Word of the Day

Is vocabulary a problem for your students? If so, try this simple strategy. Identify five words that would be pertinent to your students and their curriculum. List these five words in the order that you would introduce them over the course of a week. You will teach one word a day over the course of the week. Consider the difficulty of each word, then describe how you would use one of the following activities for teaching each new word. Try to employ a variety of techniques during that time. You may, however, repeat the technique.

• Provide a concrete example of the word.
• Discuss the word: what it sounds like, looks like, and means.
• Give examples and non-examples of the word.
• Read poems, comics and excerpts from books that have interesting usage of the word.
• Read excerpts from the newspaper or other print media that demonstrate the word in the context of current events.
• Have students act out the word.
• Have students create a word page for their person dictionaries, where they write and illustrate the word.

 Try these and other graphic organizers.