Synonym success--Thanks to the thesaurus

Mountain, L. (2008). Synonym success—Thanks to the thesaurus. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(4), 318-324.

Here’s a neat little treasury of fun vocabulary teaching activities that involve the thesaurus. I can picture all of them working well in a classroom. Though Mountain’s students were ninth graders, I could see using these activities with students in about fourth through maybe tenth grade.

Mountain takes us through Synonym Tic-Tac-Toe, Synonym Crossword Puzzles, and Synonym Riddles. We’re also let in on ways to enhance the learning power of these game-like activities. Mountain shared real-life examples from the classroom.

Mountain’s students appear to have fully embraced these vocabulary activities. Did any students not engage? They couldn’t have all been equally enthusiastic, but we’re not told about those other students. I also find myself picturing Mountain as an exceptionally dynamic teacher, just from the way the article is written. The activities are great even without that, but I wonder how much Mountain’s obvious and contagious passion for words and language had an effect?