Mathews Memorial Library visited Mathews Elementary School on Oct. 15, again handing out personal dictionaries to third grade students and marking the 20th anniversary of the library’s Dictionary Program.
Carol McCormack, head of youth services for the library, and volunteers Jane Senyk and Carol Owens visited each third grade class to hand out the books and give students a brief lesson on looking up words.
In Kristen Ashburn’s class, McCormack did several word search exercises, starting by explaining that there are guidewords at the top of every two pages that indicate the first word to be found on the left page and the last word on the right page. The students were quick to pick up on how to find the word “pirate” between the guide words “pierce” and “plainly.”
McCormack explained during an earlier interview that this is one skill that invariably needs to be explained. Otherwise, instead of skipping over to the pages needed, the students get caught up in reading each page from the ve...