page. How is it that you’re able to find meaning in these marks? Look at the word cat. It’s just three marks on the page, each one shaped in a different way. But when you read these marks, you probably begin to think about your own cat (if you have one) or about other cats that you’ve known or seen.

How is it that you can imagine all of this from just three simple marks? No one really knows. Somehow, in ways that scientists still don’t fully understand, you’re able to look at these marks (and all the other marks on this page) and make sense of their meaning.

The ability to read opens up all kinds of doors into the world of knowledge and imagination. You can be sitting on your couch or at your desk in school and suddenly be transported to ancient Egypt, or to a rocket ship heading into outer space, or to a submarine deep under the sea. Reading a book is like entering a whole other world.

What kind of books do you most enjoy reading? Some people have favorite authors like R.L. Stine, J.K. Rowling, Walter Dean Myers, or Beverly Cleary and try to read all of their books. Other people favor certain genres, or categories of books, like mysteries, science fiction, westerns, romance, poetry, or plays. Some people love to read nonfiction books or magazines about animals, nature, history, cars, or space travel. And still others don’t have any particular method for choosing books—they just read whatever they like.

There are different ways of reading books, and this knowledge can help you both inside and outside of school. You can read for pleasure or you can read for content. Sometimes you do both.

Certain things you have to read in school, like textbooks, handouts, and stories. Some of this material may really interest you, and some of it might not. When you’re not as interested, you probably just want to read to get the information as quickly as you can. For these books and materials, reading for content is the key.

This kind of reading is called “inspectional reading.” It may involve picking out key words and topic sentences (usually the first sentence of a paragraph). You also look at chapter headings and subheadings for other important phrases and pieces of information. Pictures and charts can also help you get at the basic meaning of the text.

Reading can also be a pleasure and a treat. In order to really enjoy a book, try taking your time when you read. Read at your own pace, or even read more slowly and savor the words and the story. Give yourself permission to slow down and listen to the sounds of the words in your head, imagine the scenery, or think about the ideas in the book. Writers usually choose their words very carefully. Their word choices make a character’s speech sound more real. Or they can create sound effects on the page (the splash of raindrops, the crackle of a fire, the whoosh of wind).

Try reading part of one of your favorite books out loud. What do the characters sound like? Do the words seem more funny or serious when read aloud? Try writing down responses to the story or to something a character says. Maybe you’ll get an idea from reading and want to write a story of your own. Or maybe you’ll want to draw the character, build a model of someplace in the book, or try acting out a scene. All of these ideas are ways to be Word Smart.

Using Your Words in Writing

The more you read, the more you may want to write to tell your own stories and express your own thoughts. People write in different ways. Some people hear what they want to write. Other people see things in their head and write to describe what they see. Some people use their feelings to help them write. Others find stories or poetry in the events and people around them and write about that.

What you may find when you start to write is that you have your own voice—something that makes the writing uniquely yours. Your voice can emerge whether you write poetry, stories, or even journal entries. This voice will come out of who you are and what you’ve done.

Don’t worry about what your voice sounds like when you write or whether you have one. The most important thing to do when you write is to write. It’s very easy to get put off of writing if you think that you won’t be any good at it—even if it’s something you really want to do. It’s also very easy to get distracted by other things . . . so stop playing video games or sorting your socks, and try writing instead!

It’s okay to write about anything you want—even the first thing that crosses your mind. It doesn’t matter if it’s skateboarding, your big brother, math, or chocolate ice cream. Write about a topic for five minutes without stopping. (Don’t worry about punctuation or spelling. You can always go back and fix those.)

After the five minutes are up, read what you’ve written. Some of it may be silly (and you probably stopped writing about chocolate ice cream at some point). But, most likely, there are some interesting words or phrases in your writing. Some of these may become the basis for a poem, story, or essay. This process is called free writing. Many writers do this to get started.

In the same way that actors may look at people around them for ideas, writers listen to the people around them. Becoming a better listener may give you ideas for poems or improve the dialogue (speech) in your stories. If you want to write but are really stuck for something to start writing about, lots of books have jumping-off points you can use.

Other Ways of Being Word Smart

As you can see, there are many ways to be Word Smart. You might show it by being a super speller or by having great grammar when you write. Or maybe spelling and grammar aren’t your strong points, but you’re able to write really creative stories with beautiful images in them.

