Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Dear Students (and parents)

Thank you for visiting the "Understanding Vocabulary from The Hobbit" edublog.  During this school year we will be focusing on vocabulary development in reading, and this edublog will help you to analyze textual context (within a sentence and in larger sections of text) and to draw conclusions about the nuance in word meanings.  You will achieve this by completing activities in which you have created vocabulary exercises to trade with your friends and parents.


LET THE FUN BEGIN

Activity #1 - In this activity you will use a Crossword Puzzle Maker to create a puzzle using the vocabulary of your choosing from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.  You need to use no less than twelve words for your crossword puzzle with at least four vocabulary words that you are unfamiliar with.  You are allowed to use as many vocabulary words as you would like and make it as difficult as you can; you will get additional points depending on how many words you use and the difficulty level.  Bring your puzzles into class, and you will give them to your group members who will be determined by me.

Activity #2 - A Cloze Exercise is an exercise consisting of a portion of text with certain words removed, where the participant is asked to replace the missing word.  In this activity you will create your own cloze exercise using an excerpt from The Hobbit.  I will assign each student with a chapter to choose your excerpt from.  Once you have created your cloze exercise, you will give it to your group members and two people of your choosing from outside of class.  These two people could be anyone of your choosing, such as your parents, siblings, or even friends.

Activity #3 - This activity will consist of a self made Word Search Puzzle which will be used by the entire class.  In creating your word search you must use at least twenty vocabulary words, and as with activity #1, the more words you use over the limit, the higher the score that you will receive.  Your word search puzzles will be handed out to the entire class for them to do.


Activity #4 - You need to have a content page for every puzzle that you create which will consist of the vocabulary words that you choose and their definitions.  Keep a copy of the puzzles that you create and do.  You will turn in a portfolio with all of your puzzle creations, your content pages, and the puzzles of your classmates that you complete with the name of the puzzles’ creator.


P.S.  I will be keeping a copy of everyone’s puzzles if any students want to work on one of them in their own time for fun and to learn some new vocabulary.