Creating “word aware” classrooms is an important first step in building students’ vocabulary skills.  We need to intentionally focus on vocabulary and make word learning a part of every day, not just during formal vocabulary instruction (Blachowicz & Fisher, 2002).

Word of the Day

This concept has been around for years, but it is still a great way to foster word awareness in our classrooms.  To add spice to this activity, try introducing the word of the day by giving several clues throughout the day or by having students guess the word in the form of 20 Questions.  Many websites offer a “word of the day” feature.  Here are a few:
Word Central
Dictionary.com
Merriam Webster

Daily Word Hunt

Designate a bulletin board, chart paper, or section of the chalkboard for students to record new, interesting, or unusual words.  Set aside a few minutes daily to discuss these words.  Awarding points to teams whose members add words to the chart provides incentive.  Additional points may be added when students use the words in context throughout the day.  Younger students enjoy ringing a deli bell when they add words or use the words in context.   A good way to introduce this daily activity is by reading aloud Donavan’s Word Jar by MonaLisa DeGross.  Donavan collects interesting words and stores his collection in a jar.  He runs into a problem when his jar becomes too full.  He eventually solves his problem and discovers the power of words.  A study on word learning in the middle elementary grades suggests that this intentional focus on words has great impact on students’ overall word learning (Beck, Perfetti, & McKeown, 1982).

Vocabulary Parade

Read aloud the book Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster by Debra Frazier.  Then have your own vocabulary parade.  Visit Debra Frasier’s Website for suggestions.

Word-Catch

This is a tool to help students improve their word choice in their own writing.  In a writing notebook or writing folder, have students designate a section for “word-catches.”  Before introducing a new genre of writing or a writing topic, have students brainstorm lists of words from a designated category. This activity could also be completed on chart paper or overhead and then transferred to one page that is added to a Class Word Book or to a Quality Writing Notebook.  This book becomes a wonderful reference for students when they are looking for interesting words to add to their writing.

Example:
Mystery Words and Phrases

Word-catching category suggestions:

Sentence Building Game

Read aloud Two Feet by Gwen Pascoe to introduce this activity. Then give students a simple sentence.  Go around the class having one student at a time add to the sentence.  Each student should change or add just one word or phrase at a time.  Continue until the sentence is too long to make sense or be worded appropriately anymore.  Clue words students can use to help them elaborate include: who, did what, where, when, why, how.  While this can be a fun game to get students to compose longer sentences, be sure to emphasize that longer doesn’t always mean better.  A good piece of writing will be balanced with longer and shorter sentences placed in such a way that the language flows smoothly and naturally.   This type of writing will need to be modeled many times through reading aloud, shared and modeled writing experiences, and sharing examples of student writing.  

Building Better Sentences

Give students a simple sentence:  My dog ran.  Ask students to elaborate on this sentence by using these “building blocks”:  when, size or color (or other adjective), name a place, add a name.

Original Sentence:  My dog ran.

When:  yesterday afternoon
Size or color:  enormous
Name a place:  at Depot Park
Add a name:  Rufus

New Sentence:  My enormous dog Rufus ran through Depot Park yesterday afternoon. 

Reading Aloud to Yourself

Sentence fluency is an auditory skill as much as a writing skill.  Students need to hear what their writing sounds like.  A fun way to get students to read their writing aloud to themselves is to have them read into a “fluency phone” (pieces of PVC pipe assembled into the shape of a phone).

Compare Two Versions

On the overhead write a paragraph that contains short, choppy sentences that all begin the same way.

I have a dog.  He is brown.  He is fluffy.
His name is Jack. He likes to sleep with me. 

Then rewrite the paragraph, combining some sentences and using different sentence beginnings.

I have a brown, fluffy dog named Jack.  One of his favorite things to do is sleep in my bed with me.

Ask students to compare the two versions.  Ask which one they like better.  Which one sounds better? Why?  This mini-lesson will need to be repeated many times before most young writers will be able to use this revision strategy independently.

Sentence or Fragment?

Use this activity to help students distinguish between complete sentences and sentence fragments. Dictate a sentence or a fragment to the class.  Ask, “Is this a sentence or a fragment?”  If it is a sentence, students put their thumbs up.  If not, they put their thumbs down.  Begin with obvious examples at first and gradually increase the difficulty as students catch on.  

Sentence Variety

Provide a sentence for the class and write it on the board:

The elephant is the most interesting animal at the zoo.

Ask students to reword the sentence by placing different words at the beginning:

The most interesting animal at the zoo is the elephant.

