Especially For You
- The teacher prepares a list of words. Each student gets one word which is prepared especially for him or her. The trick is that each student gets a word whose initial letter is the same as the initial of the student’s first name, e.g. Linda gets “listless.”
- Each student must look up the definition to his/her word during class and after a few minutes, report to the class: e.g. “My name is Linda and I’m listless….that means that I am ……….definition……….
- For additional experience, students can do the same using their surname. For content area, the words might be about what the student knows that is content specific. For example: “My name is Linda and I know this “L” word means “a body of water cut off from a larger body by a reef of sand or coral.” What am I?*
*Answer: Lagoon
References
Gairns, R., & Redman, S. (1986). Working with Words: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Vocabulary . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .