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Teacher sheet
20 Thesaurus work-out
Teacher input required
Medium/some involvement
Framework substrand
8.3 improving vocabulary for precision and impact
Lesson level
B
National Curriculum ref.
2.3f use imaginative vocabulary and varied linguistic and literary
techniques to achieve particular effects
3.3d explain or describe information and ideas relevantly and clearly
Learning objective
To explore different vocabulary choices using a thesaurus.
Resources required
Student instructions, thesauruses, dictionaries, small cards for the first extension activity.
Lesson guidance

Starter – give students no more than 10 minutes to look up as many alternatives to the word
‘unhappy’ as they can find in a thesaurus. Students can work in pairs or individually.

Development – students now need to work through the three activities. All students must
complete Activity 1, most students should complete Activity 2 and some students could
complete Activity 3.

Plenary – explain to students that you are going to work with them during the plenary using
their thesauruses to put together a special report. Together you need to write a report for
someone who made a weak presentation to the Dragon’s Den panel. Ask students to look up
the word ‘bad’ in a thesaurus and suggest a sentence for the report that uses one of the
suggested words. Write down the report on the board, or ask a student to act as scribe while
you gather ideas from other students.
Notes for SEN students
Encourage lower ability students to look up word meanings in the dictionary to help them with
Activity 1.
Extension activities / notes for gifted and talented students
Gifted students should be able to think of other words from Activity 3 to find synonyms for.
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Student instructions
20 Thesaurus work-out
Learning objective
To use a thesaurus to explore different vocabulary choices.
Success criteria
By the end of the lesson I will have:


used a thesaurus to find different words to make my meaning clear
used a range of different vocabulary to make my writing interesting and clear to the reader.
Warm up
Use a thesaurus to look up the word ‘unhappy’.
Write down all the words that you find. Look any new words up in the dictionary.
Your main task!
Activity 1
Read the sentences below. They all have the word ‘unhappy’ in them. You need to write the
sentence out and change ‘unhappy’ for a better choice of word that makes it clear exactly how
the person in the sentence is feeling. The first example is done for you.
1. Tom was unhappy with his exam mark.
Tom was disappointed with his exam mark.
2. Sarah was unhappy when her boyfriend dumped her.
3. Dilip felt unhappy when Chelsea was beaten by Liverpool.
4. When her pet rabbit Fluffy died, Crystal was unhappy.
5. Mrs Jones was unhappy with her class when they would not stop talking.
6. Ryan’s parents wouldn’t let him go out and see his friends, so he felt unhappy.
7. James was unhappy when his Playstation stopped working.
A word that has the same meaning as another word is called a synonym. You have just found
seven synonyms for ‘unhappy’!
Activity 2
What feeling were you trying to get across in each sentence? Write down the reason for each
choice you made.
For example:
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I chose disappointed for Tom as he had tried hard and thought that he had done well
in his exam. ‘Disappointed’ shows that he thought he had achieved a higher mark.
© 2009 Teachit (UK) Ltd
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20 Thesaurus work-out
Activity 3
Think about some other words that people often overuse in their work. A good place to start is
the word ‘said’ as this is often overused in stories. You could use the suggestions beneath, or
work with other words that have become a bit tired.
Use the thesaurus to help you find and learn some alternatives that you can impress your teacher
with. Write out a list for each word: try to find at least five synonyms.
boring
easy
good
lots
big
small
really – as in ‘the film was really good’
Round it off with this
Put together a special report. Imagine that you have been asked to feed back to someone who
has just done a presentation to the Dragon’s Den panel. You could say, ‘Your presentation was
bad; you presented it badly and your ideas were bad’ – but it would be much more effective to
use more varied vocabulary!
Look up ‘bad’ in the thesaurus and suggest some sentences for the report that explain exactly
how weak the presentation was! You will be asked to contribute your ideas to a report compiled
by the whole class.
Extra challenge
1. Choose one set of words from Activity 3 and write each word out on a card. Put them in order
from the weakest meaning to the strongest meaning. For example, some synonyms for ‘said’
in that order might include ‘whispered’, ‘stated’, ‘shouted’ and ‘exploded’. Does your partner
agree with your order?
or
2. On your own or with a partner, make a poster for the classroom wall which suggests synonyms
for some overused words.
© 2009 Teachit (UK) Ltd
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