Banish Boringwords! - MVCA Second Grade

Banish Boring Words ? Leilen Shelton, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Banish Boring words!

Leilen Shelton

NEW YORK ? TORONTO ? LONDON ? AUCKLAND ? SYDNEY MEXICO CITY ? NEW DELHI ? HONG KONG ? BUENOS AIRES

Banish Boring Words ? Leilen Shelton, Scholastic Teaching Resources

TotheteachersatTalbert,especiallyAmyJunge,HeatherHarrison,andDonnaFraga, whogenerouslysharedtheirideas;toBethFockleratFultonformentoringmeearlyon; andtofriend/fellowteacherJenniferMendoza. To my principal, Cathie Abdel, who has always made me feel like a million bucks; to Fountain Valley School District Superintendent Rosemarie Eadie who has been an incrediblesourceofencouragementovertheyears. To my tutoring students Alexis Coco, Mark Gale, Mike Gale, Kate Gasparro, MattGasparro,AnthonyHo,JacquelineHo,JoshuaLim,LeslieLim,SarahLo,TiffanyLo, JasonMar,SeanMyers,RyanNguyen,JeffreyWang,andJustineWang. Thank you, Donna, for cheering me on. Thank you Mom for watching the kids so manytimeswhileIworkedonthebookwithDad.Thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,Dad. Withoutyourcountlesshoursinvestedinthetypesetting,editing,anddesignofthisbook, itneverwouldhavehappened.IoweyouBIGTIME,Nudgy! To Myles for knowing just when Mommy needed you to take a nap, to Sydney who brings so much loveand joy tomy life, and tomy husband, Jason, who has always supportedme.I'mblessedtohaveapartnerlikeyou.

Banish Boring words!

ScholasticInc.grantsteacherspermissiontophotocopythereproduciblepagesfromthisbookforclassroomuse. Nootherpartofthispublicationmaybereproducedinwholeorinpart,orstoredinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyform

orbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise,withoutwrittenpermissionofthepublisher. Forinformationregardingpermission,writetoScholasticInc.,557Broadway,NewYork,NY10012. Editor:SarahLonghi CoverdesignbyJasonRobinson InteriordesignbyGeneToth ISBN-13:978-0-545-08303-4 ISBN-10:0-545-08303-6 Copyright?2009byLeilenShelton Allrightsreserved.PrintedintheU.S.A.

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Banish Boring Words ? Leilen Shelton, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Table of Contents

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 EssayVerbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 ActionVerbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 "Said"Synonyms............................ 14 -lyAdverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 ColorsandShapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Sight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Smell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Taste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Touch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Hair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 CharacterTraits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Emotions/Feelings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Big/Small . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Beautiful/Ugly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Good/Bad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Interesting/Boring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 ALittle/ALot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Easy/Hard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Compare/Contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 BeSpecific! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 50BoringWordsandPhrasestoAvoid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 MyOwnListofInterestingWords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Banish Boring Words ? Leilen Shelton, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Introduction

During my first year as a middle school teacher, I quickly discovered that my

students had wonderful ideas for their writing, but struggled to express them clearly and

descriptively.Theyrecognizedstrongandspecificwords,butcouldn'talwaysretrievethemon

theirown,andusingathesaur uswastime - consuming.Whattheyneededwasafastandeasy

waytofindthe"right"wordsfortheirwriting.

I developed a list of action verbs, which led to a list of more specific movement words.

Otherwordlistsfollowed,andIsoonhadenoughliststomakeasmallbookletforeachstudent

touse.Iwasthrilledwiththeremarkableimprovementsintheirwritingandintheirconfidence.

Theyweresoproudoftheirabilitytochoosetheirwordssopreciselyandpowerfully.

Thebookletcirculatedtootherteachers,anditwasn'tlongbeforealmosteveryEnglish

teacheratmyschoolwasusingthebooklet.Withinayear'stime,thebookletbeganshowing

upwiththestudentsIprivatelytutored--studentswhoattendedotherschoolsinmydistrict.

Apparently, I wasn't the only teacher searching for ways to empower students with strong,

specificwords.I'mexcitedtosharetheculminationofthateffortwithyouinthisbook.

Banish Boring Words--a collection of word lists containing dozens of options for

frequently used words and phrases--supports all types of writing. In some ways, it is like a

condensedthesaurus.Thepurposeofthisbookistoprovidestudentswithshortcutstofinding

descriptivewordsthatwillenablethemtowritewithgreaterclarityandsophistication.Itismy

hopethatthisbookhelpsstudentsachievetheirfullpotentialaswriters.

How to Use This Book

The word lists are arranged by topics so students can flip quickly between related

pages,andexamplesentencesareprovidedunderthetitleofeachwordlisttodemonstrate

howeachpageshouldbeused.

Somesuggestionsforusingthisbookflexiblyintheclassroominclude: ? Makingcopiesofthewordlistsforeachstudenttouseduringindependentwritingtime. ? Providingcopiesofthewordlistsforgroupsofstudentstouseasaresourceduring

writingworkshop. ? Photocopyingonewordlistorsectionatatimewhenintroducinganewlesson.

Forexample,youmightusetheCharacterTraitslist(page36)duringalessonon characterdevelopment. ? Copyingwordlistsforvocabulary-buildingexercises,includinggamesandtest preparationforEnglishlanguagelearners. ? Makingposter-sizecopiesoftheliststoserveas"wordwalls"intheclassroom-- visibleandaccessibleresourcesforinterestingwords.

Formoreinformation,visitmyWebsiteat .

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Transitions

Banish Boring Words ? Leilen Shelton, Scholastic Teaching Resources

L z Boring: So,dogsmaketheperfectfamilypet. Interesting: Withoutadoubt,dogsmaketheperfectfamilypet.

For the Beginning Abad Agood Animportant Assoonas Atfirst

Atthebeginning Before Earlyon First Firstofall

Initially Inthebeginning Inthefirstplace Itstartedwhen One

Oneimportant Thefirst Tobegin Tostart Yesterday

For the Middle Abetter Accordingly Additionally After Afterthat Afterward Allatonce Allofasudden Alongwith Also Another

Anotherimportant Asecond Atthesametime Aworse Beforelong Besides During Equallyimportant Followingthis Forexample Forinstance

Furthermore However Inaddition Infact Inthemeantime Later Lateron Likewise Meanwhile Moreimportantly Moreover

Next Second Secondly Shortlythereafter Soonafter Suddenly Then Thenext Thesecond When While

For the End Accordingly Afinal After Afterthat Allatonce Allinall Allofasudden Asaresult Atlast Attheend Clearly Consequently Eventually Finally

Forthisreason Furthermore Hence Inbrief Inconclusion Infact Inotherwords Inshort Insummary Intheend Last Lastofall Lastly Later

Lateron Moreover Mostimportantly Obviously Ofcourse Onthewhole Shortlythereafter Since Soonafter Thebest Thefinal Thelast Themostimportant Then

Therefore Theworst Thus Toconclude Tosummarize Tosumup Tothisend Ultimately Undeniably Undoubtedly When Withthisinmind Withoutadoubt Withoutquestion

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