How do you ignite in your students a love for words? From basic interpersonal skills (BICS) to cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP), students feel empowered when they can recognize/recall/distinguish/apply the right word for the right context. (Maybe we all do.)  I came across a few resources this week I think just might help promote discussions around the power of words:

• Newspaper Blackout Poetry – This is a new genre for me:  newspaper + marker = poetry. “Instead of starting with a blank page, poet Austin Kleon grabs a newspaper and a permanent marker and eliminates the words he doesn’t need. —NPR’s Morning Edition
• Cognates and False Cognates – Amongst the rapidly growing resources at California’s Brokers of Expertise site, I’ve discovered the ELL Teacher Tool Kit, a collection of videos created by the Burlingame School District. There is definitely a difference in meaning between embarrassed and embarazada😉

• RadioLab and NPR present Words – A visual word puzzle. “You may have to watch it more than once, but there are at least a half-dozen words hiding in this video. See if you can find them.”
  

What resources are you using to promote a love of words, the building blocks of language?