Vocabulary Lesson Plan

Lesson: Vocabulary Review
By: Jen Dawes
Primary Subject: Language Arts
Grade Level: Middle School

Vocabulary review can be tedious for everyone. This activity has proven to be "the spoonful of sugar" that makes the inevitable a bit more palatable.

FIRST: Make sure that you have covered the vocabulary in some shape or form, whether you've asked the students to find definitions in the dictionary or you've at least mentioned some of the concepts in class. For this activity it's not essential that everyone have a complete understanding of each term, but at least a few of the kids need to have some idea.

NEXT: Pick six or seven terms that you feel have the best potential to be misunderstood by the class. Tell the students to each take a piece of notebook paper and rip it into eighths, putting their name on each scrap.

THEN: Call out the first term. Students have one minute to write its definition. IF SOMEONE DOES NOT KNOW THE TERM, THIS IS OKAY! Tell them to write a creative definition that would be likely to fool someone else. When the students are done with their definitions, they may walk silently up to your desk and give it to you. At this point, you should be choosing four of the slips: three incorrect versions and one that is acceptable.

FINALLY: Read all four definitions. Tell students that they are to vote for the ONE correct term. Let the voting commence and write the number of votes received on each slip.

EXAMPLE: The word is plunge.

1. "to fall from a tall building"
2. "a tool used to unclog a toilet"
3. "to drop suddenly and sharply"
4. "bird feathers"
   

SCORING/RESULTS: Have the kids tally their own points. Each student who votes correctly earns whatever amount of points you choose to assign. The authors of the four definitions get one point for each person who voted for the definition. You get to read some fairly hilarious definitions and score humor points with the kids. What a bonding experience.

CAUTION!!!!: To be fair, make sure you pick a different four people each time you switch terms. Otherwise, you may have an angry mob scene.

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What a fun activity to help students review their vocabulary words!

What was GOOD about Dawes' lesson?

• Dawes' students are being asked to recall information that they have previously learned.
  
• Dawes is giving students a review session. Many times, students do not study for their vocabulary quizzes because they think they can guess and do well. However, this is often not the case. Their lack of studying is usually evident. Providing opportunities in the classroom for students to review new vocabulary will more than likely help students to make higher grades on their vocabulary quizzes.
• Dawes is making learning fun for her students! Students love to play games like this where they are competing against one another. Little do they know, they are actually learning in the process. :)

What would I do to IMPROVE Dawes' lesson?

• Have a system set up for subtracting points. Points would be taken away for silly behavior, which I would define for students in detail at the beginning of the game. Points would also be taken away for 5 incorrect guesses in a row, which would probably motivate students to try even harder.
  
• Require one student to be the score keeper. This student would probably not be allowed to partake in the game. Instead, he/she would keep everyone's score during the game, so that the students could focus intently on the game. To prevent students from continually asking what their score is, the score keeper could tally the scores on the board or on an ELMO, which would project onto the board. You might be wondering: What is an ELMO?!! Watch the YouTube video below for a quick tutorial.
  
  
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