VOCAB BUILDER The ever growing Word Wall

YOU will ultimately be in control, and decide which words you want to learn in this class.

HOW DO I GO ABOUT DOING THAT? You will simply use the Vocab Builder section of your notebook to GATHER words. When you see a word that you like, don’t know (obviously), and might be interested in learning AND USING, just write it down. You can look it up and write the definition for the word, but that is NOT REQUIRED. YET…

WHAT WORDS MAKE GOOD WORD WALL WORDS???? I am looking for higher level vocabulary words. Generally, ADJECTIVES & ADVERBS make the best word wall words. LET ME SHOW YOU…

EXAMPLE: I was at the Grand Canyon this summer and I was amazed at how big it was. I was at the Grand Canyon this summer and I was amazed at how vast it was.

EXAMPLE: Jan was so sad after her dog passed away that even tickets to the One Direction concert didn’t cheer her up. Jan was so melancholy after her dog passed away that even tickets to the One Direction concert didn’t cheer her up.

EXAMPLES: I was so happy when my parents told me we were going on a cruise to the Bahamas for my birthday. I was elated when my parents told me we were going on a cruise to the Bahamas for my birthday.

I DO NOT want terms that you are learning about in your other subject areas. Although these are important words to learn, they’re not exactly what I’m looking for. (Examples: Diffusion, respiration, treaty, latitude, circumference, integer, etc…)

WHERE DO I FIND GOOD WORD WALL WORDS???? ANYWHERE!!!!! Parents/family members use words at home. TV/radio/song lyrics Reading (in class or independently) SAT words Online (vocabulary that middle school students should know) ETC…

NOTE: DO NOT GIVE ME VOCABULARY TERMS YOU LEARNED IN 6 TH GRADE. WE’RE IN SCHOOL TO LEARN NEW THINGS!!!!!

How It Works When the time comes, each student will be required to give me 3-5 words that they have collected and really like. I will go through your 3-5 words and highlight the ones that I think will be the best. After I go through the entire class’ words, I will narrow it down to approx. 20 words that will then be written on the board. We will then access the laptops and look up the meaning of each word & discuss its meaning and how it’s used. Once these words are all defined and discussed, the class will then VOTE on the words that they like best & would like to make the Word Wall.

Each block will vote on 7-8 words. Combined this will be approximately 25 words. We will do this each marking period and will have a new list of words that will be added onto the Word Wall. Ultimately, by the end of the year, your vocabulary will increase by almost one hundred new higher level words.