Linda's post reminds me of something my students really enjoy ------ Have you read the book Bringing Words to Life by isabel Beck? It changed how I view vocab instruction. Isabel really stresses active engagement of learners and deep processing of vocab. She offers many strategies that are easy to adopt and that help students really think about words, rather than just regurgitate meanings. For example, if 2 of the words for the week were fraudulent and mundane, the students might be asked: Would you rather participate in a mundane or a fraudulent activity? Please explain your reasons. Hope this helps, Linda -----------
My students really enjoy playing Apple to Apples, and they actually learn some vocabulary while they do it. For those of you who haven't played it, a green card that is an adjective is placed in the middle of the table. Each person holds 7 common or proper nouns (red cards) in their hand, and places one card face down that they think best fits that adjective. One person each round is the "chooser", and doesn't put a card down, but rather turns over the cards and selects the one they think best fits. It is hilarious but educational! You could simply take the red cards from the regular deck and substitute your vocabulary words ( or put them into adjective form if they are nouns, adverbs, verbs, etc). I think this would really reinforce the words in a useful way. It is so fun to hear the kids debate the merits of various choices. The cards each have definitions on them, and it is not unusual to hear students read them aloud. Susie ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
