McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling-Book, Revised Edition · Lesson 201 · Part 9: Synonyms, near-alikes and hard spellings
201. Synonyms
Goal: Your child knows what a synonym is and can swap one word in a sentence for its synonym.
You'll need
- The book page for this lesson
- A slate, small whiteboard, or paper and pencil
What's in the book
A note on synonyms, then lines of words with a word of nearly the same meaning beside each.
The lesson, step by step
Look at the pattern
Synonyms are words that mean nearly the same thing. In this lesson each line has a word and its synonym.
The book puts it this way:
The words opposite one another in the lines have nearly the same meaning, and are called Synonyms.
Read the lines together
Open the book and read each line aloud: the word, then its synonym. Some of the words:
authorize, apparent, accordant, deportment, adherent, indigent
Talk about what each pair means; many of these are grown-up words.
Use them
Pick five lines. Make up a short sentence with one word, then have your child say it again using the synonym instead.
Spell and write
Your child spells five of the words aloud by syllables, then writes them from dictation with the book closed.
Check and correct
Open the book and check each word together, letter by letter. For each mistake, your child looks at the right spelling, says it, spells it aloud, and writes it correctly three times.
Add any word that was missed to a hard-words list.
Afterwards
Tomorrow, before the next lesson, dictate five words from this list again, including any your child missed.