introducing vocabulary

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introducing vocabulary
By gina

When I'm introducing new vocabulary words, I play a game called "Rivit". I found it in a book recommended by Susan Close. It is a modified version of hangman. Have the students mark lines on their papers that correspond
to the number of letters in a word. For example, if the word is 'social', they would make 6 lines on their paper. Then you give them the first letter - "s" and invite them to call out possible answers. Everyone writes down the letter on the first line. Encourage all guesses. After a very brief time, give them the next letter - "o" and everyone writes it on the second line (It should

look like this s o_ _ _ _)
Invite them to guess again. Continue on, adding a letter and having them guess until someone comes up with the right word. Give lots of praise for good guesses, and have a brief discussion about the meaning of the word once they have guessed it. Depending on the number of words you want to introduce (I've never used it for an entire spelling unit), this might take up quite a bit of time. If it works well for you, you might consider introducing the spelling words in several batches. All the grades I've ever used this with (grade 3 through 7) absolutely LOVE the game. To add a bit of a challenge, I play against them, taking one point for every word that I spell completely on the board before anyone guesses what it is. They work really hard to make sure I don't get many points. If the action becomes too noisy or unmanageable, I apply a new rule - only one guess per person per letter. It is a pretty simple concept, but it does RIVIT their attention on the vocabulary! Hope this helps.