Effective Vocabulary Instruction for Gifted Students

from The Vocabulary Enriched Classroom by David Lund, Southern Utah University
Because of the close relationship between spelling and vocabulary, integrating the two
across the curriculum helps students attain the deep understanding necessary for using a word in
everyday situations. Developing an individualized integration strategy to accomplish spelling
and vocabulary instructional objectives makes sense. A suggested method for accomplishing
this:
1. Pre-test students on the weeks spelling words.
2. Students replace correctly spelled words with words of their choice for the remainder
of the weeks spelling and vocabulary instruction activities.
Students should be encouraged to add words
a. of personal interest.
b. that are thematically related to the original spelling and vocabulary words.
c. that come from a variety of sources, i.e., a special topic the student is interested
in, challenging words that are not necessarily part of the curriculum, words that
are just interesting to learn, and dictionaries, thesauruses, and other interesting
books in which students are encouraged to search.
3. During the weeks activities, student use the words in journal writing, quick writes on
various topics and other creative projects.
4. Students take a self-created dictation tests based on a paragraph they created in which
they used ten spelling words or buddy up with a partner to test each other.

Ideas for Vocabulary Activities

Playing Hink Pink (one-syllable rhymes for two words for example, sad dad) or Hinky Pinky
(two-syllable rhymes of two words for example, yellow fellow)
Have students create their own Hink Pinks or Hinky Pinkys, then create the clues that go
with them (a clue for sad dad would be unhappy father and for yellow fellow a possible clue
could be a jaundiced man), and trade them with a classmate to figure out. They might extent
this activity to three and four syllable rhymes and accompanying clues. This activity promotes
the development of descriptive language.
Creating bi- or trilingual (or more if there are more than two first languages other than
English represented in the class) dictionaries for classroom use. This activity helps all the
students become aware of the cultural vocabulary of each student in the classroom. Students
create dictionaries by listing the English vocabulary word to be learned in the first column and
them placing translations in the next column or columns. See example below:
English

Spanish

German

Cat

(el) gato

(die) katze

Picture

Translations can be found by going to an internet based translation site like Free Translation at
http://www.freetranslation.com or Alta Vista Babel Fish Translation at http://world.altavista.com.
Looking up and using new words. Locating definitions for weekly vocabulary words in
internet based dictionaries, glossaries or thesaureses, writing new sentences with the words and
creating word games with them. Dictionary.com at http://dictionary.reference.com provides free
access to a dictionary and thesaurus. Fun-with-words.com (http://www.fun-with-words.com) has
patterns for word games. Make the number of words reasonable. Ten is a good number for
grades 3-5.
Searching for etymologies on the Internet. Promote the value of looking deeply into a word,
beyond memorizing a definition and using the word in a decontextualized sentence. Students
create a chart with four columns. See an example of this strategy below.
Word
Etymology
Meaning
Interesting
(where the word
fact or story
comes from)

Malaria

Mediaeval Latin

Mal=bad
Aria=air
So bad air

When the Romans ventured into the

swamps around Rome, they often
became ill. Since the air smelled bad,
they named the illness malaria, being
unaware that it was actually caused
by protozoa injected into humans
during the bite of a mosquito.

www.fun-with-words.com has interesting information on word origins and fun, quirky facts
about many English words.
Finding and sharing the Word of the Day. This could be an enrichment activity for gifted
spellers. The word could come form a variety of sources, allowing students to expand their
usable vocabulary. They may find the word in their reading or at an Internet site that lists a word
of the day. The student in charge of the Word of the Day would be responsible for locating the
days word and sharing it with the class, including the definition, and how the word is properly
used in context. Examples of possible words include: epidermis, pugnacious, sanguinarian.

Using students knowledge of affixes to form as many different words from a single root
word as possible. An example is shown below.
Word Definition

Work to perform a

New words with

affixes
Prefixes
Rework

Meaning

To perform a task

Real or not real,

based on
dictionary
real

task
Inwork
unwork

again
To perform inside of not real
something
To not perform a
not real
task

Suffixes
Workable

A task that is able to read

be done.
Workness
A task to be
not real
performed
Worker
A person that
real
performs a task
Once as many words as possible have been formed, students write definitions for each word.
Then they use a regular dictionary or Internet dictionary to verify that all the words they have
created are real words and eliminate those that arent. Finally, students could write a short essay
or story using as many of the words as possible.
Word Clusters Strategy. Have students choose from their assigned vocabulary/spelling words
one word that has at least three meanings. They then write a paragraph, poem or short story
using the word at least three times, each with a different meaning. Example using mountain. Its
three meanings are: 1) a very high hill; 2) of or having to do with mountains; and 3) a very large
stack of anything. The poem may read as follows:

I climbed a mountain very high,

To breathe the mountain air.
I found the snow piled high and deep,
In mountains everywhere.
Writing a fiction story that uses the vocabulary words from a content unit. For example,
students learning about fractions might include the words denominator, numerator, fraction, etc.
Once the story is written, have student choose an online publisher and get their story published.
Engaging in a word-transformation exercise. Choose two different vocabulary words of the
same length such as gate and pots. Students change one letter at a time, creating new words,
until the second vocabulary word has been formed. Definitions for all words may be given.
Gate an entrance to a fence
Rate cost per hour
Rats plural of rat
Rots - decays
Pots pans
Directing student to Fun-with-words.com which has a variety of word games that employ
logical concepts, similar to the previous activity.

