I love Marzano's strategies and ideas about learning vocabulary and I think it is important that students interact with their words and that they can "play" with them. While reflecting over the past year, I am adding some vocabulary work for next year!
Here are some of the ones we already do:
1. Vocabulary Poem
2. Writing Sentences (This is not just writing a bunch of sentences. It focuses on specific types of sentences: imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory.)
3. Synonym/Antonym
4. Synonym Ladder
Here are the new ones!
5. Antonym Ladder
6. Symbolic Representation
7. Vocabulary Cartoon
8. Meme
9. Short Story
10. Scavenger Hunt
I am excited to provide some upcoming examples of these soon!
The way that I teach vocabulary is the way Marzano suggests.
I introduce the word and mostly all of our words are from a text we are reading. Then, the students have one of these paperwork activities that they do for each word. Student feedback (and usage) shows that this does help them! It is not just busy work or just writing a definition, but it has them dig deep to think and engage with the meaning of each word. It also has them refer back to the sentence in the text sometimes, which I love! Then, after students have worked hard to learn the words, we have some games in class so that they can interact with the words in a positive way. More interaction means more meaningful learning and more practice! Students need practice to learn words! I also put the words on my middle school classroom word wall! My students and I used to think the word wall was "kiddie," but we have learned that it is not and it really helps!
What kind of vocabulary activities do you use in your classroom?