Providing students with lists of vocabulary words and asking them to define them can become a monotonous activity, causing students to become disinterested, which may actually prevent them from fully comprehending the list of words they have been given. Instead, offer students an opportunity to define their own vocabulary words. During nightly reading, whether it be in a textbook, an authentic piece of literature, a magazine or a newspaper, encourage students to define at least one word they come across that they are unfamiliar with. Have them log the word in a vocabulary journal and then have them teach the words they have defined to the class. Instruct classmates to log the new words into their own vocabulary journals. By the end of the year, students will have a large vocabulary journal that they have created on their own.
Mad Libs are short stories with omitted words. In place of the omitted words is a line and the part of speech that should be inserted into the empty spot is identified. This is an engaging way to teach grammar to your students. For a homework assignment, instruct students to write their own Mad Libs. Have students ask their classmates to supply parts of speech to place in the blanks, and ask the creators read their Mad Libs aloud after supplying the words.
Have your students to write a poem on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. After discussing a specific type of poetry in class, have your students write their own version of the type of poetry. Encourage students to write their poems based on something that is meaningful to them. For example, after discussing acrostic poems, have children write their own acrostic poem based on something that is personal to them, whether their names, their favorite sport or their favorite season.
Instead of having your students write their spelling words five times each or asking them to engage in any other mundane practice, ask them to use their spelling words in a short story. At the start of the week, supply students with a list of spelling words. Instruct them to write two short stories during the week, one due on Wednesday and one due on Friday. Require that each story contain half of the list of spelling words. For example, on Wednesday, their stories can contain the first half of the spelling words and on Friday, their stories should contain the rest of the spelling words.