Scholastic W.O.R.D.

Each student a collection of books where they can read fiction and nonfiction passages related to the module theme and based on the word list. Passages are contextual and grade-appropriate, and introduce students to expressions, phrases, and idioms. All passages include audio support and word highlighting to aid understanding.

Mega Sort introduces students to the connections that words share with each other. Sentences are pulled directly from the passages students have read in the Passages activity. Students must sort the target words into their correct megacluster. This helps them demonstrate the connection between words, and brings awareness to the different meanings words can have in different contexts.

Students complete age-appropriate analogies to gain a deeper understanding of the theme and its word list. This activity takes advantage of the tilt motion on tablets and mobile devices by having students operate a giant claw to unload shipping containers. Each container has a vocabulary word that must be properly placed into a fill-in-the-blank analogy.

Students play with language while being introduced to the vocabulary concepts of polysemy and homonyms for the theme’s word list. By staging a silly, yet informative comedy show, students gain a deeper understanding of how words work and how the same word can have multiple meanings in different contexts.

Students identify the correct tenses, make simple comparisons, or inflect endings for the theme’s word list by solving puzzles. While packing boxes of rubber duckies or building cars, students are learn about the contextual use and applied meanings of vocabulary words.

This activity exposes students to the larger word families of the theme’s word list, including their affixes, derivatives, and compound words. As students feed hungry monsters, each vocabulary word is shown in context, within a full sentence, for students to identify the contextual use of the word and identify its meaning through this use.

Students identify synonyms and antonyms for the theme’s word list by blasting asteroids in space. Each vocabulary word is shown in context, within a full sentence, to provide a contextual use of the word and to identify its meaning through this use.