Creating newspaper cryptoquotes. Have students write a paragraph using the vocabulary
words from the week. Example: George Washington, president, elected, general, army
George Washington was a general in the army. He was elected the first
president of the United States. The people liked him.
Students then create a secret code by substituting letters for each other in some pattern and
rewriting the paragraph with the new code. They, then exchange coded paragraphs with another
student for decoding.
Jhrujh Zdvklqjwrq zdv d jhqhudo lq wkh dupb. Kh zdv hohfwhg wkh iluvw
Suhvlghqw ri wkh Xqlwhg Vwdwhv. Wkh shrsoh olnhg klp.
Writing a four-line poem. Students use the vocabulary words and a specific rhyming pattern
(aa,bb,aa,bb), then set the poem to music. Example: pyramid, sphinx, pharaoh
The sphinx in Egypt is so old;
Its made of stone, not wood or gold;
The pyramids stand near, so tall;
The pharaohs built them one and all.
Creating musical innovations: Students rewrite the lyrics to familiar songs using vocabulary
words from a content area subject and then perform the songs. Example: A science concept
about worms using Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star:
Wiggle, wiggle little worm,
How I love to watch you squirm
As you eat the dirt and mud,
I only see lots of crud,
Wiggle, wiggle little worm,
How I love to watch you squirm.
Dance the Words. Single student or groups of students creat a dance inspired by the meaning of
a word. It is followed by another dance in which the students spell the word by forming each
letter with a pause between. Other groups race against each other to guess the word.
Where in the World. Teams of students are given ten world words such as taco, lasagna,
bratwurst, babushka, gaucho, Mardi Gras, crumpet, czar, kiwi, and Suez Canal. Each word is on
a large card. The students are required to look up the words in a tag-team fashion, one at a time,
finding the meaning and the country of origin, write both on the back of the card, and then run to
a large world map at the front of the room and place or pin the card on the country of origin.
Finding strange expressions. Ask students to locate at least ten idiomatic or strange
expressions in their reading, such as She has a frog in her throat. or He has ants in his pants.
For each one, students use the internet and/or a graphic design program to create two visual
representations of the expression one should convey the figurative meaning and one the literal

meaning. The students write a short paragraph or story using the expression both ways depicted
in their graphic illustrations. Finally, students can share their paragraphs and illustrations with
one another.
Cubing Activity. Students describe a word on the six sides of a cube with a different aspet of
the word on each side: define it, compare it, associate it, analyze it, find its etymology, and use it
appropriately. They may either write on the cube or graphically represent the word. Example:
the word OCTAGON. The students might draw a picture of an 8-sided figure with the number
eight in the middle on one side; a hexagon with a red line through for comparison, a picture of a
stop sign to associate it, the Greek origin for the etymology, and a picture of the octagon with its
side numbered to use it appropriately.
Key Word Collection strategy. In a literature circle formation, students write down new and
different words they come across. They fill in a three column Key Concept Chart by writing the
words in the first column and possible definitions in the second column. They then reread the
passage where the word appeared, marking the correct definition from the list of possibilities.
Finally, they complete the third column with the etymology of the word.
Below is an example
Words
Tramp (p. 4)

Mezzanine (p. 5)

Possible Definitions
1. walk heavily
2. sound of a heavy
step
3. hobo
A low story between two
higher stories f a building

Etymology
Verb made from Middle
Low greman word trampen,
to walk heavily, a person
who walks heavily, 1388
Italian mezzanine meaning
middle. 1711

Beef Up the Paragraph. Students beef up a paragraph of test they are reading by adding
words that show feelings, enhancing existing details and exchanging existing words for more
exciting words. An example
Matter can be found in three forms. Some matter, like water,
can be found as a gas, a liquid or a solid. Some matter, like gold,
is usually found in solid form, but if heated can be melted into a
liquid.
The beefed up paragraph might look like this:
Matter is very interesting, having three distinct forms. For example, water can be found
as a gas, like the water vapor in a cloud, or it can e in solid form, like the ice cubes in
your soda on a hot summer day. Finally, it can be a liquid, just the right temperature for
taking a relaxing bath.