Said is Dead?

This has become a common phrase for many teachers. They even have a funeral for the word said. The point being to get the students to use different words. 

However, when you have a class with students who have been through something traumatic surrounding the subject of death (like a group of students who watched their father get murdered) saying a word is dead is not a good idea.

The question now becomes how do I introduce new vocabulary to my students without making a horrible situation worse? 

There are a few answers:

1. Word walls. Introduce new vocabulary through the use of word walls. This is cute for elementary students. However, middle school students have seen these for so long now they pay little attention. Also, the amount of vocabulary that would need to be placed on these walls is too large for older students.

2. Writer's note book. This is great for teachers who have their students writing daily (which they should be doing) and always coming prepared. We did this for a little while in my class, but I noticed that my students forgot they even had a resource in their notebooks to use.

3. Overuse. I have seen teachers who purposely go through the reading material and point out synonyms for certain words that are beyond common in writing (for example said). They start to use these words in their own speech patterns to help the students become more acquainted with them. However, they get the said syndrome in the end - now they are just as over used as said so become boring for the students to use too.

Here's my solution - The Family Tree.

I want my students to know that said, pretty, and thankful are okay to use sometimes, but there are a lot more options out there. Said doesn't die in my class, he just introduces his family.

Here's what we do:

First I take a story from one of the best books ever written:

The Stinky Cheese Man and other fairly stupid tales.

I read the story to the class using "said" each time there is a quote from one of the characters. Afterwards, I ask the students what they thought of the story. Most will laugh a bit at the story because they think it's childish or just silly. Most will notice that "They be sayin' said a lot."

This leads into a discuss of what words could they have used instead of the word said. What other words are over used? What happens when one word is overused in a writing? The conversation tends to grow from there naturally. After the conversation dies down a little I put the word "said" up on the board and ask the students what words can we use instead of said. Then I have them use a thesaurus to find even more words. We repeat this process for several other common words.

Next I give the students some poster paper and split them off into groups. Each group makes a "Family Tree" for a common word.

Here is an example on of the one for Said:

These turned our pretty well. My students are even proud of it. We were able to get some synonyms up in the room and keep a positive spin on the lesson.