Making Connections With The Words

By Author: Adelaide.White
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To introduce the words to the class, each student group selected a color to represent the word and defined the word in at least three different ways. Students wrote the word on a flashcard and then colored the card with the color. For example, for the word futile, the group colored the card gray because they associated gray with moodiness or mourning. Another group chose the color green for the word lair because a lair is part of the environment. Using table-sized poster charts, the Fake Watches groups wrote the word, the color, and then three ways to define the term. This included brief definitions, examples, synonyms, and antonyms. For the wordfutik, one student group defined the word in terms of actions that were hopeless and not useful and then supplied appropriate synonyms and antonyms. For the word lair, another group connected their definition of the word to a wild animal's home, provided acceptable synonyms, and even used examples of different wild animals' lairs.

For the next round of tasks, student groups created symbols to represent their words and wrote sentence completions. ...
... The teacher explained that the symbol could be a simple drawing of an object or idea related to the word. The purpose of the symbol was to help students remember the word's meaning. The groups drew the symbol on an index card to use on the word wall. The students then wrote a sentence completion on their poster chart. For the word futile, the group connected the symbol with their sentence completion. Their symbol was a math test with all the answers marked wrong with a big red X. Their sentence completion dealt with the futility of last-minute studying before a test because it would not result in permanent learning of a word. The group working on the word lair used a cave entrance as their symbol and wrote a sentence completion about a bear taking its prey to the lair to avoid sharing with other animals.

For this task, the students had to think of a situation or context for using the word. They illustrated the situation on an index card to pin on Rolex Watches the word wall and also wrote a sentence about the situation. For example, for the -word futile, the group drew a picture of a person jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. Their accompanying sentence pointed out the futility of such actions. The situation for the word lair was Batman's cave with a sentence that noted how Batman could evade enemies because of his lair.