Synonym Lesson – Day 1
I.
Anticipatory Set:
1. Write the word “nice” on the board. Ask class what that word means.
2. Ask the class if they know of any other words that can mean the same thing as nice.
Write some of those words down on the chalkboard.
II.
Objective:
1. Explain that those words are synonyms. A synonym is a word that has the same or
nearly the same meaning as another word in the same language. Words can have
multiple synonyms.
a. Write on board the words “scary” “small” and “beautiful”.
b. Together write up some synonyms for those words.
2. Explain that the use of synonyms helps make the things you write and say more
interesting. Keeps us away from using the same old words every time!
III.
Input:
All required information will be given through verbal or written communication. New
information will be given through lecture and I will write on the chalkboard and smart
board important information to remember (example: definition of a synonym). A
thesaurus will be utilized.
IV.
Modeling:
1. Show students a thesaurus. Explain that a thesaurus is a book that lists synonyms
for words. It is like a dictionary!
2. Explain that thesaurus’s help to: avoid repeating the same words, recall a word that
may be on the tip of your tongue, and find more interesting words. Some words
have a lot of synonyms and some do not.
3. Go back to one of the past words talked about (scary, small, and beautiful). Explain
that you look for the word, just as you would in a dictionary. Find the word and look
at words provided underneath. Have a student read some of the words aloud.
V.
Guided Practice:
1. On the smart board show the sentence: “I walked into a cold and dark cave, where I
found a big, angry bear eating its dinner.” Explain that the sentence is okay but we
will use the thesaurus to find more exciting words!
2. Assign the words gloomy, dark, big and bad to different students. Ask them to use
the thesaurus to look up a new word to use in its place. When students find a word
they must go up to the write board and write it. Read the new sentence aloud
when it is completed.
Explain to students that the words they chose still need to make sense in the sentence. If you
randomly pick a synonym without paying attention to the usage of the word that you want to
replace, you could make an error.
Soaked
VI.
Check for Understanding:
1. On the smart board put up the sentence:
“My favorite shoes got wet in the rain.”
Dripping
Watery
Sopping
Also on the screen have the four possible answers to be used, with arrows pointing in
the four different directions (Figure above). Explain to students that they are to stand up and
walk to the wall that represents the best synonym to be used in the sentence. The arrow
represents which wall to stand at!
2. Practice up to five times if necessary. Informally assess if students understand how
to choose good synonyms. Sample practice sentences below.
a. A cheetah is a very fast runner. (prompt, slow, immediate, quick)
b. I’m not allowed to come to school when I am sick. (ill, well, bad, poor)
c. I am excited to dress up for Halloween. (upset, calm, thrilled, scared)
VII.
Independent Practice:
1. Ask students to get onto mybabyname.com and look up the meaning of their name.
Students must use the thesaurus to write the synonym of their name. If their
meaning is not one word, then they must find a synonym for each word used.
VIII.
Closure:
1. Ask students what a synonym is. Ask students why synonyms should be used. Ask
the students where they can find all sorts of possible synonyms to use. Explain
students their independent practice assignment and end the lesson. Allow students
time to get onto the website if necessary.
IX.
REFLECTION:
This lesson went very smoothly today! I felt that the students remained involved and
especially liked the part where they could stand up and move around. I involved some
computers so some students could go onto thesaurus.com in order to keep students busy
when we were looking up words in the thesaurus. Since we only had one thesaurus to
use it was nice to have more media types to use. We had some technology issues today
which really stunk! It took up a lot of time that left the students pretty restless.
Thankfully I have such wonderful students that they waited patiently for us to figure out
the technology. Our biggest struggle was that we were not able to put the homework
assignment under their user names on the network. After the lesson my teacher gave
me some great feedback that I was able to reach several different learning styles and
that I did well working with the students. She offered me specific criticism that I need to
find new ways of letting students know that they are wrong and then assisting them to
get the right answer on their own.
Synonym Lesson- Day 2
I.
Anticipatory Set:
1. Students will share the meaning of their name and synonyms for their meaning.
2. On the smart board have four words written down (need to be very noticeable!) in four
separate boxes.
3. On the smart board also have eight synonym words to those four words in a much
smaller print. Every two of them need to be a different color.
4. Designate each student a color. Explain that they need to match their colored words to
the word that it is a synonym to. They will drag their words into the correct box.
5. Words to use below:
Hurt
Injure, Damage
II.
III.
Fly
Dash, Soar
Fight
Battle, Brawl
Teach
Train, Educate
Objective:
1. Have students sign onto a computer and open up Microsoft Word.
2. Explain that they will be learning how to find synonyms using the computer in case that
they don’t always have access to a thesaurus.
Input:
I will use verbal and visual communication to teach the skill necessary. I will first explain each
step in the process and then show each step by using the smart board.
IV.
Modeling:
1. Explain each step and then complete the step using the smart board. Walk around and
assure students complete each step correctly
a. Have students type in the word quiet in Microsoft Word
b. Place the mouse over the word quiet.
c. Right click on the word quiet.
d. Place the mouse over the word Synonyms on the menu bar that pops up.
e. Select a word.
f. Select thesaurus to view even more words.
V.
Guided Practice:
1. Ask students to use the computer to find the synonyms for “far” and “car” also.
2. Walk behind and assess students for their completion. Assist if necessary.
3. When successfully completed upload the list of sentences.
VI.
Check for Understanding:
1. Students must complete the list of sentences.
2. They will change each underlined word with a synonym that makes sense in the
sentence.
They must print it out when completed and hand it in.
3. I will assess mastery of the skill based on how well they completed the form. Words
that don’t make sense in the sentence and are not synonyms will be counted wrong.
