Building strong word knowledge is essential for students’ reading comprehension, writing skills, and overall language development. It is the most foundational part of reading but, often, our students come to us behind. There are absolutely times when interventions are necessary. I have another blog post on what those might look like for your secondary students, depending on their level. However, we also need to build activities into our lessons that review and reinforce skills for every student.

Whether you’re working with middle or high school students, engaging activities that focus on word-level knowledge can boost vocabulary, spelling, and morphological awareness in fun and interactive ways. And these are things that will also strengthen their comprehension. 

Below are several activities to bring vocabulary and word-level learning to life in your classroom.

1. Word Sorts with a Twist

What it is: A categorization activity that helps students recognize patterns in words. The patterns could be related to affixes, spelling, meaning, connotation, literally anything. In fact, you don’t even HAVE to tell the students how to sort them and you can see what kinds of categories they come up with on their own!

How to do it: Provide students with a mix of words on index cards or a digital platform. Have them sort the words. Add a challenge by timing them or making it a competition. Take it further by having students justify their sorting choices in a brief discussion or written response.

You can also do this with lists of words that the students come up with on their own, too. Instead of providing the words, have students brainstorm everything that they know about The Holocaust and then sort them into categories.

For Example: Use this activity with words from The Diary of Anne Frank or another historical text. Then have them sort the words by Greek or Latin roots or by positive/negative connotations to discuss the emotional impact of word choice.

2. Morphology Mix-Up

What it is: A hands-on activity that reinforces understanding of prefixes, suffixes, and roots.

How to do it: Write different prefixes, roots, and suffixes on separate cards, or print them… I bet another teacher has already thought of this and has them somewhere. Have students combine the word parts to create real or plausible words and define their meaning. Challenge students to use new words in sentences or find similar words in their independent reading.

For Example: While reading Fahrenheit 451, students can break down key vocabulary like “censorship” (cen- = judge, -ship = condition of) or “intellectual” (inter- = between, lect- = to read/speak) to discuss how language reflects the novel’s themes.

3. Vocab Speed Dating

What it is: A fast-paced partner activity, where students teach each other new words.

How to do it: Assign each student a vocabulary word from your text to research. Have them prepare a 30-second presentation explaining the word’s meaning, part of speech, and an example sentence… maybe one they make up, or one from the text itself. You could also ask them to dissect the word and even look at the etymology, depending on the level of your students.

Set up a “speed dating” format where students rotate and explain their words to different partners. Follow up with a quiz or writing activity using the words, if you want to.

For example: If you’re studying To Kill a Mockingbird, students can “speed date” with words related to justice, prejudice, and society, such as “acquittal,” “discrimination,” or “perspective.”

4. Word Chain Relay

What it is: A partner/small group game that strengthens spelling and word association.

How to do it: Divide the class into teams. Start with a base word on the board. Each team must add a word that either begins with the last letter of the previous word or contains a common root. The game continues until a team can’t think of a word within a time limit.

For example: This activity could help students understand Shakespearean language really well, helping them connect key words from the text to modern vocabulary. Start with a significant word from the play, such as “fate.” Then, have students build a chain with related words, either by letter or meaning. For example:

• Fate → Emotions → Sad → Death → Tybalt → Tragedy → Destiny → Youth

After finishing the relay, discuss how the words connect to major themes in Romeo and Juliet, such as fate, conflict, and tragedy. As an extension, you could have students pick a word from the chain and explain its role in the play.

For an even bigger challenge, you can ask students to justify their word choices by quoting lines from the text.

5. Etymology Detective

What it is: A research-based activity that helps students explore word origins.

How to do it: Assign students a set of words with interesting origins. Have them investigate the word’s history, language of origin, and changes in meaning over time. Assign mini-presentations or posters about their findings.

For example: While reading Beowulf, students can research the Old English roots of words like “thane” or “wyrd” to understand how language has evolved and how these terms shape our understanding of the epic’s themes. 

You can do this with any text, though! The most interesting paper that I have ever written was in college when I looked at the origins of the words in a modern English language sentence. The paper ended up being PAGES, even though the sentence that I dissected was only 23 words.

Etymology is such a cool thing to dive into but I’m a word-nerd.

6. Semantic Gradients

What it is: A visual strategy to help students understand shades of meaning between related words, perfect for understanding author’s word choices and tone.

How to do it: Kind of like the word chains activity, you’ll give students a starting word and an ending word, like “whisper” and “shout.” Have them brainstorm words in between that show gradual intensity, “murmur,” “speak,” “yell.” Discuss how word choice affects tone and meaning in writing.

You could also provide all of the words and simply have them arrange the order for a more scaffolded version of this activity.

For example: Use this with poetry from The Harlem Renaissance to analyze how word choice affects tone, such as ranking synonyms for emotions in Langston Hughes’ poems.

7. Synonym and Antonym Charades

What it is: A movement-based game that reinforces synonyms and antonyms.

How to do it: Write pairs of synonyms and antonyms from your text on slips of paper or index cards. Have students act out the words while their classmates guess the correct term. For an extra challenge, require students to explain why the words are synonyms or antonyms after guessing.

For example: While reading Of Mice and Men, students can act out words related to character traits, motivations, and relationships, like “compassion” vs. “cruelty” and discuss how the themes of the novel connect to these words.

8. Word Ladders

What it is: A critical thinking activity that strengthens vocabulary, spelling, and word relationships by having students change one letter at a time to form new words. Each step in the ladder creates a new word, often with a logical or thematic connection to the text being studied.

How to do it: Start with a base word on the board, like “hero.” Give students clues for how to change one letter at a time to create a new word, like “Change one letter to create a word that means “nothing” (change the h to a z to create “zero”). Continue building the ladder until students reach the final word, reinforcing spelling skills and connections between words. Challenge students to explain how each step in the ladder relates to the story, characters, or themes in the text.

For example: While reading The Odyssey, create a word ladder using Greek mythology terms (“hero” → “zero” → “Zeus”) to connect spelling practice to the text.

9. Context Clue Challenge

What it is: A reading-based game to help students infer word meanings.

How to do it: Point out words that students likely don’t know in the text that you are reading.  Have them use context clues to guess the meaning before checking a dictionary. It helps if you have taught using context clues with something like this context clues mini-unit first. Create a competitive element by awarding points for correct guesses and explanations.

For example: Use this while reading Animal Farm, where students determine the meanings of words like “tyranny” or “allegory” using surrounding text.

10. Word Association Tournament

What it is: An engaging activity that helps students make connections between words, reinforcing vocabulary from a text while encouraging critical thinking. 

How to do it: Select a key word from the reading. Students take turns saying words that relate to it. Each word must logically connect to the previous one, forming a chain of associations that reflect their understanding of the text. If a student hesitates for more than five seconds, they are out, and the game continues until only one student remains or the class runs out of words.

For example: For Macbeth, you could start with the word “fate.” Students might follow with “prophecy”, “witches”, “darkness”, “blood”, “murder”, and so on. Afterward, students discuss the connections between the words, explaining how they relate to the themes of the text.

This activity can be easily adapted for different texts and subjects. In nonfiction, students reading Night by Elie Wiesel could start with the word “survival” and build connections like “resilience”, “hunger”, “fear”, and “perseverance” to explore key themes.

By incorporating interactive word-level activities into your lessons for every single unit, you are not only helping your students to fill any gaps they may have experienced in their foundational reading instruction, you are also strengthening their reading abilities and critical thinking skills! Which word-level activity will you try first?