Potential Vocab Lesson

I would use a book like Roll of Thunder in my classroom if I were teaching in middle school. I think this is a good book to use in literature circles, but there are ways to go above and beyond the circles an incorporate different parts of the curriculum with it. I think at this age level it is important for the students to start recognizing different vocabulary that they aren't used to. Very similarly to Mike [H], I was thinking of a vocabulary activity that had the students find words with which they are unfamiliar. I think that within their literacy groups, they should go through and discuss the words that they didn't know. The recorder that session will write them down and they will go to a computer and look up all of the words. At the end of the class, we will compile an entire list of all the words. This will become the vocabulary list for the week, and will continue this way until the book is finished. The students will be able to learn vocabulary for the novel as well as enrich themselves and others.