See if they can reword it again:

Of all the animals at the zoo, the elephant is the most interesting.

Repeat with other sentences. 

Highlight First Words

This activity can be used to help students become more aware of the sentence variety (or lack of it) in their writing.  Using a piece of writing from a shared or modeled writing lesson, have students highlight the first few words in each sentence.  Ask students if they see any patterns.  Do all of the sentences begin the same way?  How can we change some sentences to add variety?  After seeing this modeled several times, students who are writing longer stories can try this in their own writing.

Expanding Sentences with Color Poems

Read aloud Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O’Neill.  Have each child select a color to write about.  Ask, “If you could taste this color, what would it taste like?  If you could hear it, what would it sound like?”  Repeat with all 5 senses.  Have students record their ideas on a planning sheet. 

On their first drafts most students will use simple sentences such as,
“Blue is the sight of the sky.”
“Pink is the taste of watermelon.”

Encourage them to expand these sentences to include more description to create mind pictures for the reader: 

“Blue is the sight of the sky when the cumulus clouds
are moving to different parts of the sky.”    by Jaymi

“Pink is the taste of watermelon squirting juice
in my mouth when I bite into a piece.”    by Kelly

After students complete their drafts on the planning sheets, have them write color poems using some of the words and phrases and then illustrate.

What does scientifically-based research tell us about vocabulary instruction?

1)  Most vocabulary is learned indirectly.
     Children learn word meanings indirectly by:

• engaging daily in oral language
• listening to adults read to them
• reading extensively on their own

2)  Some vocabulary must be taught directly.
     Teachers can provide direct instruction by:

• Providing students with specific word instruction
• Teaching students word-learning strategies

What does it mean to “know” a word?

Students move from:

Not knowing a word

to

Having an acquaintance with the word

to

Deep, rich flexible knowledge of the word

Guidelines for Effective Vocabulary Instruction

Guideline 1:  The effective vocabulary teacher builds a word-rich environment in which students are immersed in words for both incidental and intentional learning.

• Wide reading
• “Flood of words”
• Word aware classroom

Guideline 2:  The effective teacher helps students develop as independent word learners.

• Self-selection of words
• Words in context
• Connect known to the unknown

Guideline 3:  The effective teacher uses instructional strategies that not only teach vocabulary effectively but model good word learning behaviors.

• Make word meanings and relationships visible
• Use semantic webs, maps, organizers, relational charts
• Make word learning personal (use experiences, mnemonics, analogies, keywords)

Guideline 4:  The effective teacher uses assessment that matches the goal of instruction.

• Assessment through use
• Assess depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge
• Incorporate targeted words in responses to questions and in summaries and retellings

From Teaching Vocabulary in All Classrooms by  Blachowicz and Fisher, Merrill Prentice Hall, 2009.

This research-based book features a wealth of ideas for developing vocabulary in all content areas:

The following books have rich language and colorful word choice:

The following children’s books can be used to introduce the parts of speech:

Adjectives and Adverbs

Nouns

Verbs

Wordless picture books can be great tools for teaching organization. The story is already organized in the pictures—the students just provide the words. This activity works better as an oral language activity than as a written one. As students are telling the story, encourage them to tell about the characters, setting, plot, problem, solution, etc. and to use transition words to link ideas and sentences together. Below is a list of a few wordless picture books:

Changes, Changes

Clown

Deep in the Forest

Do You Want to Be My Friend?

Four Hungry Kittens

Good Dog, Carl

Have You Seen My Duckling?

Monkey See, Monkey Do

My Darling Kitten

Pancakes for Breakfast

Rosie’s Walk Tabby: A Story in Pictures

The Snowman

Truck

Trucks, Trucks, Trucks

What’s Up, What’s Down

Student writers often fall into these two traps when constructing sentences:

1. The Grocery List
    The writer’s description is just a list of adjectives or attributes.

     E.g.: The car was old, rusty, scratched, dirty, broken-down, unreliable.

2. The Broken Record
    The writer begins each sentence the same way. Sentences are usually short, choppy, and monotonous.

     E.g.: She had long, blonde, braided hair. She had a polka- dotted dress. She had bright pink lipstick. She had a scarf tied around her neck.

Can you guess which trap this student writer fell into? Click to enlarge.

Strategies to overcome these pitfalls:

• Separate the grocery list—give each detail its own descriptive sentence.
• Replace repetitive pronouns with more interesting alternatives.
• Use a different subject.
• Combine some shorter sentences.
• Begin some sentences with –ing verbs instead of nouns.

