Sharing Skills. Hermione Helps--S-P-E-W: Understanding and Creating Acronyms

An acronym, a word formed from the first letters of other words, is often used to name products or organizations. For example, when Hermione Granger, a very clever student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is enraged over the wizarding world's treatment of house-elves, she creates an organization to help put an end to this injustice. She calls her organization The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, or SPEW. This article describes a classroom exercise using Book Four in the popular Harry Potter series as a way to get students involved in wordplay and creative problem-solving skills. The information presented may be taught by the library media specialist or the classroom teacher as an enrichment les or as an integrated part of the language arts curriculum.