Vocabulary Development - my vocabulary activity in year 10

STEAL, PLAY AND LEARN NEW WORDS

Our learners need to develop their vocabulary, they need to learn words and expressions to use in different situations. The pupils need both topic related vocabulary, and a more general vocabulary to use in different situations. In this vocabulary activity the pupils worked with focus words related to a specific topic. The chosen topic was segregation and the civil rights movement. 

Even though this wasn´t a part of the activity that will be described in this entry,  a part of what we have worked with when working with segregation and the civil rights movement has been to practice the use of vocabulary the pupils need in order to discuss, reflect and argue their own opinion. 

In order to assess the pupil´s acquisition of the new words, we had a conversation at the end of a six week period where we had worked with segregation and the civil rights movement. This conversation was one way of recycling the new vocabulary. The pupils was given the possibility to recycle the words in a written text as well (a learning aim this period was also to develop the ability to write argumentative texts). The thought was to practice the use of new vocabulary with both oral and written tasks.

So, the vocabulary activity I did was divided in three parts. First I introduced the pupils to the topic by showing them a clip about segregation. After watching this short film two times the pupils were asked to write down all the words they thought described what they saw. After working on their own with this they were allowed to walk around and «steal» as many words as they could and add them to their list. Finally all the words were written down in one document by me.

The second part of this activity took place the next lesson (the next day). The pupils were given the list made by all the students, and then they were given flash cards where they wrote one word from the list on each card. Then it was time to PLAY two and two together. The game was easy, the ones that managed to translate most words into Norwegian won. The pupils had fun and the best thing was that they did not even think about the fact that they were recycling the words they just had been introduced to.

The third and final part of the vocabulary activity was to play (and thus recycle the words) with the flash card once again. But this time with cards someone else had made and with a different partner. I also added a twist to the game, this time they could not translate the words to Norwegian. Instead, they had to explain the word in English without using the word itself. 

As mentioned in the beginning of this entry, this vocabulary activity was a part of a longer period of work. We wanted to develop both topic related vocabulary and a more general vocabulary to use when reflecting, arguing and discussing different topics. We also wanted them to be able to use the new vocabulary in oral and written work.

I would highly recommend the use of flashcards and games with the pupils. This activity was done in 10th grade and the pupils really enjoyed it. Some of the reactions after the lesson were: «this was so much fun, can we do it again?», « Are we finished already?», «Please, can we play some more?», «Seriously have we practiced new words now?». I also found that all the pupils were active the whole time when we did the activities. Furthermore, they actually spoke a lot of English without thinking about it. Finally, we had some great conversations at the end of the period where many of the pupils showed the ability to use many of the new words.