These strategies come from Super Story-Writing Strategies and Activities by Barbara Mariconda, Scholastic, 2000.  I highly recommend this book which is filled with wonderful practice activities for a variety of writing crafts.  See below for some examples of sentence fluency practice exercises.

Separate the Grocery List

Example:

It was a bright, sunny, hot summer day.

To use this strategy, the writer gives each adjective in the above sentence its own descriptive sentence.

"bright" = I shielded my eyes from the bright afternoon sunshine.

"sunny" = There was not a cloud in the sky, and the sun burned stronger than ever.

"hot" =   I wiped the sweat from my forehead as I looked for a shady spot to rest.

The revised piece looks like this:

I shielded my eyes from the bright afternoon sunshine. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the sun burned stronger than ever. I wiped the sweat from my forehead as I looked for a shady spot to rest.

Replace Repetitive Pronouns

When a writer begins each sentence with the same pronoun, the piece can be improved by simply replacing those pronouns with a synonymous word or phrase.

Example:
He was so tall that he actually towered over a nearby pine tree. He was wearing a pair of tattered overalls that hung from his lean frame. He was carrying a fishing pole and a garbage can. I stepped closer to get a better look.

Revised:
The enormous man was so tall that he actually towered over a nearby pine tree. The extraordinary creature was wearing a pair of tattered overalls that hung from his lean frame. The mysterious giant was carrying a fishing pole and a garbage can. I stepped closer to get a better look.

Use a Different Subject

Example:
She had long black hair.

Revised:
Long black hair cascaded over her shoulders.

Combine Shorter Sentences

Demonstrate this strategy for your students by writing a paragraph consisting of short, choppy sentences:

I have a dog. He is brown. He is fluffy. His name is Jack. He likes to sleep with me.

Next, combine some of the sentences to improve the sentence structure:

I have a brown, fluffy dog named Jack. One of his favorite things to do is sleep in my bed with me.

Description:

Reading a quality picture book is a great way to inspire young writers, even the most reluctant ones. Try reading aloud one of the listed mentor texts before writer’s notebook time. Invite students to explore a topic from the book in their own writing. For example, read the book Bedhead by Margie Palatini. Explain that many of us have good “hair” stories. I like to start by telling or writing about an example of my own. I tell them that when my brother was young, people often thought he was a girl because he had longish curly hair and long, dark eyelashes. One day in 4th grade he cut his eyelashes off because he was tired of being made fun of. After sharing a personal story, have students write the word “hair” at the top of a clean notebook page and begin writing, allowing the topic to take them in any direction.

Letter Writing

Because there is a built-in audience with letter writing, it is a great way for students to practice writing with voice. Have students imagine that they are talking to the person they are writing to. What would they say to that person? What would they like to ask them? Be sure to model this in a modeled writing lesson first. Don’t forget to include read-alouds that are written in letter format.

Suggested literature:

• Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School by Mark Teague
• Dear Tooth Fairy by Pamela Duncan Edwards
• Journey of Oliver Woodman by Darcy Pattison
• The First Year Letters by Julie Dannegerg
• The Gardener by Sarah Stewart
• With Love, From Little Red Hen by Alma Flor Ada
• Yours Truly, Goldilocks by Alma Flor Ada

Point of View

Choosing an appropriate voice depends on who the narrator is. Having students write from another point of view can help them find their own voices. Have them pretend to be an object, animal, and eventually another person. Have them write from the object’s point of view. Ask questions such as: “Have you ever wondered what a leaf would say if it could talk?” “If you were a leaf, to whom would you talk?” “What would your voice sound like?” More ideas:

You are a _______. Tell about your life.

• A pencil talking to a piece of paper
• A computer talking to its owner
• A sock talking to a shoe
• A shoe talking to a hat
• A playground ball talking to some students
• A baseball talking to a bat
• A jump rope talking to a child

(from Trait-Based Mini-Lessons for Teaching Writing by Megan Sloan)

Model how to write from another point of view by reading aloud some of the following books.

Suggested literature:

• Cinderella’s Rat by Susan Meddaugh
• Dirty Laundry Pile: Poems in Different Voices by Paul Janeczko (ed.)
• Hey, Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah Hoose
• I Am the Dog, I Am the Cat by Donald Hall
• The Fall of Freddie the Leaf by Leo Buscaglia
• The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
• Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg
• Wolf! by Becky Bloom
• Arnie the Doughnut by Laurie Keller
• Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne
• Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
• My Big Dog by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel

Activity: Display a short excerpt of writing. Have students work in small groups to rewrite the piece, each group from a different character’s point of view.