You may love writing poetry but not enjoy writing book reports. You might like writing essays but not stories. You may enjoy practicing your handwriting, without paying much attention to the actual words you write. You may love writing, but not enjoy reading. Being Word Smart doesn’t mean you have to love every aspect of words and their different uses. Each person is Word Smart in his or her own unique way.

For example, you might be Word Smart through a love of single words. Maybe you like to collect favorite words, or look up words that you don’t already know, or impress people with your knowledge of very long words. If any of these sound like you, then you could try some “word archeology.”

You can “dig up” strange and difficult words to find out where they came from and how they’ve been used over the years. The longest and best dictionary for English is the Oxford English Dictionary or the OED. Because it’s so big, the best place to find it is at the library. It includes just about all the words used in English. It gives a history for each word and explains its origins in other languages and how it developed step-by-step over time. The OED also gives examples of how word meanings (and spellings) change over the centuries.

Word archeology is fun and so is playing with the sounds of words. You could try tongue twisters, riddles, puns, or rhymes. Read nonsense poetry out loud or write your own. Try making up words that sound like what they represent—this is called onomatopoeia. You could even make up a secret language with your friends using words or hand gestures that only you understand!

Words can be fun—more than just vocabulary lists, spelling tests, or book reports that you have to do. Becoming more Word Smart doesn’t have to be a chore. It can be a huge adventure.

Fun Ways to Become More Word Smart

Here are some ways that you can expand and enjoy your Word Smart skills. Try any activity that appeals to you no matter how Word Smart you think you are.

Write down your ideas as you get them. Keep a little notebook or file on a tablet or smartphone (or miniature recorder) handy for putting down ideas that occur to you during the day.
Read about what interests you. Anything is fair game and everything counts: car magazines, art books, newspapers, science journals, comics, and more.
Start a journal. Write at least 250 words a day on any subject that you’d like. Write about your day, what you did in school, a book you’re reading, what’s happening in the world, or anything else that interests you.
Start going to the library. You can find a world of books and audio recordings there and they can be all yours—for free! All you have to do is sign up for a card. Librarians can help you find books on topics that interest you and recommend authors that you’d like. They can also make suggestions about audiobooks you might enjoy.
Look up words that you don’t know in a dictionary. Keep a list of words you come across that you don’t know. If you keep doing this, you’ll find that your vocabulary has gotten huge without your even noticing it!
Have a regular storytelling time with your family. The stories can be about anything you’d like: make up your own stories, retell favorite parts of books you’ve read and liked, or tell family stories.
Play with words. Do Mad Libs, crossword puzzles, Acrostics, find-a-words, anagrams, or other word puzzles that interest you. (Many daily newspapers have word games in their comics or entertainment sections or you can find word games online.) Get together with friends and family to play games like Scrabble, Hangman, Anagrams, or Password.
Play with spoken words. Collect some of your favorite jokes, riddles, puns, tongue twisters, rhymes, long words, strange words, and other sounds of language and share them with friends, classmates, and family. And, if you’d like, make up some of your own!
Join a book club where you can discuss books with others. Local libraries are good places to go to do this and may have clubs that focus on kids’ books, mysteries, science fiction, or the classics. If you can’t find a book club, try starting your own with your family or friends.
Write your favorite authors. Look up the website or mailing address of writers who you enjoy reading, and write to them with questions about their books, how they got started writing, or anything else that you’re curious about.
Learn another language. It can be Spanish, German, Chinese, or any other language that interests you. Learning other languages is another way to be Word Smart. (Learning English as a second language makes you Word Smart, too!) You may be able to find language courses at your school, but if not, check your community center or library for resources.
Keep a writer’s journal. Use this journal to record your own poems, stories, or plays. You could even add favorite quotes, passages, and dialogue from your reading or from things that you overhear other people say. Many famous writers have kept their own journals in this or a similar way.
Attend a play. Many plays are put on in local schools and by community theater groups. (If you can, try attending a Shakespeare play. He was one of the most incredibly Word Smart writers who ever lived and his 37 plays and 154 sonnets are still widely read and admired today even though they were written 400 years ago.)
If you like discussing ideas, join your school’s debate team (if it has one). If your school doesn’t have a debate team, ask your teachers if debates can be staged in any of your classes. Debating can be a great way to sharpen not only your speaking skills, but also your skills in logic and research. It’s also a great way to learn about different subjects since you could be asked to debate topics from science, health, history, social studies, or English.

What If Word Smart Isn’t Speaking Your Language?

