Banish Boring Words:
A Lesson on Word Choice
Good
Bad
Sad
Mad
By: Lisa Lewis
4th Grade Teacher – Reading/Writing
Gaithersburg Elementary School
Gaithersburg, MD
Email: lisa@lewislimited.com
Background
Teaching writing to underperforming, Title I, and highly unmotivated
students has been one of my biggest challenges as a teacher in the
Montgomery County Public School system. I have been teaching 3rd and
4th graders at Gaithersburg Elementary School (GES) for 6 years.
Gaithersburg’s population is extremely diverse: 54.3% of our students
are Hispanic and 28.1% of our students are African American. 40% of
our 530 students are considered ESOL students; and 68.1% of our
students receive Free and Reduced Meals. We also have a rather high
mobility rate at GES – 31% of our students enroll and/or withdraw
during a given school calendar year.
I have always felt a passion about the teaching of writing as far back as I
can remember. Not only do I love to teach students to write, I
personally love to compose as well. As I witnessed over the past 6
years, writing tends to be put on the back burner for many schools, as
well as principals and teachers, because of the lack of knowledge of how
it should be taught. Many people do not feel that writing is nearly as
important as Reading or Math. Set state and county curricula often
either don’t meet the needs of the students, or teach writing from a
whole different prescribed perspective, one that is so far from where I
believe it should be.
The MCPS 4th grade curriculum addresses “feeling” words vs. character
traits as a small part of what needs to be explored with students. I have
found that students: 1) have a difficult time distinguishing between
“feeling” words and character traits; 2) tend to choose the basic and
simplistic words such as “good, bad, sad and mad”; and 3) are entirely
unmotivated to learn synonyms for these words and use them in their
everyday writing.
In my writing classes I have strived to offer students several things to
motivate and inspire them to be writers in my classroom. One of my
strategies is to be sure that every student is writing in a journal daily.
Using a prompt they are given, or perhaps one that another student has
given them, students write for 10 minutes daily and have the
opportunity to share their writing with their peers. They also explore
many “hands on” experiential writing styles, such as personal narrative
writing, mystery writing, writing of poetry and autobiographical writing
to name just a few. Students have the opportunity to write among the
different genres through the prescribed curriculum that serves as our
guide.
Why?
This workshop was developed to aid in helping me conquer some of the
most difficult ideas that I want and need to get across to my students.
1.
How do I get them to understand the difference between a
character trait and a feeling?
2.
How do I get them to understand that “word choice” for the
basic and simplistic “feeling” words is a crucial part of their
writing?
3.
How do I motivate my students to continue to contemplate
their “word choice” on a daily basis?
Workshop Activities
1.
Background and introduction of workshop (2-3 mins)
Give background information about what brought me to
inquire about this topic.
2.
What is a “feeling”? (group discussion – 5 mins)
How would we collectively define a “feeling” without using
the word “feel” or “feeling” in the definition. (See attached
dictionary definitions)
3.
Word/smiley face/color spectrum matching game (5 mins)
Using word cards, smiley face cards and color spectrum,
match up one feeling word with a smiley face that
represents it, and give the word and face a color from the
spectrum that might also represent that feeling.
4.
Choose one word/face/color spectrum sample and write why
you matched them together (5 mins)
Choose one trio (word, face, color spectrum card) and write
several sentences about why you matched these together.
How do the color spectrum samples and faces represent
your word?)
5.
Share out of writing (5 mins)
Students will share why they created their match.
6.
Read Today I Feel Silly to group and discuss different feelings
mentioned in the book. Have students make connections.
Explain that they will use these connections to write and
illustrate their own feeling book.(10 mins)
7.
Write and illustrate a book telling the story of a time when you
experienced very strong feelings. Be sure to use your new
feeling words and fill in at least 6 pages. (15 mins)
8.
Share (10 mins)
9.
Response letter writing (10 mins)
Definitions of “feeling” (Emotions)
Dictionary.com:
. . .a consciousness or vague awareness; an emotion
or emotional perception or attitude; capacity for
emotion, esp. compassion; a sentiment; attitude;
opinion
Websters.com:
. . .expressing emotion or sensitivity
Encyclopedia Brittanica:
. . .the perception of events within the body, closely
related to emotion
Children’s Dictionary
. . .to be conscious of a physical or mental state
QUOTES:
“Emotions,” wrote Aristotle, “are all those feelings
that so change men as to affect their judgments, and
that are also attended by pain or pleasure.”
I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as
they tangle with human emotions.” By: James A.
Michener
“Colors, like features, follow the changes of the
emotions.” By: Pablo Picasso
“The difference between the right word and the
almost right word is the difference between lightning
and a lightning bug.” By: Mark Twain
Detail makes the difference between boring and
terrific writing. It’s the difference between a
pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer,
words are your paint. Use all the colors.
By: Rhys Alexander
SAD
HAPPY
MAD
BAD
GOOD
AFRAID
GLAD
NICE
PLEASANT
EXCELLENT
UNIQUE
FANTASTIC
CALM
PEACEFUL
COMFORTABLE
BRAVE
RELAXED
AWESOME
SUPER
WONDERFUL
AMAZING
EXCEPTIONAL
PLEASED
ANGRY
IRATE
ENRAGED
UPSET
BITTER
IRRITATED
CRABBY
GRUMPY
GROUCHY
FRUSTRATED OUTRAGED DISGUSTED
CONTENT
PLEASED
CHEERFUL
JOLLY
TICKLED
JOYFUL
EXCITED
SATISFIED
BUBBLY
TEARFUL
PAINED
UNHAPPY
GLOOMY
EMPTY
BLUE
BLAH
DOWN
HURT
ECSTATIC
UPBEAT
BEAMING
MERRY
THRILLED
BLISSFUL
OVERJOYED
JUBILANT
ELATED
TERRIBLE
HORRID
CRAPPY
LOUSY
EVIL
DREADFUL
CRUMMY
TERRIFIED
ALARMED
SCARED
NERVOUS
STARTLED
FRIGHTENED THREATENED FEARFUL
SHAKEN
TENSE
UNEASY
BANISH BORING WORDS
SAD
tearful
pained
unhappy
mournful
empty
blue
blah
down
hurt
sorry
awful
depressed
dejected
disheartened
HAPPY
tickled
elated
thrilled
delighted
ecstatic
blissful
overjoyed
cheerful
content
pleased
upbeat
merry
jolly
joyful
BAD
awful
poor
terrible
unspeakable
horrid
crappy
lousy
evil
dreadful
crummy
defective
unsatisfactory
unacceptable
icky
GOOD
nice
extraordinary
pleasant
awesome
excellent
fantastic
wonderful
peaceful
exceptional
pleased
relaxed
fabulous
amazing
calm
AFRAID
terrified
shocked
horrified
nervous
uneasy
alarmed
scared
frightened
fearful
shaken
worried
tense
threatened
uncomfortable
GLAD
peaceful
content
pleased
cheerful
cozy
relaxed
satisfied
jolly
bubbly
tickled
excited
great
safe
joyful
MAD
angry
irate
enraged
annoyed
upset
hateful
crabby
grumpy
disgusted
grouchy
frustrated
bitter
outraged
fuming