Vocabulary Cartoons

What is a MNEMONIC? A memory aid In vocabulary cartoons, you will create a rhyming mnemonic and a visual mnemonic to help you learn a new vocabulary word

Rhyming Mnemonics A form of word association where you rhyme a word you want to learn with a word you already know. EX: Columbus sailed the ocean BLUE in fourteen hundred ninety-TWO (This teaches the students the date that Christopher Columbus discovered America)

Visual Mnemonics For most people, it’s easier to remember pictures that are seen rather than sounds that are heard EX: when you know what a banana looks like and you hear the word, your mind automatically makes a mental picture of a banana

Making a picture with a new vocabulary word and a “sounds like” word Vocabulary word: PARRY Since you do not know what this word means, you try to come up with a rhyming (or “sounds like”) mnemonic that helps you then create a visual image of the “sounds like” PARRY: Sounds like: PEAR (now you can visualize the fruit)

Define the vocabulary word Next you need to find the definition of the vocabulary word You may need to determine its ROOT WORD first, in order to look it up

Create your sentence Now you have the new vocabulary word, its definition, and your “sounds like” word You are ready to create a visual mnemonic by creating a sentence that includes both your vocabulary word and the “sounds like” word This sentence should be something you can illustrate

VOCABULARY WORD: PARRY- to protect yourself from a blow; to avoid skillfully; to turn aside and evade SOUNDS LIKE: PEAR SENTENCE: The PEARS PARRIED each other’s fencing movements.

DIRECTIONS Randomly select a vocabulary word from the basket Write the word and page number down on your unlined white paper (then return the word to the basket for the next class to use) Find the sentence in the story where your word is and copy it down Create a vocabulary cartoon with your word: vocabulary word, definition (DO NOT use a form of the word in the definition you write), “sounds like” word, sentence, and cartoon You may use the electronic dictionaries (please power them OFF when you put them away and treat them with respect) Color your cartoon Don’t forget to write your name and class on your paper Place your completed cartoon in your portfolio until I return. We will place them around the classroom for others to view once I return. Read silently (your biography, preferably) if you have any remaining time (don’t forget to document the reading on your reading log)