This week I got a *little* bit ahead of myself and excitedly started teaching a lesson on Wednesday, that I had lesson-planned for the following week! I didn't realize this until a colleague of mine sent out a great idea for a lesson on character traits! It was at that moment that I realized I taught about character traits on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday I excitedly taught my students about Zooming in on Word Choice and looking for "juicy" words!! Oy Vey! It's been a long week!! Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!
The upside is, my students are already prepared, with that little preview, of what's to come next week in reading class!!
To start off the lesson {don't make fun of my artistic ability...or lack thereof!} I drew a full pizza. Students quickly identified it as a "pepperoni and sausage pizza!!"
I then said, "I'm so excited that you were able to identify what I was drawing! Now, let's try it again!"
This time I zoomed in and drew a single slice of pepperoni and sausage pizza. However, I added more detail and included the marinara sauce and the mozzarella cheese. The students once again identified it as a "slice of pepperoni and sausage pizza!!"
Finally, I zoomed in and drew a single piece of pepperoni. I added the little tiny speckles that you can see if you look very closely at the pepperoni.
I used these drawings to explain that we can look at something {words or illustrations} and see the general idea of what the author or illustrator is referring to. However, the more we ZOOM IN and get closer with JUICY details, the more interesting the item {words or illustrations} actually is. The more interested we are as a reader, the more likely we are to continue to read. The more reading we do with JUICY words, the better picture we can paint in our minds. This is especially true as we get older and our books have less pictures and more words!
After a great discussion, we read the book "Tacky and the Winter Games" by Helen Lester. I love the Tacky the Penguin books because they are fun, engaging, and usually end with the kids rolling around laughing! I also love them because the author uses amazing word choice. It was so easy to show the students how Helen chose JUICY words to really help you understand how silly Tacky was and how hard his teammates were working to train for the Winter Games!
Take a moment and check this book out!
Do you have any great lesson ideas for teaching children about word choice? Please share in the comments as it is always fun to gain new ideas from others!
