It’s a classic classroom scene: Your students file into class. You shout, “Okay, get your books out! Time for a vocab check!” They groan as you fly from desk to desk, glancing at their workbooks, giving them credit for completing their vocabulary exercises. Perhaps you’ve found the energy to be even more thorough, asking students to hand in their workbooks so you can check if their work is correct.

Even after seeing their work, in the back of your mind, you may wonder, “How do I ensure this vocabulary practice is seeping into my students’ heads? Did they take the time to understand the exercises, or rush to fill them out minutes before arriving in class? How can they be more engaged with new words?”

You know that learning new, elevated vocabulary is essential for expanding students’ reading proficiency, but you also need to teach writing and analytical skills. It can be hard to integrate more meaningful vocabulary exposure into your valuable class time. However, daily, intentional practice is key to helping those words stick.

So, what is a busy teacher to do? Here are a few ways to quickly incorporate vocabulary practice without taking away too much time from your already packed lessons:

1. Frayer Model Warm Up

Students love to move around and chat with peers, so why not incorporate that into your vocabulary checks? A Frayer model is a graphic organizer that explores connotations, definitions, and connections students have with new vocabulary.

Place students into groups to create a Frayer Model for different unit vocabulary words and present it to the class. It’s a creative way to see how words are associated differently for each student.

2. Incorporate Vocabulary Words into a Reading Quiz

Sometimes sneaky exposure is enough to reinforce good vocabulary. Let’s say you’re going to ask a question like “What was Gatsby’s motivation for throwing elaborate parties?” You could rephrase it to incorporate the unit’s vocabulary words: “Why is Gatsby so fervent about throwing lavish parties?”

Encourage students to incorporate the vocabulary words in their answers. You were going to quiz them anyway—why not include some vocabulary?

3. Write an Opinion Prompt on the Board Featuring a Unit’s Vocabulary

This exercise is especially great if you’re planning to teach an argumentative or persuasive essay.

Start class by presenting a few opinion questions using vocabulary words in context. For instance, if the word “ignoble” is giving your students a hard time, you could ask a question like, “How can someone change their reputation after behaving in an ignoble way?” Ask students to write their opinions using vocabulary and debate with other students in their group using specific examples.

4. Challenge Students to Complete a “Vocab Mad Libs”

Much like the classic 90’s fill-in-the-blank game, this activity will allow students to get creative with their vocabulary words.

Choose a topic you plan to discuss in class—maybe a summary of the chapters read, a popular speech, or a poem. Remove a few key words from the passage, replacing them with blank spaces. Have students replace the original words with vocabulary words that fit contextually. Discuss how the meaning of a sentence changes depending on the chosen word, or how some synonyms are stronger and some are weaker. This exercise is also a great way to emphasize the importance of an author’s word choice. 

5. Convince the Class

If all you have time for is a quick answer review, ask students which questions they got wrong and address the ones the majority of the class has missed. Have students try and justify both the correct answer and their wrong answer choice. Discuss why the correct answer makes the most sense. Asking a student to challenge their understanding is a critical thinking skill that will serve them beyond reviewing vocabulary.

6. Have Students Create Their Own Test Questions

Students love to have an advantage, and you love to save time creating tests and quizzes, so this exercise is the best of both worlds. For review, have students write three questions for their unit test: fill in the blank, multiple choice, or any format you choose. Tease that if the question is clever enough, it may appear on the test! Giving students some ownership of their assessment will help them invest in it further. 

For a vocabulary book with exercises that students will be hard pressed to do at the last minute, check out Prestwick House’s Vocabulary Power Plus program. Updated with a focus on the Science of Reading, this series helps students interact with vocabulary in new, creative ways that make homework checks automatically more engaging.