Arduous: Hard on Us

As an aide at CMS, I got to different classes each period with different students. In one of the sixth grade reading classes, the word of the weeks is arduous. When I was in seventh grade, that was one of our vocab words. 

WHO REMEMBERS THEIR 7th GRADE VOCAB WORDS?!?!? 

Answer: People who had a teacher who used rhymes for remembering. She'd put up an overhead [oh I'm old!] with the word, the rhyme, the definition, and the picture. And it worked.

Examples: 

• Arduous: hard on us
• Aloof: on the roof
• Churlish: girlish
• Asunder: split by thunder
• Chattel: cattle
• Chicanery: like Sean Connery

Not only did she use rhymes, but rhymes which hinted at, or directly gave, the definition.  This teacher, whose name I cannot even remember, taught me vocab words I can still recall. She taught us a prepositions song, most of which I can still sing. 

I never thought of her as anything special, but I guess she was.