Extreme Makeover

One way to help students see the difference between writing with voice and writing without is to have them take a dry piece of writing (from a memo, manual, or textbook) and rewrite it, putting as much voice into it as possible. Try the opposite activity, too. Give students an excerpt of well-written literature and have them rewrite it without voice. This sharpens their awareness of voice because in order to remove the voice, students must first understand it.

Voice is a difficult concept to teach. It seems that some students “just have it” while others struggle to find it. Voice is the personality behind a writer’s words—it is what makes the writing come alive. While voice cannot be taught step-by-step, there are ways to help students find their voices.

Reading Aloud

There is no better way to introduce and model writing with voice than through read-alouds. Listed below are just a few picture books that are excellent example of writing with voice. Following the list are some mini-lessons that involve read-aloud.

• “Alexander” books by Judith Viorst
• Airmail to the Moon by Tom Birdseye
• Alice the Fairy by David Shannon
• Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco
• How Are You Peeling? Foods with Moods by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers
• Knots on a Counting Rope by Bill Martin, Jr.
• My House Has Stars by Megan McDonald
• My Momma’s Kitchen by Jerdine Nelen
• The Camel’s Lament by Charles Edward Carryl
• The Great Kapok Tree by Lynn Cherry
• The Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume
• The River Ran Wild by Lynn Cherry
• Through Grandpa’s Eyes by Patricia MacLachlan
• Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen
• When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant

Listening for Voice

As you read aloud, stop occasionally to ask students what voice they hear. Have them try to describe the person behind the voice. Have the class brainstorm a list of voice descriptors. Keep the list posted and add to it throughout the year. Possible voice descriptors include: happy, sad, angry, caring, funny, irritated, shy, silly, boring, rude, forgiving, begging, frightened, friendly, sarcastic, scholarly, loving, courageous, horrifying. Try writing these adjectives on index cards. Have students take turns drawing cards and then try to talk in that voice (angry, silly, whiny, etc.) Try introducing this activity by reading aloud the book How Are You Peeling? Foods with Moods by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers.

Puppet Center

Set up a puppet center. Have students use the puppets to act out a story they have read or one they have made up using different voices.

Comparing Voices

Read aloud two picture books by two different authors who write with two entirely different voices (eg.: Cynthia Rylant and Dav Pilkey). Discuss the authors’ styles and the type of voice each uses. Read aloud a third book by one of the authors and have students guess who the author is and state why they think so.

Compare Two Texts

Read aloud two versions of the same story—one without voice and one with voice. For example, tell the story of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” in a bare bones version. Then read aloud James Marshall’s version. Compare the two stories, discussing what makes Marshall’s version more “voice-filled.”

Greeting Card Center

Place a collection of greeting cards in a center. Have students read the cards and sort them according to the voice they hear: silly, sad, caring, friendly, etc. You may assign the categories or allow students to select their own categories. For example, the first card below has a reflective tone, while the second, a Dr. Seuss card has a much more playful feel. Click on images to enlarge:

A Lot About a Little

The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown is a classic and has so many uses in the writing classroom. To use it as a lesson on focus, read it aloud to students and encourage them to notice how Brown takes each topic and describes it in detail to write “a lot about a little.” As a shared writing activity, select one of Brown’s topics and have students add more details about it. Have students write their own paragraphs—either elaborating on another topic from the book or selecting a topic of their choice.

A Tree is Nice by Janice M. Udry is another great book to model this technique.

Asking Questions

Some young writers have difficulty clearly conveying their message on paper. They know what they want to write about but struggle to capture their thoughts on paper in a way that is clear to the reader. This mini-lesson helps students see the need to clarify their information and include enough details for the reader. Model this technique by writing a “story” on the overhead or chart paper: “I have a cat.” Ask students what they think of your story. Most will say that you need to write more. Ask students what they want to know about your cat. They will ask questions such as, “What is its name? Where did you get it? What does it look like?” Write a second draft of your story, including answers to their questions. Help students to see that a writer needs to include enough details for the reader.

Extend this technique by having students volunteer to read a draft of one of their stories aloud to the class. Invite classmates to ask the writer questions that will help clarify the message. After sufficient modeling, this technique can also be used in a peer conference setting.

