• During the lesson, focus on students’ abilities to understand the importance of developing an expanding word bank so they can choose the best, most appropriate words to create a clear message in their writing. Observe students’ participation in whole-group discussions and the partner activity. As students share their new, powerful words with the rest of the class, encourage them to ask questions for clarification of any misconceptions or misusage of the words being selected. This will allow you to see if any students need additional help in gaining a clear grasp of the trait of word choice.
• The exit ticket will serve as an informal assessment, allowing you to know which students need to extend their learning and which students will need to work with you for additional practice and support.

Focus Question: How does using powerful word choice in your piece improve the quality of your writing?

Language Skills Mini-Lesson

Take ten minutes to use Thesaurus Rex by Laya Steinberg to review how to punctuate items in a series. Read the first few pages to have students hear the sentences below. “Let’s look at a couple of examples in this story to review how to correctly punctuate items in a series. You can use this skill in your writing.” Write the sentences below on the board.

1. Thesaurus Rex starts his day: reaching stretching extending bending.
2. Thesaurus Rex drinks his milk: sip sup swallow swill.
3. Thesaurus Rex goes exploring: hunting searching foraging poking.

“On a half sheet of paper, number to three, write down the sentence, and use correct punctuation to separate the items in the series.” You should acknowledge the colon, but keep the focus on the comma placement.

Have students share their answers with a partner. They should be: 1. reaching, stretching, extending, bending; 2. sip, sup, swallow, swill; and 3. hunting, searching, foraging, poking.

“How are these sentences different from most sentences that list three or more items? There is a word missing. What is it?” Guide students to discover that the conjunction “and” is missing. “‘And’ normally sits before the final item in a series. For example, the first sentence should read, ‘Thesaurus Rex starts his day reaching, stretching, extending, and bending.’ Why did the author break this common rule?” (She may have wanted sole focus on the synonyms, or since the words are scattered over some of the pages, she may have been concerned that they would be read out of order.)

“Let’s fix the other two sentences to reflect this rule. Write the corrected sentences on your paper and share them with your partner.” (Thesaurus Rex drinks his milk: sip, sup, swallow, and swill. Thesaurus Rex goes exploring: hunting, searching, foraging, and poking.) “Write one more sentence of your own that has three or more items, and punctuate it correctly. Try to use three synonyms if you can!”

When students are finished, collect their sentences..

Part 1

Write these two sentences on the board:

• My sister said something funny and we laughed.
• My sister’s biting wit made us double over with laughter.

“When writers write, they know they need to choose their words carefully and accurately in order to produce good writing. The words they choose need to make the reader feel, and the words must paint a clear, memorable picture in the reader’s imagination.”

Read Thesaurus Rex aloud. Reading this book will develop students’ understanding of the importance of a thesaurus and how it is used.

“What was the character, Thesaurus Rex, symbolic of?” Guide students to see that Thesaurus Rex was symbolic of a thesaurus, which is a reference book that is designed for people who want to expand their vocabulary and choose the best, most appropriate words for their intended meaning.

“The more words you know, the better you are able to choose words that communicate your ideas clearly.”

Take a couple of minutes to flip back through the book Thesaurus Rex and review some of the words (verbs) and the alternative words being chosen to describe these ideas. Record some of these examples on a piece of chart paper or the board, and title it “Spicy Word List.” Some examples from the book may include:

• exploring (verb)

Spicy Words:

• hunting
• searching
• foraging
• poking
• play (verb)

      Spicy Words:

• frolic
• rollick
• frisk
• romp
• call (verb)

      Spicy Words:

• howl
• yowl
• squall
• shout

Students can continue to add to this list throughout the year.

“A good way to begin building a larger vocabulary is to choose powerful words, like the verbs we saw modeled in the story Thesaurus Rex. Choosing vivid words like these makes your writing more exciting. Therefore, a great resource or reference guide to help you find synonyms for words is a thesaurus.”

With a partner, give students the opportunity to practice using a thesaurus by having them replace the dull/tired vocabulary words with powerful word choices.