VII.
Independent Practice:
In class assignment: Change each underlined word with a good synonym using the synonym
option on Microsoft Word.
1. The smart student passed all of her hard classes and graduated high school.
2. All after school activities were canceled because of the terrible snow storm.
3. The entire family went away for a long vacation.
4. The little boy was a genius in all of his work and activities.
5. Sometimes I am happy especially when I remember to complete all of my chores.
6. The broken toy was faulty so we had to return it back to the store when it opened.
7. I was late to work because there was an obstacle in my way on my commute this morning.
8. Were you right to sell your sister's favorite book at the fair?
9. I can't withstand the extremely loud ongoing annoying siren.
10. Scientists are trying to prove different theories daily.
11. The witness in the trial said he watched the burglar steal the money.
12. At school the big mean bully demanded everyone else's lunch money.
13. The lights went out and it got extremely dark very sudden.
14. I blushed when I was awarded with a beautiful medal for first place in the contest.
15. The twin brothers are total opposites.
16. I treasure my entire family.
17. There was a horrible explosion that shocked all of us.
18. The man proposed marriage to his surprised girlfriend.
19. What a sunny, hot, wonderful day to be involved in outdoor activities.
20. Dinner was so yummy and delicious I yearned for more
VIII.
IX.
Closure:
1. Students will print out their new words and hand it in as they complete. They are then
welcome to have free time.
REFLECTION:
I feel that my students responded well to the first activity I did. I allowed them to
look in a thesaurus to help them. The only problem with it is that some students were
able to complete the activity much faster than others. I had a lot of downtime with
some students due to other students struggling to figure out where their words were
supposed to go. Again, thankfully I have such well behaved students.
I added in an activity in which students would make their own sentence with four
possible synonym options on the smart board (my activity in lesson 1). The students
were randomly given a word and they easily were able to write out a sentence with that
word. When I asked them to think of four possible solutions of words that could replace
that word in the sentence things became confusing. Students didn’t understand that I
wanted one correct answer and three wrong. They had difficulties knowing if the
sentence actually made sense or not with new and different words added in so they were
having difficulties thinking up multiple choices. It was supposed to be an independent
practice, but I felt as though my cooperating teacher and I had to walk the students
through the activity. I feel that I should have in place written out the steps. I felt that at
times I may have been too abstract for my students. I forgot to talk about rules for when
replacing words with new synonyms. I need to review and then remind students that
they need to only switch verbs with verbs, nouns with nouns, and adjectives with
adjectives.
Upon receiving the homework back the students were successfully able to change
the underlined word into a synonym. The difficulty for the students was making sure
that the sentence made sense. My cooperating teacher helped two students complete
the assignment and stated that they had to change the sentence to match the synonym
at times, and the students were not able to do so. Also, some of the words were too big
and complicated for the students to actually read and understand. I think it may have
helped if we practiced a few before I had them just complete the assignment on their
own. To grade their homework I decided to just grade the fact that they were able to
switch a word to a synonym, even if the synonym did not make sense in the original
sentence.
Synonym Lesson – Day 3
X.
Anticipatory Set:
1. Ask students to get out a piece of paper and write their name down letter by
letter going vertically down the paper. They need to leave space behind each
letter.
XI.
Objective:
1. Explain that they will have a writing assignment involving synonyms and their
names.
2. Ask students to explain what a synonym is and why they are good to use when
writing.
XII.
Input:
All required information will be given through verbal or written communication. One on
one instruction will occur as I assist students as they work.
XIII.
Modeling:
1. Have a pre-made example of what students will be doing.
2. As you explain each new step show the example so that the students have an
idea of what exactly is expected.
XIV.
Guided Practice:
1. For each new step students will be given time to work individually.
2. Walk around and assist students as necessary.
3. Steps:
a. Explain to students that letter by letter they will write a word that
describes them and starts with the corresponding letter. (Review that
words used to describe are called adjectives)
b. Explain that they can use a dictionary to find words, or a thesaurus, or
the computer to google describing words. Show your example and show
what it should look like when it’s done.
c. Explain that the students shouldn’t show each other what words they
used! Have them hide it the best that they can! Separate students if it
helps.
d. When students are getting done explain that they will write a paragraph
that describes them. They will write using the words they used for each
letter of their name and in that exact order. Explain they will need to add
details on why those words describe them in order to make good
sentences. Show students a previously made example.
e. When students are getting close to done with their paragraphs explain
that they then need to enhance their descriptive words. Ask them how
they can do that. Ask a student to explain how to do find a synonym on
the computer.
f. Explain to students that they then need to change each descriptive word
they used by replacing it with a synonym. Remind students that they
need to make sure that the synonym they use makes sense in their
paragraph or else they will need to change their sentence to fit the new
word.
g. Students need to underline the synonym used in place of the original
adjective. They can then print it out when completed.
h. Students will type up and print the list of letters of their name with the
original adjective behind each letter. (step a)
4. They need to underline the new word. They must print it out when completed.
5. Ask them to type up and print the original name and adjectives used.
XV.
Check for Understanding:
Students will be assessed on finding correct synonyms and on how they are used in
sentences. Their writing ability will be informally assessed.
XVI.
Independent Practice:
Students will be working independently to find a synonym to replace their original
descriptive words. They need to find a correct synonym to fit their sentences or else fix
the sentences to make sense for the new word chosen. They will independently type
the paragraph.
XVII.
Closure:
Students will read aloud their paragraph and other students will have to guess the
original descriptive word that they used. Both typed up activities will be hung up in the
classroom.
XVIII.
REFLECTION: