[Toms]

We have been using stale voacab books for years. They are boring so I am not doing it anymore. Need a good way to incorporate more vocab into my classroom that is not boring. I often use words from within the texts we are doing however, when we do lit circles, they all have different texts. I have a list of words I picked up somewhere, that students should have mastered using between 6-8th grade. I was thinking of using that. Any thoughts on using the mentioned list and fun ways to teach/assess the vocab. In the past, I have also had the students use the vocabulary words learned to create a story. We have a seminar class as well, that does some vocabulary based on prefixes and suufixes. I would use that method, but a lot of the kids are in the class already, and I don't want to re-teach.

Thanks.

[mrsb12247]

Have you tried to do vocab skits? Give pairs or small groups a word, have them act it out, and have the class guess the definition?

Pass the paper: Each students gets a different word. They write the beginning of a "story" on a sheet of paper, using their word. Then, they pass the paper to the person behind them, and they add to the story, using their word. At the end of 25 passes, read some of them aloud...they are often hilarious and creative.

Make Frayer model "posters": word in the middle, examples and no examples, draw the word, use it in a sentence, list synonyms and antonyms, etc.... I've done this too with words on giant paper, and students rotate by small group to each word, listing as many words that are related to the word that they can. Make huge mind webs!

Create a rap/song/poem/commercial that incorporates as many words used correctly as they can. Put them in small groups and give them a time limit.

Draw the word to show the meaning. For example, if the word was "Patriot", they might draw the P as an American flag, the i as a Revolutionary War soldier, etc... They love this, makes a cool bulletin board.

We do vocab cheers too; I put the words in a pocket chart at the front of the room and whenever a kid uses the word correctly in context during a discussion, the class hammer their desks and say "oooooooohh" acting all impressed. (model this and your expectations, obviously). It's a 10 second disruption that they LOVE,and they purposefully try to use the words as much as possible.

[peanut21]

http://www.vocabularycartoons.com/

[missenglish]

I second vocabulary cartoons. Very cute and fun!

[powellstarkey]

Try vocabulary stories. Students write a story and must use weekly vocabulary words.

I also have.students do vocabulary summaries. They summarize weekly reading text using vocabulary words.