Word Work

Students experiment with words, and develop a genuine curiosity for and interest in new and unique words. By playing with words, students hone their knowledge of words and increase their communication and writing skills.

Word Work is an important part of developing literacy supporting both reading and writing development. The purpose is to increase the complexity of your vocabulary so that you might be more exact in your communication.

Establishing the following routines which will facilitate the practice:

1. 1. Collect (write down) words that are new and unique or related to an area of interest. If you read an interesting word-add it to the list. Then use these words for the activities

   2. You should choose how you want to practice or use these words, either formally or informally, written or spoken.

   3. Use these new words in combination with familiar words to strengthen your written and spoken work.

Sites that help with word building:

Merriam Webster's Word of the Day- students can keep a daily journal with the word, definition, and personalized sentence exemplars. Visuals and/or symbols enhance retention.

Describing Words- a good reference tab to have open while writing as it gives excellent descriptors for any noun.

Online Etymology Dictionary- explanations of what our words mean and how they sounded at their earliest inception.

Vocabulary.com- combines a dictionary with an adaptive learning game that is designed for retention.

Visuwords.com- search for a word and a brainstorm of all related words appear in a "neural net." It visually represents how words associate. Great site to consult when learning new concepts.

Classic Games that help develop vocabulary or knowledge of words:

Catch Phrase, Balderdash, Scrabble, Boggle, 5 Second Rule, Scattegories, Cross Words