Increasing Vocabulary Knowledge with One Word From Sophia

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Happy Groundhog Day!  From what I heard this morning, the groundhog saw his shadow.  Does this mean an early spring?  Anne and I certainly hope so.

Today we wanted to write a quick blog about a vocabulary activity we did with one of our reading groups.  It is a follow-up to our one-word goal we wrote after winter break.  We thought the adorable, yet challenging, book titled One Word From Sophia by Jim Averbeck would be perfect for building students' vocabularies.  Don't be fooled by the cover.  While it looks like it is for younger students, the plot and word choice is anything but that!

As the story evolves, Sophia goes from being too verbose to finding one perfect word to meet her goal.

Our students each had their own copy of the story.  We read and discussed the plot while being mindful to use strategies good readers use to comprehend at the deepest level.  As we read, we also recorded amazing words the author used, and tried to determine their meanings through context clues.  There are an abundance of Tier 2 and Tier 3 words in this book.

After reading, the students chose one of their identified words to learn more completely.  We did a 4-square activity--word, definition, sentence with the word, and synonyms of the word.  The end result is adorable, but more importantly the students have a new word that they are excited to use when speaking and writing!  They love them.

Here are just a few of the words the kids chose.  We identified well over 30 amazing words in this book!

The amazing word is in the first box.

The second box has the definition and part of speech.

The students wrote a sentence that included their new amazing word and a picture.
The words outside the boxes are synonyms of the amazing words.

The 4-square activity was just the beginning.  Tomorrow the kids will teach each other their chosen word.  Throughout the week we will do activities that will help them internalize the meanings of multiple words.  Activities such as word association, example non-example, and a game called Hit or Miss.  These activities can be found in Bringing Words To Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction, but if you want just a quick glimpse of some vocabulary activities look up "Authentic, Engaging, and Fun Vocabulary Activities and Games," at TpT.

We will continue focusing on collecting amazing words from our reading and the world around us.  This week I will read The Word Collector by Peter Reynolds.  Anne and I will give the students a little pocket notebook and marker (yes, a gimick) to keep with them in case they need to write down a great word they notice.

Some years Anne and I have dressed up like "Word Wizards" and read this book.  The kids all wanted to earn a wizard wand by learning and applying as many amazing words to their writing and speaking as possible.  It's a fun way to engage the students who need a bit more than just the excitement of new words.

We hope you have an amazing week.  February is filled with fun activities, so take advantage of that to engage your students.

Kim and Anne