POWERFUL TEACHING STRATEGIES FROM
KRISTINA SMEKENS IN THREE MINUTES OR LESS.
TOPIC: WRITER WORD CHOICE
Praising Precise Purple Words
Target great word choice.
• To improve your writers’ word choice you need to first build their readers’ vocabulary.
• After reading any text, ask students to skim the text looking for precise and powerful word choice.
• Maintain an anchor chart/flip chart of “Great Words We Noticed in our Reading.” Post this chart within your
classroom environment.
Compliment strong word choice.
• Students need positive feedback when they
have used strong word choice in their
writing.
• Writing comments and adhering stickers all
over their papers are fabulous, visual ways
to point out great word choice. But they are
time consuming!
• Look for ways to compliment student word
choice that are efficient.
• Use the rare and hard-to-find purple
highlighter to stroke rare word choice used
by your writers.
• Highlight precise nouns, powerful verbs, vivid
adjectives, and unique phrases.
• Rather than referring to these strong words
as Wow Words or Sparkle Words, as many
teachers do, I call these Purple Words!
Read about more strategies to target strong word choice.
• Visit www.smekenseducation.com and look within the Idea Library. Simply click on “Word Choice” under the
“Writing” category to read dozens of articles, lessons, and strategies used in real classrooms.
© 2012 Smekens Education Solutions, Inc. • www.SmekensEducation.com