Pop quiz! What is your go-to strategy to build vocabulary with your students?
A- vocabulary lists
B- root word / sound wall
C- highlight/underline words in the text
D- All of the Above
Did you answer D? Yeah, me too. Vocabulary lists, word walls (focused on sounds or roots), and highlight challenging words in the text are great strategies. But what if I told you there is another strategy that gives kids time to work with a word all week, break down the word and its meaning, and have fun with various activities?
Are you throwing confetti?
Build Vocabulary and Have Fun!
New words + engaging activities = students excited to learn
When we build vocabulary for our students, it’s not to just check a teaching box. We build vocabulary so our students can grow their reading abilities. Having a strong vocabulary supports reading comprehension and writing ability.
However, when we give students a large list of words to learn or simply post a word to a wall without doing anything with it, our students get the sense vocabulary is boring. In order to change their minds, we need to do something fun… something exciting… something to make our students say, “Wow! That was a fun lesson.”.
Enter your new vocabulary BFF- Word of the Week. I know vocabulary instruction is essential for reading comprehension. But, if you’re schedule is like mine, teaching multiple words in depth within a week is a challenge. So, I started pulling a Word of the Week from our weekly vocabulary list and adding a fun activity to help the word “stick” in my kids’ minds.
In addition to vocabulary, I value creativity, STEM, critical thinking and practical writing practice. So, used those topics to divide the vocabulary words into 4 categories:
- STEM
- Art
- Writing
- Brain Puzzles
STEM
The best part about any STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) project is the hands-on element. You can take the most boring topic and make it awesome with a simple STEM challenge. Plus, STEM is naturally a student-led activity, with the teacher functioning as a facilitator and support system.
You might be thinking, is STEM and vocabulary building related?
Yep! There are so many words upper elementary students need to know that are based in STEM concepts. Many of the science and math standards use STEM vocabulary. Plus, whenever you can have students do something hands-on, they are better able to retain the information.
When I started using STEM ideas in my reading class, I started with the word infrastructure. My students needed to understand this vocabulary word to understand key ideas of Roosevelt’s New Deal during the Great Depression.
In our whole group, we created a word web for infrastructure. The next day, students were given their STEM challenge of creating a structure from the CCC, TVA or WPA with only marshmallows, toothpicks, and coffee stirrers… and a 10 minute time limit.
Art
In my opinion, literacy and art are soul mates. Art requires a deep understanding, critical thinking, creativity, and ability to express thoughts and feelings. Literacy requires all those skills, too.
Imagine what your students could produce when asked to think artistically about vocabulary. They would feel “allowed” to think outside the box, make deeper connections, and produce work that embodies the vocabulary word instead of just rewriting a memorized definition.
The ability to process and use vocabulary requires students to engage the language part of their brains. But, words were not the first language of humans… drawings were. Cave drawings, hieroglyphics, and hand signals were just some of the early ways of communicating.
When you walk into an art museum, you process what you see and build understanding from what’s around you. Understanding vocabulary in a text is similar. Students read the words then make a conclusion based on context clues. They build understanding from what’s around the word, their experiences, and their world.
Writing
Of all the categories, writing is probably the most obvious fit. Good writers read, but great writers write. The more robust a student’s vocabulary bank, the easier it is for them to express their thoughts, feelings, and opinions. In addition, it’s easier for them to comprehend high level work and support their writing with text evidence.
But, if your students are like mine, there are probably some grumbles and eye-rolls when it’s writing time. My theory is students don’t like writing because teachers don’t like writing. We ask students to “dig deep” and “think critically”, but then put them all in the same 5 paragraph box. They’re bored. We’re bored. The writing is bored.
Sprinkle some back into writing time with interesting and creative writing tasks. You can build vocabulary through fun assignments that have students build sentences, use figurative language, find synonyms and antonyms, and practice editing skills with partner work.
Brain Puzzles
Finally, my favorite of the 4 categories- brain puzzles! Brain puzzles (or logic puzzles) are an amazing tool for developing critical thinking with students because they need to break down information, process it, and then put it back together.
Think about cooking. When I cook something new, I like to experiment. Throw in a little of this, toss in a little of that just to see what works. Brain puzzles with vocabulary are similar. Students can break down the word, throw on a prefix or suffix, toss around a few analogies, or think in different terms to see what works with the definition and what doesn’t.
Brain puzzles are a great way to stretch the minds of all students. But, they are especially amazing at challenging gifted and high achieving students. Since gifted students tend to learn new skills and concepts faster than their peers, many of your gifted kiddos will probably already know a large percentage of your vocabulary list. This makes brain puzzles a perfect way to differentiate learning.
How will you build vocabulary in your classroom? Vocabulary lists, root word walls, and highlight text are great strategies, but if you want a super engaged, excited class, try the Word of the Week strategy.
Don’t forget you can try it for 4 weeks for FREE or, if you’re ready to level up vocabulary learning, grab the full Word of the Week resource below.
Pingback: 5 Exciting Learning Games for Kids to Play - Inspired to Enrich