Encouraging Students to Use Strong Words

When students mindfully focus on an author's word choice, they become better writers.  Bulletin boards like this one in my classroom are simple tools my school is using to help our students become better readers and writers.
  

The "wordly wise" bulletin board in my classroom.

Students simply add strong words to the wall after encountering them in a text or conversation.  The wall then becomes a resource for improving both writing and speaking skills.

To launch my wordly wise wall, I showed my class this video of a young author reading aloud her poem, "My Dream."  

 

On the second watch, I asked students to listen closely for powerful words she used in her writing.  We added those to the wall together, and I've since modeled how a reader might consider an author's word choice during read aloud time.  After adding a few words to the wall whole-group and then modeling my thought process aloud when I've added words, my kids have approached this exercise with enthusiasm.  I love seeing them test out words in their writing and conversations.  

Here's just one sample of a student using the bulletin board to improve her writing!