Save the Words

I found Save the Words from Dana at Huff English, and it made me start thinking about how to use it in teaching. Wouldn’t this be a cool poetry-writing exercise? Maybe even as a fun way to celebrate National Poetry Month, as quick prompts? Maybe even a worthy extra credit exercise? This could be fun for fiction-writing exercises too, I think. Students could write poems that define the words, or just try and write a story or passage that uses the word in such a way where the meaning is absolutely clear, or even a character sketch that shows how a person could exemplify their chosen word.

I did something similar with a Forgotten English Tear-Off Calendar I picked up on clearance at a bookstore when I was teaching Gerard Manley Hopkins with ninth graders last year. I spread out the words on the table, and they each had to choose a few and write a poem that contained them (but not necessarily defining them). One of the aspects of his poetry that I love is how he combines words to make new hybrid words, which you can see at work in Carrion Comfort among many others. I felt this exercise really encouraged the students to think carefully about vocabulary.

For me, teaching vocabulary is like teaching grammar– there’s a lot of memorizing involved, but it is important also to make sure students use the words and concepts so that they retain them. We talk about etymology and make connections for prefixes and suffixes whenever possible, but I’m always looking for new ways to help it all stick for my students.