This strategy was used for Group A. The students were given seven words and they had to come up with two synonyms and two antonyms for each word. After they wrote those down, they had to predict what they thought the words meant based on the synonyms and antonyms.
Our thoughts: Several of the articles we read on vocabulary said that by knowing the synonyms and antonyms of the word it gives students a better knowledge of the word. While our student and us feel this is true, this did not serve as a good way to introduce the vocabulary words. Even though some students were able to synthesize what they thought the word meant based on their knowledge of other words, other students had great difficulty leaving them frustrated. This activity would work better in conjunction with another strategy. After a week of this strategy and more than a few frustrated students (and teachers), it was hard to show enthusiasm for it the next week. We learned that if we did not show enthusiasm for the strategy neither would the students.
Student thoughts...
"It helped me somewhat because I don't think I really needed to know the synonym and antonyms but it did help me review what antonyms were."
"It made me understand the opposite of words and alike meanings."
"The synonyms and antonyms helped me because they gave me some other words I might know and can use to replace the vocabulary. The antonyms helped by giving me an idea of what not to use."
"I thought learning the antonyms confused me when we read both the synonyms and antonyms."
"I think looking up the synonyms and antonyms were simple because those were very thought words so that made it easier."
