Since the beginning of the year, I have been showing my students the Vocab Gal videos where I interview young adult authors about their favorite words and the reasons they think we should learn words.  The authors themselves have floored me with their varied and insightful responses about the power of language, and the response from students has been great!

My students have begrudgingly been impressed with the high caliber of YA authors I have managed to interview.  Whether they all wanted to go get Ned Vizzini’s books after his interview or couldn’t believe that I had really gotten Laurie Halse Anderson to talk to me on camera (I still can’t quite believe it myself) – they have loved the videos even more than I expected.

However, after watching a new video each Monday in September, I started to realize that the students were simply passively listening rather than actively thinking about the points the authors were making.

Therefore, I created a chart in which my students list the current date, the author’s name, and at least one “take home” message they get from the author’s video.  When the video ends, students can finish their thoughts on the best point from the interview and then share it with others (in a small think-pair-share activity) or share it with the whole class.  These tasks have made watching each video much more educational.  Some days I have students compare and contrast two authors based on their ideas, while on others I have them pick their favorite point out of all the interviews and justify it to their peers.  In these discussions or exit slips, students must use our vocabulary words to express their points—furthering the theme that the videos imply about the need for developing one’s lexicon.

Overall, the videos have been great discussion starters and we continue not just talking about words, but also the craft of story.  I had originally worried that showing a video would take up too much class time (you know we never have enough!).  However, when I timed it, each video lasts no more than 2-3 minutes, so with charting and discussion time, we spend less than 6 or 7 minutes total.  Plus, my students now look forward to Mondays, as they know they are “vocabulary video days.”

Let me know how it goes in your room or if you have suggestions for modifying my ideas.  I love getting comments about what you are doing with vocabulary so please share!  I know I’m excited that this quick little exercise that students like actually covers so many Common Core Standards (including those pesky speaking and listening ones).

Common Core State Standards:

Writing Standard 8. Gather relevant information from multiple sources, assess the credibility of each source, and integrate the information
Writing Standard 9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Writing Standard 10. Write routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Speaking & Listening Standard 2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats
Speaking & Listening Standard 3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.
Speaking & Listening Standard 5. Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data
Language Standard 3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts.
Language Standard 4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown words
Language Standard 5. Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meaning.