Curated OER
Thesaurus Power
Give your class the advantage of Thesaurus Power! They will use a thesaurus to understand word meanings and relationships. They focus on how a thesaurus functions and how it gives the entry word, definition, synonyms, antonyms, and part...
Curated OER
Improve Your Spelling with the Visual Thesaurus
Using Visual Thesaurus software, class members participate in a computer-based spelling bee. Then they work in groups to analyze the words and use deductive reasoning to infer spelling patterns. They then present one of their "rules" to...
Curated OER
It's Opposite Day
Celebrate Opposite Day by using a Visual Thesaurus to match words to their antonyms. They match a list of vocabulary words to their antonym counterparts using the Visual Thesaurus, and then they play Antonym Bingo with the words from...
Cleveland Metro School District
Novel Lesson for The Giver
Lois Lowry's The Giver is one of the most engaging and thought-provoking works of literature in the middle school curriculum. Round out your novel unit with a collection of reading activities, comprehension questions, memoir and...
BBC
Starship English and Math - Online Lesson Plans
Two online lessons, one in math and one in language arts, are here for you. In them, learners play online games which reinforce important skills in literacy and numeracy. The thing I like about both of these lessons is that they get the...
Curated OER
Using a Thesaurus
Young scholars become familiar with the Thesaurus as a resource. In this Thesaurus lesson, students complete a worksheet by finding other words to replace the given word and use the word in a sentence.
Curated OER
A Victorian Vocabulary Challenge
Introduce your high schoolers to some tough vocabulary. No, I'm not talking about the SAT list! Revisit Victorian literature to find tricky words we still use today. Using the Visual Thesaurus, learners will preview vocabulary in a quote...
Curated OER
Using a Thesaurus
Students discover how to use a thesaurus. In this language arts lesson, students explore thesauruses as they look up words and write sentences for the new words they encounter.
Curated OER
Jump-Starting Research with Visual Thesaurus
Students navigate the Visual Thesaurus to find keywords for research. In this keywords lesson plan, students use synonyms, hypernyms and hyponyms to find keywords. Students understand why some searches are effective and some are...
Curated OER
Thesaurus: Don't Be Repetitive
Students use a thesaurus to expand their usage of language in their written work. In this thesaurus lesson, students work with the reference book to add variety to their word choices. Students then adjust their spoken ,...
Curated OER
When You Reeeaaallly Want to Say Something
Kids paraphrase an entry from The Elements of Style, and then revise a sentence. They use the Visual Thesaurus and find synonyms for the phrase very pretty, brainstorm a list of intensifiers (as alternatives to really and very),...
Curated OER
Using Words as a Way into Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief
Use the Visual Thesaurus to predict the subject matter of Rick Riordan's book The Lightning Thief. A pre-reading activity encourages middle schoolers to use context clues and word meaning to discover what the book is about. After...
Think Map
Know Your Polygons!
Shape shifters recognize characteristics of polygons. Embracing language arts skills in addition to math, they use a thesaurus to pinpoint specific attributes of a set of polygons. They also participate in a 21-question guessing game...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Bursting with Energy
Learners review key physics terms using a Visual Thesaurus. In this science lesson, student groups compete against each other to correctly identify "imposter" words from a list of related physics vocabulary terms.
Curated OER
Improving Your Spelling with the Virtual Thesaurus
Pupils study spelling words. In this word study lesson, students use the Visual Thesaurus and play the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee.
Curated OER
Learning Vocabulary by Using Reference Materials
Finding engaging ways to help your middle schoolers build their vocabulary is not easy to do. The lesson presented here offers a great way to motivate them to build vocabulary by making it into a game. Teams of pupils use a dictionary...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Vocabulary: Word Meaning, All For One
Given a deck of cards with different words printed, pairs draw cards and work together to locate definitions for each multiple-meaning word. Learners complete a worksheet that challenges them to write the word, two of its definitions,...
Curated OER
Lesson One: Decoding Strategies
Review decoding strategies to read a chosen text. Readers tape themselves reading out loud, listen to the recording, and mark where they have misread words or phrases. They then discuss which words were misread and review how to correct...
Curated OER
The Continents and Oceans of the World
Students explore world mapping skills. In this world geography lesson, students identify and label the continents and oceans on a world map using the Visual Thesaurus. Students generate mnemonic devices to help memorize these terms.
Curated OER
Using Key Words to Unlock Math Word Problems
Students act as math coaches to solve word problems. In this math word problems lesson, students brainstorm key words in math operations, create flash cards to review relationships between words and operations, coach each other in the...
Curated OER
Know Your Polygons!
Learners identify and categorize different polygons. In this polygons lesson plan, students research and identify properties of polygons, identify different polygon shapes, and categorize different triangles and quadrilaterals.
Curated OER
Take the Prefix Challenge
Learners form words using prefixes. In this prefix lesson, students compete in a "prefix challenge" to see which team can combine a set of twelve prefixes with a set of twelve words fastest. Learners enter their words in...
Curated OER
Word Reference Materials
A class discussion on reference materials opens up a lesson on how to use these important resources. They discover that dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses are called word reference resources, and they practice using them. The...
Curated OER
Locating Information Quickly in a Variety of Resources
Here is a lesson which may be best suited for a library science teacher, or one that can be done by a regular teacher when in the library. In it, learners explore the best ways to use print and electronic resources to find information...