Vocabulary Strengthening Activity | Vocab and Writing Skills Exercises

Description

Try a vocabulary strengthening activity (or three!) with older students. Are you tired of students using the same words in their writing (or worse!) plugging in random words from the thesaurus? These vocabulary activities were made for secondary students who need to stop overusing the same words and improve their overall writing structure.

You will receive an editable lesson plan, a digital version of student work, and PDFs (pictured) to use in the classroom.

Overview of each vocabulary strengthening activity:

√ Students will brainstorm words, elaborate with and without a thesaurus, define words, and compile a personalized list that includes the denotative and connotative meanings. Your students will have practical ideas to implement in their writing immediately.

√ This product includes three activities to improve student writing. They will work as stand-alone activities or as a focused study on vocabulary use and improvement.

√ Feel free to use these for the entire class, for student choice, or with stations

ACTIVITY ONE: students taking ownership of vocabulary

* A poster that covers proper thesaurus use (see thumbnails for pictures).

* A word chart for final word choices and their definitions/ connotative meanings.

* Reflecting prompt and writing page.

* A sample of the activity with over twenty similar words and their definitions.

ACTIVITY TWO: common structure errors

* A poster that covers common errors with formal writing – formal language, limited qualifiers, and talking about the paper (see thumbnails for pictures).

* A sheet with examples of the common structural problems for students.

* A guiding sheet for teachers for discussion.

ACTIVITY THREE: improve verbs

* A small paragraph with weak verbs and instructions for students to rewrite it.

* An answer key.

Because I stress with these vocabulary activities that students should take ownership of their writing, I included a writing process sheet. I use this to emphasize that each student must develop their own ways of writing. A strong vocabulary is part of improving student writing.

The lesson plan is editable and includes the link for the digital work. The lesson plan takes teachers step by step through the process and includes final reflections, methods to differentiate, and possible discussion starters.

If you teach that writing is recursive and not linear, these activities will work with your writing program.