CHAPTER 13:
WORD CONSCIOUSNESS
Stacy Gorseth
What?

Word Consciousness: interest in and awareness of
words. (Anderson and Nagy 1992; Graves and Watts-Taffe 2002)
What?

Adept Diction: the skillful use of words in speech and
writing. (Graves 2000)
 Teachers
can demonstrate diction in their personal word
choice.
 Teachers can point out diction in texts that students are
reading.
 Teachers can prompt students to expand their own diction.
(Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn 2008)
What?

Word Play: is a playful attitude toward words in particular and
language in general. (Graves 2000)
 Word play makes language fun, motivates students, and engages them in
active learning.

Categories:
 Expressions
 Names
 Word Formations
 Word Games
 Word Manipulations
(Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn 2008)
What: Word Play Categories

Expressions:
 Proverbs:
out of sight, out of mind
 Slang: junk food
Based on Johnson 2001
(Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn 2008)
What: Word Play Categories

Names:
 Eponyms:
(after a person) watt (after James Watt)
 Toponyms: (after a place) sardines (after the island of
Sardinia)
Based on Johnson 2001
(Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn 2008)
What: Word Play Categories

Word Formations:
 Acronyms:
ZIP (Zone Improvement Plan)
 Portmanteaus: motel (motor + hotel)
Based on Johnson 2001
(Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn 2008)
What: Word Play Categories

Word Games
 Hink
Pinks: angry father-mad dad
 Puns: Time flies like a bird; fruit flies like melon.
 Riddles: How can you make a baby buggy? (tickle his toes)
 Tom Swifties: “Let’s hurry,” said Tom swiftly.
 Tongue Twisters: She sells seashells by the seashore.
Based on Johnson 2001
(Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn 2008)
What: Word Play Categories

Word Manipulations:
 Anagrams:
(formed by rearranging letters of another word)
read-dear
 Palindromes: (read the same forward and backward) mom,
radar
Based on Johnson 2001
(Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn 2008)
What?
 Word
histories and origins:
(Knowing a words origin helps a student further
understand its meaning.)
 Greek
 Latin
 Anglo Saxon
(Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn 2008)
Why?
“A huge step toward fostering word consciousness
comes from simply recognizing that we want to
make students consciously aware of words and their
importance.”
(Graves, 2000)
How?


There are so many FUN ways to impart word
consciousness to our students!
This book gives the following examples:
 Animal
Idioms
 Question Master Game
 Number Prefix Riddles
 Antonym Scales
 Web Word Web
 Five Senses Simile Web
 Poetry
 Vocabulary Hotshot Notebook
How: Animal Idioms

An idiom is a phrase or expression in which the entire
meaning is different from the usual meanings of the
individual words within it.
(Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn 2008)

Examples:



Hold your horses
Raining cats and dogs
Ants in your pants
There are many ways to teach idioms and play with this
concept. It really activates your student’s imaginations
and gets them interested in learning!
How: Question Master Game


This game is used to teach and practice number prefixes.
It could be altered for other purposes as well.
1.
2.
Choose a student to be “Question Master”.
The question master then uses the Number Prefixes chart (p. 585)
to make up questions for the class to answer. (Ex: Would it be faster
to count the legs on a bug called a millipede or on a bug called a
centipede?)
Let different students be the question master and give them
time to prepare or prepare questions for them. You could also
provide the chart to students, have it on your smart board, or test
them by not giving them the chart. This could also be a fun
activity for math teachers!
How: Number Prefix Riddles

Number Prefix Riddles are riddles using number prefixes to
make up “new” words.

Ex: What would you call a four armed octopus?
(a quadropus)
(Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn 2008)
Have students use the Number Prefix chart. They can break
into groups, work individually, or work together as a class. You
can then ask the class to answer the riddles and/or make a book
of riddles. You could even illustrate the book! Again, this could
be fun for math teachers!
How: Antonym Scales






Antonyms are words that have opposite
meanings.
There are two types of antonyms:
complementary and gradable.
In this activity, your students will play with
gradable antonyms.
Gradable antonyms form opposite ends of a
continual scale, like hot and cold.
Before starting this activity, explain to students
that they are already familiar with this concept
from school. (Ex: A to F grading scale)
Have students come up with their own
gradable antonyms or provide choices, then
have them create their scale. They could even
add illustrations!
(Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn 2008)
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
Failing
Red Hot
Boiling
Hot
Warm
Cool
Cold
Freezing
Subzero
A
B
C
D
F
How: Web Word Web



Word webs make word
meanings and relationships
visible.
Word webs can be used in
endless ways and are a great
tool for pre-writing.
In this activity, you are showing
students how language changes
over time. Sometimes students
don’t realize that the things they
have haven’t always existed!
cobweb
web foot
webbed
spider web
WEB
World Wide Web (the Web)
Web site
(Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn 2008)
Web page
Webmaster
How: Five Senses Simile Web




Smells like:
Fresh cut grass
Tastes like: juicy
watermelon
Word webs make word meanings
and relationships visible.
Word webs can be used in endless
ways and are a great tool for prewriting.
JOY
In this activity, students make a web
using an abstract word and then using
Feels like: being
the fives senses, describe that word. Looks like: colorful
tickled
This activity can be used in teaching wildflowers
similes, or for vocabulary
Sounds like: laughter
building…remind students that similes
use like or as.
(Graves, Watts-Taffe 2002)
How: Poetry


Poetry is a fun way to use
words in a creative way.
Two simple types of poetry
that can be used in the class to
encourage word play and
review concepts such as
adjectives, ing verbs, nouns,
synonyms, and antonyms are:
 Diamante
poems
 Cinquain Poems
Diamante:
Happy
Joy, delight
Laughing, dancing, singing
Sunshine, friends, failure, loss
Crying, sighing, moping
Gloomy, down
Sad
Cinquain:
Canine
Furry, funny
Running, playing, wagging
Dogs will always be man’s best friend
Chewy
How: Vocabulary Hotshot Notebook




The Vocabulary Hotshot Notebook is designed to motivate
student interest in words, provide a place to record new
words, and to keep track of where they discover these
words.
Have your students create a notebook or provide them with
one.
You can assign points for new words discovered, different
places it was seen or heard, how it was used, and what it
means. There are charts on p. 602 and 603, or you could
create your own system.
Students could receive an award of some kind for different
levels reached or the number of words discovered.
(Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn 2008)
My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this chapter because it represents what I like to do
in my classroom, which is to make language fun. I want my students
to enjoy learning and to make it not feel like a chore to them. I like
the idea of rewarding them for finding vocabulary words outside of
school, in books, newspapers, conversations, products, etc…I already
have a reward system in my class and this could work itself in nicely!
My students enjoy using similes, metaphors, and idioms. This chapter
gives great ideas on how to introduce vocabulary in fun ways and
teaches figurative language at the same time. I like the antonym
scales, the five senses simile web, the diamante poems, and the
vocabulary notebook. The diamante poems, especially appeal to
me because they help with learning synonyms, antonyms, verbs,
adjectives, and nouns. It also introduces poetry in a relatively simple
way.
Stacy Gorseth