Vocab: Mini-lesson

I would make a word wall as a class, and as an extension activity for the children I would have then create Cluster Grams (something like a word chain) from the selection of words on the word wall. The world wall would give the class as a whole an opportunity to review the words that are “interesting, confusing or important…” (Tompkins, pg 209). Not only could the class discuss the words put on the word wall in the moment, but the words would be available for students to observe, use or expand upon in other subjects and writings as well. Students would make word chains as an extension activity; however, I would not focus on making actual chains for the assignment. Instead students would take five to ten words from the word wall and connect them in a word web adding the relating words to a cluster off of the word web. This activity would serve as a visual exercise for the students, but that could be continually added upon over time. When discussing the use of word walls and word cluster grams, I would continually stress the uses of such activities outside of the classroom. The word clusters would be located in their vocabulary notebook as an on-going project for the students.