R.I.P. Dead Words

How many of you are tired of seeing students use the words awesome, cool, nice, or good...to death? I know that I am! Especially when students come back saying that they added details and these are the words that they chose to describe. So, the other day we had a mini lesson before our writer’s workshop entitled, “Dead Words.” I drafted a quick paragraph using these powerless words. I then showed students a visual of a tombstone with their overused words. 

I went through my draft and crossed out the dead words. As a class, we came up with a word bank of synonyms to be used as more exciting alternatives. 

I went back to my draft, added these new powerful words and voila!!! My revision was much more alive and powerful. My students enjoyed the spin!