To give students more practice in asking questions to help clarify their writing, I often use this technique as a brainstorming tool. We begin by making a list of all the questions we think the reader might want to have answered in the piece. Students answer the questions either orally or on a planning sheet before beginning their rough drafts. When using planning sheets for this prewriting activity, I always model how to go from the completed planning sheet to the first draft. Without sufficient modeling, students will end up just recopying the answers from the planning sheets.

Below are two sample lessons that work well with this technique:

1. Special Object

Read aloud a picture book involving a character who owns a special object. The Quilt Story by Tony Johnston and Laura Charlotte by Kathryn Galbraith are good ones. Have students select an object that is special to them. Brainstorm questions that the reader will want to know, such as:

• Where did you get this object?
• Why is it special to you?
• How long have you had it?
• Have you ever misplaced it?

Have students answer the questions and then write a first draft.

2. Family Traditions

Read aloud a picture book involving a family tradition such as Knots on a Counting Rope by Bill Martin, Jr., The Hickory Chair by Lisa Fraustino, or A Chair for My Mother by Vera Williams. Give students the following assignment: “Make a list of some family traditions that are important to you. Think about holidays, birthdays, or other special events. Think also about everyday events that are traditions in your family. The traditions can be from the present or the past and can involve your entire family or just one member. Talk to other members of your family to get more ideas.” Have students complete planning sheets and drafts using the following questions as a guide:

• What is the tradition and how do you participate in it?
• Why is it important to you? Why do you love it?
• How does it make you feel?

Take a Snapshot

To introduce this technique, select a picture of something from a catalog or magazine. Without showing it to the students, tell them that you have a picture of an “amazing car”, “a cute puppy,” “an awesome bicycle,” or whatever. Ask students to form a mental image of it and then draw a picture of it. If they ask for more details, give them adjectives like neat, great, fantastic, delicious. After giving them time to draw, show them the actual picture and compare. Students will realize that you did not give them enough specific details.

Next read aloud well-written descriptions from children’s books to model how to describe a character, object, or place.

When ready to have students begin elaborating on a description, assign a topic sentence about a character, a setting, or object. Before they begin writing, ask them to “take a mental snapshot” and have them practice listing all the questions that a reader might ask about the subject. For example, if writing a description to follow the sentence, “I found an old box in the corner,” questions might include:

• How big was the box?
• Was it open or closed?
• What room was it in?
• Who did it belong to?
• What did the outside of it look like?
• Was there anything in it?
• Did you open it?
• What was it made out of?
• What condition was it in?

After they have listed and answered the questions, students can write their descriptions. This should first be modeled as a whole group mini-lesson, and then students should each write their own answers and descriptions.

When students are just getting started, it is helpful to give them a list of sentence starters so that their descriptions don’t end up being just a “grocery list” of adjectives or descriptive phrases. Some helpful sentence starters include:

• I noticed..
• It was evident that…
• As I ran my hand down…
• They were surprised to see..
• He couldn’t help but notice…
• My eye was drawn to…
• She could make out the sound of…

Here is a sample of one of my third-grader’s snapshot of a setting:

Paint a Picture Using Your Senses

Often when we ask young writers to be more descriptive, they respond by adding adjectives such as cool, awesome, nice, really, good, etc. To help remedy this problem, invite students to use their senses when they are writing to help create “mind pictures” for the reader. When helping a child add more description to a piece of writing, ask questions such as, “What did you see? hear? smell? feel? touch? taste?”

Show, Don’t Tell

Another way to elaborate with details is to show rather than tell. Instead of telling the reader that the character is happy, excited, angry, or scared, the writer should show it. Introduce this technique by acting out an emotion without telling students what it is. For example, act out “angry” by using body language and describing what you are thinking or feeling without using the word “angry.” Have students guess the emotion. Next have students list as many emotion words as they can and call on volunteers to act out several emotions.

When you feel that students understand this concept, have them select an emotion to write about. Have them write a sentence or two, telling the emotion (e.g., “I was so happy when my dad said we could get a puppy.” Have them write a second draft, showing rather than telling (e.g., “When my dad announced that we could get a puppy, I jumped off my chair and planted a kiss on his cheek!”).

When reading aloud picture books to students, look for examples where the author shows rather than tells. For example, in Night Noises by Mem Fox, instead of telling the reader that Lily Laceby is old, Fox shows us: “Her hair was as wispy as cobwebs in ceilings. Her bones were as creaky as floorboards at midnight.”

Below are samples of some of my students’ first drafts (telling) and their revised drafts (showing).  Click to enlarge image.