Vocabulary Lesson: "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry"

If I were to create a Vocabulary lesson based off of "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" I would focus on word choice. I would have students pair up into groups of two and pick out at least thirty words they liked from the chapter they had read. These words could be words they found interesting, words they don't know, words they have always liked, tasty words, etc. Next, I would have students record these words on paper. Then, I would have the students, in pairs, narrow their lists down to ten words, their personal favorites. After this, I would ask students to work independently and do the same lesson over again. Students will create their own list of personal favorite words, this time not only relating to "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry", but to any words they know at all. I will have students record this list in a notebook in which they can refer back to easily for their writing in the future. Students will be asked to update their lists frequently, but every time the add a word one must be eliminated from the list. Students will only exchange words in this process in order to keep them from using the same old "blah" words in writing. Through this process, of collecting words, students will learn to be more in tune to the language spoken and written around them in everyday life. They will learn to use more flavorful and enticing words in their writing and become more familiar with words they may have not known. Also, they will come to recognize more words in books they read and learn how to go about defining them and actually implementing them in their own writing later on. To make this lesson even more vocabulary related, I can have students define each word they add to their list and use them in a sentence, but the key part of my lesson is to get students to broaden their vocabulary use. Also, to get students to start using more enticing and interesting natural language that will authenticate their writing in the future.