Remember, each person is Word Smart in some way. But you might find some Word Smart activities frustrating to do or hard to understand if your strengths are in other areas. For example, if you’re a Picture Smart person, reading or writing could be harder for you because you might view letters as parts of pictures, rather than as parts of words. Because you may be used to viewing things in your head from different angles, you may spin letters around (like b’s and d’s) and confuse them in the words you’re reading. Or, if you’re Body Smart, you may get frustrated by having to sit still when you read and write. You may prefer to learn while moving around or to learn in ways that involve more touch or “hands on” work.

You can always use the smarts you’re strongest or most comfortable in to become more Word Smart.

Here are eight ways to do it:

If you’re Music Smart Read aloud and listen to the sounds of the words. Read silly poetry by people like Shel Silverstein, Ogden Nash, and Lewis Carroll, because they played with sounds and words. Try singing or rapping your spelling list or facts that you’re memorizing (that way if you forget during a test you can hum the answer very quietly to yourself). Use music as a jumping off point for writing. Write about what you hear and what it makes you think about.

If you’re Logic Smart Use the word count feature on a word processing software program to keep track of how many words you’ve written when you’re working on a story, essay, or other written work. Keep track of your writing progress on a computer spreadsheet, putting in the number of words you write each day. Some speed reading programs let you track your reading speed by counting the number of words you read per minute. You can also track these figures on a spreadsheet or create a chart or bar graph showing your progress.

If you’re Picture Smart Close your eyes and picture what you read. For example, if you’re reading a story that you’re having a hard time understanding, shut your eyes and picture the scene, the characters, and the action in the story. Illustrations and pictures can help guide you through your reading, too.

If you’re Body Smart Physically play with words and letters. There are many magnetic word kits you can buy. Or you can make your own with paper and magnets that have adhesive on one side (try looking in an office supply store for these). Put the paper on the sticky side of the magnet and cut the magnet into a different shape or size if you’d like. Using a steel surface, practice your spelling, write poetry, or tell stories.

If you’re People Smart Talk about what you’re reading with your friends or family. Form a study group to study spelling or vocabulary words. Working and studying with others can help you learn better.

If you’re Self Smart Start keeping a journal of what you’re thinking and feeling. Every time you write in the journal, you’ll be improving your writing, spelling, and grammar through practice. Think about what you’re learning in school—how does the book you’re reading in class make you feel? Use this as a way to connect who you are and how you feel to what you’re learning in school.

If you’re Nature Smart When you’re reading a book or magazine, think about what kinds of animals and plants are in it. Write descriptions of the natural scenes you see, or take notes about leaves or rocks you collect. You might even find you prefer reading outside.

If you’re Life Smart Write down questions that make you think more deeply about life like, “Where was I 10 years before I was born?” or “What’s the difference between something that is alive and something that isn’t alive?” Then try to give an interesting answer. Read a book that introduces spiritual or religious themes in an entertaining way such as The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs by Betty G. Birney or Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples.

A lot of school involves being Word Smart. In almost every class you’ll be asked to read, write, present a report, or just participate in class discussions. So being Word Smart can help you do better in school. Use some of the previous suggestions to help you develop this intelligence. When you have chances in school to use your strengths and interests in Word Smart activities, take them! Use your Picture Smart skills to draw pictures for a presentation in class. Or use your People Smart skills to referee a class debate. Or use your Nature Smart observation abilities to gather material for a report. There are more ways to develop Word Smart than you might think.

If you ever find yourself hating words because you have to . . .

take a hard test full of words you don’t know
read a boring book
give a speech to a group and you’re scared to do it
write a book report and you can’t think of anything to say

. . . just remember how amazing it is that you can do these things in the first place. Remember that these marks on the page and these speech sounds in the air are truly magic. And congratulate yourself for all the Word Smart abilities that you already possess.

What If You’re a Word Smart Whiz?

If you’re already very Word Smart, that’s great! But guess what? You can still become even more Word Smart. Use your reading to work on your speaking, or your speaking to build up your writing. There are always new ways to learn and grow.

Your Word Smart skills can help you build your other intelligences. Here are some Word Smart ideas you can use to help you understand and develop the other intelligences in school and in life.

For Music Smart, write your own words and rhymes to songs to help you learn melodies and rhythm.