Below are some suggested words for students to replace with vivid vocabulary:

• said
• walked
• cried
• pretty
• ugly
• old
• big

Bulletin Board for Powerful Words (Optional)

You may want to create a bulletin board to showcase the powerful words. The title of the bulletin board should be “Spicy Word Choice.” Give each student a red or green pepper (cut out of construction paper) and have him/her boldly write a powerful word or phrase on the pepper. Throughout the remainder of the year, encourage students to add these powerful/spicy vocabulary words to their individual pieces.

Part 2

Have students play a game that asks for partners to share their new powerful words with the class. If a word has already been shared, it may not be used again (list the responses).

If the suggested words were used in the previous lesson, these are some possible answers students may have:

• said: yelled, mumbled
• walked: strolled, galloped
• cried: sobbed, pleaded
• pretty: gorgeous, stunning
• ugly: hideous, grotesque
• old: wrinkled, out-dated
• big: humongous, gigantic

Title a piece of chart paper “Tired, Overused Words” and hang it on the wall/board. “When we choose the best, most appropriate words, we make our writing precise, effective, and catchy for our readers; we avoid vague, tired, and overused words.”

Allow students approximately 3–5 minutes to brainstorm some tired or overused words, and then add these words to the chart paper. (See LW-6-1-3_Tired Words.doc for suggested words.)

“The words on this list are not allowed in your writing pieces from now on. Instead of using these words, try to replace them with powerful vocabulary.

“When you use a thesaurus, you have to be careful that the synonym you are choosing actually has the meaning that you intend. You cannot blindly insert synonyms you find in the thesaurus as replacements for other words. The best practice is to use a thesaurus as an idea-generator, and then look up the thesaurus words in a dictionary before you put them into a sentence. For example, in the sentence, ‘The old building had three stories,’ if you looked up synonyms for ‘old’ and blindly replaced it with ‘wrinkled,’ that would not be the meaning you intended (The wrinkled building had three stories). Maybe ‘crumbling’ would have been a more precise choice. Or ‘stooped.’ Or ‘ancient.’ It simply depends on what the building (real or imagined) looks like and what message you are trying to convey. It can also depend on the context or surrounding details of the story. Choose your synonyms very carefully.

“To practice using a thesaurus to find spicy, powerful words, and then choosing the best, most appropriate word for the sentence in which it will appear, let’s revisit some of your previous writing.” Give students previous writing pieces so they can focus on word choice instead of composition. (If you do not have any previous writing, you could choose a writing sample for them that is simplistic, like a few pages out of a Dick and Jane book, for example.) Have them replace any tired, overused words that they find with spicy, powerful words whose meaning is appropriate to the context. Have them hand in their old version and revised version together, with their replaced words highlighted so that you can easily compare the two versions to check for understanding. They should also assess their work by filling out the Word Choice Checklist (LW-6-1-3_Word Choice Checklist.doc).

Hand out the Exit Ticket (LW-6-1-3_Exit Ticket.doc) to students before they leave the classroom. Use the Exit Ticket as a way to monitor which students have a solid understanding of word choice and which students need further assistance.

Bulletin Board for Tired/Overused Words (Optional)

Give students a small rectangular piece of construction paper and have them write down one of the tired/overused vocabulary words listed on the chart paper. Make sure each student chooses a different word. Collect all of the pieces of construction paper and post them on the banned board. Throughout the year, encourage students to add other tired/overused words to the bulletin board.

Extension:

• Students can create their own thesaurus to “spice up” their vocabulary. They will include in their thesaurus the banned words listed on the chart paper and any other words they feel are tired. Students should include at least 20 tired/overused/vague words in their thesaurus and should provide at least three powerful words or synonyms as alternative word choices. Students can share their thesaurus with their peers and allow them to use it as a resource when they are writing. This is a good opportunity for students who have difficulty with choosing the best, most appropriate words; they can use their peers’ ideas and implement them in their own writing.
• To further support writers who need extra practice, read snippets or paragraphs aloud from these books, which have lots of powerful vocabulary:
• So B. It by Sarah Weeks
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• The BFG! by Roald Dahl
• Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox