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We use the orange Vocab Workshop book at my school. I take two
weeks to cover the 20 words in the book, but the students pretty
much have to fill out the book at their own pace. I take two-three
days a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) for 20-25 minutes each class
to go through the words. I have used the following techniques:

Vocabulary Bingo:
I give out a blank template, they have to fill the words in the
spaces, and then I call out the definition, synonym or antonym
while they look for the corresponding vocabulary word in their
book (I give them the page number the word is on, but they have to
find the word). The first student who gets a "bingo" has to go
back over the words he/she found, state them out loud, spell them
and define them. I go until we have covered all 20 words at least
once. This gets them exposed to all the various forms of the word
through reading.

Dry Erase Response Boards:
Similar to vocabulary bingo, only the kids get dry erase boards
and markers to give me their answers. That gets them practicing
how to spell properly.

Spelling Cross Hands Technique and Round the World
I have the kids work with each other on spelling using a
cross-hands, tapping technique. I tell them to go through the
words out loud, in order, three times. Then, going alphabetically
down the roster, I have two students come up to the class at a
time and do a "spell off". If they get three words correct, they
get to advance to the second round, where I add definitions,
synonyms, antonyms and even have them try spelling the words
backwards! This is designed for kinesthetic learning and has been
known to get the correct spelling into their brains by the
repetitive act of crossing the hands.

Vocabulary Mixed Bag
I have a die I roll and each value is assigned a specific
function. If they roll a one, they have to act the word out, a two
they have to draw it, etc, etc. I have the kids divided into teams
and each team has to perform the word to their teammates. It's
like charades. If the kids get the word, they get a point. If they
don't get it within one minute, times up and they move on. If
another team blurts out the word, they lose their turn. This is
designed to get them to think about the vocabulary word in more
than just one or two forms. They act, sing, draw, write, and
describe the words.

Spellingcity.com

The kids get to go to the computer lab every Wednesday where they
can practice their spelling on this website, if necessary. I put
the list on there, and they find my name, click on the list, and
then they can play all sorts of word games to practice their
words.This website is great for kids who are reluctant to act or
speak up in class and prefer to work by themselves.

By incorporating a wide variety of tasks and differentiated
activities, I have had a lot of high scores on the vocabulary
tests I give them (which are NOT multiple choice, T/F, fill in the
blank, etc). The tests are designed to test their assimilation and
internalization of content. If they haven't learned it by test
day, they've been in a coma in my class.

I hope you enjoy some of these ideas!

Carolyn

On 9/25/09, ncbeach wrote:
> On 9/22/09, BethAnn wrote:
>> I was wondering how you all introduce the vocab in trade
>> books? For our last book, we just discussed words as a
>> class. For this book, I had the kids look up definitions
>> and use them in a sentence. We put the info on a sheet I
>> found on the internet.
>>
>> Would love to hear ideas!
>>
>> Thanks so much!
>
> I did Word Wheels with my academically gifted students. I
> eventually used them with content area vocabulary and student
> novels. The student drew a wheel with 5 spokes dividing the
> circle into 6 parts. They wrote 1) the definition; 2) an
> original sentence using the word; 3)a sentence from the book
> using the word in context; 4) a synonym; 5) an antonym; and 6)
> the word derivation. You could also include the word's
> pronunciation or respelling or use that instead of the
> synonym and antonym in the case of content area words which
> may not have either. On content area word tests and regular
> spelling tests they had to write dictation sentences using 5
> of the words. These were graded for spelling, usage, and
> writing conventions, such as capitalization and punctuation.
> As a bonus, the students chose a word and used it in context
> in an original sentence. I didn't play when it came to self-
> expression. Students need to learn to articulate themselves
> in every subject.

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