Super Words
Expanding Vocabulary in Classroom Reading and Writing (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 2: Consolidation / FluencyStage 3: Literacy for Growth
Ages:
7-12
Grade Range:
2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6thFood Groups:
Primary: Vocabulary, Motivation for Literacy Secondary: Classroom Management & Organization
Transcript
Super Words is an activity that helps to build student vocabulary. During read alouds I pick words that we call 'alive words'. They make the story more interesting. We put them on our 'Super Words' chart and we then look for those words in future readings. We look for them in the students' readings as well as the books that I'm reading out loud. Every time that we find one of those words we put a tally mark by the word and that shows us that these are words that we are becoming more familiar with. Students also start to use them in their writing and this also counts as a tally mark. This becomes a fun activity for students when they come up to the front of the class and they share a word that they found in a reading. When they present it, they leave a blank and so the rest of the students have to guess which of the Super words the student has found. After finding the word ten times, we put the word under 'retired' because we know that it is a word that we are all using and are familiar with.
Related References
Additional Link:
Reading Rockets, Teaching Vocabulary: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/teaching-vocabulary
Activity Objective
The goal of Super Words: Expanding Vocabulary in Classroom Reading and Writing (Virtual Tour) is to motivate students to expand their vocabulary by searching for challenging descriptive words and using them in their writing. During read alouds the teacher picks interesting descriptive words for the Super Words chart. Students then have the task of finding the words in readings and using them in their writing. When a word is found or used, a tally mark is placed under the word. Once a word has ten tally marks underneath it, it is considered to be a word that the classroom is familiar with and is placed under 'retired' with a new word put in its place. When students find or use a word during their individual reading or writing time, they have the opportunity to present and read the sentence to the class with the Super Word removed. Students then have to infer which of the Super Words was found.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- Retired Super Words can be added to each students personal Super Words list for future reference when they are writing. - There can be a place in the classroom for recording the Master List of Super Words for reviewing later in the year. By the end of the year this list of new vocabulary words can be quite extensive. - This game-like activity for learning new vocabulary words can be used with students of all ages. Modify the words to best fit the skill level of the students in your classroom.
Other Recipes by this Teacher
Anchor Charts: Promoting Independence in Applying Reading Comprehension Strategies (Virtual Tour)
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Daily 5 Choices: Fostering Independence in Reading and Writing (Virtual Tour)
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Close Reading: Applying a 3-Step Reading Comprehension Strategy (Virtual Tour)
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Technology in the Listening Center: Motivating Literacy with iPads and QR Code Books (Virtual Tour)
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Literacy in Science: Expanding Vocabulary in the Content Areas (Virtual Tour)
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