D++Think+and+Rethink

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Using words flexbly and interchangeably, students must continually shape and revise their expanding knowledge of how words work. Moving beyond "crystallized" definitions and challenging students to embrace the "fluid" nature of word meaning demands time to interact with words thoughtfully and the ability to think and rethink our understandings.=====

Students were asked to copy their most powerful and **inspiring** descriptions of the woods and its effect on them on to separate sentence strips. Then, we cut the sentence strips into individual word tiles, and we mixed each unique set of words into a class collective. Writers worked in groups to create and recreate inspiring poems about the woods. Doing so required shifting their original understandings of the words that they chose. Creating new relationships between words pushed them to think deeply about the changing nature of word meaning and the powerful potential that words have.
 * Example:**




 * Other Ideas from Teachers I've Worked With:**
 * Brainstorm as a class to create a word bank that may then be used for individual writing. Compare varied uses of the words.
 * Play Doh Revision: Provide each student a jar of Doh. Ask them to create something. Then, ask them to add something to it. Ask them to remove something else. Finally, ask them to change their creation dramatically. Discuss how this process relates to revision in writing as well as the way we need to continually revise our understandings of how words work.