Curated OER
Physical Education Word of the Week
Practice physical education vocabulary in your classroom. Working with language arts teachers, learners use dictionary skills to define and explain a word dealing with a concept in physical education. They also complete a task and have...
Paul Hudson
SPQR Latin Dictionary and Reader
Searching for an incredibly thorough Latin app? Look no further! Latin learners will be quite satisfied with the collection of texts, three dictionaries, customizable flashcards, assessment options, and other features that are right at...
Curated OER
Revising Writing: Plain English
Eschew obfuscation! Using dictionaries, writers revise a complicated text so that it reads more simply and improves the clarity of the passage. Focusing on word meanings, they revise the sample worksheets and then present their...
Curated OER
Justice for All
A reading of Roald Dahl’s Lamb to the Slaughter opens a discussion of justice and fairness. Using a Venn diagram and an Idea Wheel graphic organizer, class members consider the similarities and differences in these two terms. They then...
Curated OER
Understanding and Using Root Words to Expand Vocabulary
Middle schoolers engage in a activity which reminds them that root words indicate the base meaning of a word, and that those roots are found in many different words that have similar meanings. Pairs of pupils use construction paper and...
Curated OER
Dictionaries
Students understand the way the dictionary is laid out as well as the purpose for why people use dictionaries. In this language arts instructional activity, students recognize the need for alphabetical order and are able to find words...
Curated OER
What is a Dictionary?
Second graders explore the purpose of a dictionary. For this library media lesson, 2nd graders explore My First Dictionary and identify guidewords, entry words, and captions. Students list ways they can use the dictionary.
Curated OER
Choosing Words Carefully
Use literacy tools to select precise vocabulary. High schoolers respond to discussion questions that require them to consider the denotation and connotation of words. They then read non-fiction passages and identify words in the passages...
Curated OER
Guide Word Sentences
Learners write sentences using dictionary guide words, putting two guide words from the same page in the same sentence. They demonstrate creative-writing and vocabulary skills to write sentences using dictionary guide words.
Scholastic
What’s the Good Word? Etymology Project Guidelines
Who named the shapes, or the days of the week? Should words be removed from the dictionary if they're no longer commonly used? Are there too many words in the English language? Language arts students explore these and additional...
Curated OER
Spanish in English
What do the words alligator, armadillo, and cockroach all have in common? Each one is an English word with Spanish origins. Introduce young etymologists to the joys of discovering word origins with a instructional activity that asks them...
Curated OER
Using Context
Teams practice decoding and using context strategies to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words. After verifying the meanings of words through the use of dictionaries, the Internet, thesauruses, and other sources, learners write the...
Curated OER
"Newsinary"
Here is a good way to use newspapers in the classroom and build a functional vocabulary. Learners are given 26 cards, they write one letter of the alphabet on each. They search the paper to find a name, place, or word for each letter,...
Curated OER
Fairy Dictionary
Use artwork to illicit responses in a writing journal, and then present your class with the short list of key terms provided. Can your learners add any of their own key terms? Segue for a second, and read tales such as Peter Pan or...
Curated OER
Use the New Internet Library for Adult Learners
Adult learners, examine the Internet to answer life skills, use an online dictionary, evaluate web sites and fill in online forms. They will also write about web sites in this series of activities.
Curated OER
Meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance/ Dictionary Practice
Third graders determine the meaning of the words in the Pledge of Allegiance. In this dictionary usage lesson plan, 3rd graders, working in pairs, look up specific words from the Pledge. They make posters of the definitions they obtain...
Curated OER
Illustrated Dictionary
Students make an illustrated dictionary of words they've used and learned in class. For this vocabulary lesson, students find words from their notes, discuss the words in a group, select the best words as a class, and complete an...
Curated OER
Let's Discuss Current Events
Investigate articles from the daily news and share opinions with classmates. Using current events, learners view a news program without sound and predict what news is being discussed by analyzing the visuals. Then they read news articles...
Curated OER
Picture Dictionary
Learners write and contribute one page for a class picture dictionary. They discuss how to alphabetize words, and examine both regular and picture dictionaries and how they are organized. Next they create a page for the class dictionary...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.1
Despite English grammar rules, in the e-world the plural of mouse is mouses. lol. Standard American English is constantly evolving. Introduce your class members to a variety of terms that describe different usage changes (economy,...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Dictionary Drill
Investigate vocabulary terms related to communities. First your class generates a list of vocabulary terms related to the study of communities. Working in small groups, they compete in a dictionary drill to discover the meaning of the...
Curated OER
Wrapping It Up
Class members develop their own glossaries for unfamiliar words in each chapter in Elizabeth George Speare’s The Sign of the Beaver. After recording the word, the page number on which the word appears, and its part of speech, they...
Curated OER
Writing History: From Students to Scholars
An Online NewsHour article about scholarly ethics launches this study of plagiarism. Since historians are supposed to bring original ideas and perspectives to their publications, they must give credit to the ideas of others. After a...
One Pot Learning
Reading Comprehension Worksheet
Three annotated passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay on "Nature" provide young philosophers a chance to improve their reading comprehension skills as they gain insight into Emerson's ideas.