For Logic Smart, talk yourself through logical problems. For example, if you’re doing a math problem, talk quietly to yourself about how to solve the problem: “Let’s see, first I have to divide, then multiply, then . . . ” If you’re having trouble with a math problem or science experiment, try making it into a word problem or keep a journal to record your thoughts and questions.

For Picture Smart, when you’re reading, picture what the characters and the places look like. If it helps, draw a scene, map, or even a character. This may help you understand a complicated book, or it might just be something that you enjoy doing whenever you read.

For Body Smart, act in school plays or in skits that you and your friends put together. Imagine how the character you’re playing walks, sits, even sneezes! Then try to move in the same way.

For People Smart, use the spoken word to entertain others with your storytelling skills, or try to persuade others to adopt a particular point of view by giving a speech. Notice the words you use when you are talking with kids your own age. Do you use words that they clearly understand, that are friendly, or that put a distance between you and the other person? Also, write letters to people you want to get to know better or learn from.

For Self Smart, keep a personal journal. Use it to look at your feelings, explore your goals, and examine your responses to the people and events around you.

For Nature Smart, take a page from many other cultures over the ages and write myths to explain what you see in nature and all around you. Why don’t cats and dogs get along anyway? How did the stars get in the sky? Why is grass green?

For Life Smart, read some of the sacred text of a religion (the Christian or Hebrew Bible, the Qur’an, the Analects of Confucius, the Bhagavad Gita, the teachings of the Buddha). Keep track of your thoughts and feelings in a journal. Write a short story, poem, or play about the meaning and purpose of life. Act it out with the help of friends.

Look to the Future

What can you do with your Word Smart skills when you get older? A lot of very different things. Some of the careers you might look into include:

advertising or marketing copy writer • advocate • archivist • editor • English teacher (or any kind of teacher) • grant writer • indexer • information scientist (someone who uses technology to manage and use information) • journalist • lawyer • librarian • lobbyist • museum curator • paralegal • poet • politician • professional public speaker • proofreader • publicist/public relations specialist • radio or television announcer • researcher • screenwriter • speech pathologist • speech writer • storyteller • translator • Web editor • writer • and many more!

Get Smart with These Resources

Books and Magazines

Pun and Games: Jokes, Riddles, Daffynitions, Tairy Fales, Rhymes, and More Word Play for Kids by Richard Lederer (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1996). Explains how to use homophones, homographs, and spoonerisms for comical effect while exploring knock-knock jokes, Tom Swifties, and other types of jokes and riddles.

Speakers Club: Public Speaking for Young People by Barbara Juskow (Austin, TX: Prufrock Press, 2005). Lots of information to help you give good speeches. Tips include planning your speech, making eye contact, projecting your voice, and using effective body language.

Stone Soup
1-800-447-4569
www.stonesoup.com
A well-respected literary magazine written and illustrated by and for young writers and artists. Filled with short stories, poetry, reviews, and illustrations, it is published six times a year, both in print and digital editions.

A Teen’s Guide to Getting Published: Publishing for Profit, Recognition and Academic Success by Jessica Dunn and Danielle Dunn (Austin, TX: Prufrock Press, 2006). Written by two successful former teen authors, this book includes information about writing skills, freelance publishing, and rights and copyright information.

The Young Writer’s Companion by Sarah Ellis (Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2001). If you want to write, this book will help you explore the joys of words, wordplay, writing, famous writers, and creative “fooling around” with language.

Organizations

Scripps National Spelling Bee
www.spellingbee.com
Want to master a spelling bee? Check out “How to Study for a Spelling Bee” by national finals pronouncer Dr. Jacques Bailly, and learn the words on Spell It! (www.myspellit.com).

Other

“Language Families of the World”
odtmaps.com
Order this colorful, fact-filled, and up-to-date chart designed by Stanford linguists for the Exploratorium. Trace the history of the English language, find out what the top 12 languages in the world are, or learn about languages you’ve never heard of before.

Websites

Arrak Anagrams
www.arrak.fi/en/ag
Whether you’re stuck solving an anagram or you’re trying to create new ones, this site can help you. Type in jumbled letters or even your own name, and the site will rearrange the letters to form a new word or phrase.

Mad Libs: World’s Greatest Word Game
www.madlibs.com
Includes Mad Libs you can play online, books you can order, and apps. Helps develop grammar skills, vocabulary, and a silly sense of humor.

Magnetic Poetry
magneticpoetry.com
Creators of tiny word magnets that can be used on fridges. Find all their magnet kits and other products, read and submit poems, and play with their poetry kits online.