Summary for Educators

Title: Low Prep and No Prep Vocabulary Activities Author: Megan Kelly
Platform: MiddleWeb Substack
Date:

Megan Kelly’s article, reshared by MiddleWeb, explores a persistent challenge in literacy instruction: how to strengthen students’ academic vocabulary in the limited instructional time available. Writing from the perspective of an international middle grades History/ELA teacher, Kelly describes her realization that many students enter middle school without a command of Tier 2 vocabulary words that teachers often assume they know. Rather than blaming students for knowledge gaps, Kelly reframes vocabulary as something educators must teach intentionally.

Inspired by Marilee Sprenger’s work, especially her article “The 10-Minute Vocabulary Lesson,” Kelly set out to integrate brief, targeted vocabulary activities into her social studies classroom. Her goal was to find strategies that require little preparation but produce memorable learning experiences. She organizes her recommendations on a continuum from no-prep, to low-prep, to more structured preparation — acknowledging that teachers need options that match the realities of instructional planning.

The first approach, “Focus Words,” requires no preparation beyond selecting three target words for the day. Teachers post the words with definitions, explicitly model usage, and encourage students to use them through partner goals and playful repetition. Kelly notes that during a board game lesson about civilizations, her Tier 2 focus words (“thrive,” “surplus,” “impact”) became contagious — the more she modeled and praised usage, the more students voluntarily incorporated them. While research varies on how many exposures (six to thirty) are required for mastery, Kelly emphasizes continued use across lessons and even across content areas. She recommends that team teachers sprinkle focus words into their own classes to reinforce transfer.

The second category, “Draw It Out,” leverages novelty to boost retention. Kelly cites research from Brain World Magazine on how novelty activates the brain’s pleasure centers and improves memory. Students draw vocabulary words under unusual constraints — for example, balancing whiteboards on their heads while drawing in 40–50 seconds, sketching images on sticky notes held to their foreheads, or engaging in “barrier games” where one student describes an image and the other draws it without seeing it. These activities are especially valuable for Tier 3 academic vocabulary such as “desertification,” “Hammurabi’s Code,” or science terms like “cell wall,” as they require conceptual interpretation rather than simple recall.

The third category, “Take It Digital,” blends creativity and technology. Kelly uses tools like Brush.Ninja to have students create animated GIFs demonstrating vocabulary meaning. She shares sustainability-themed GIF examples and posts them on Padlet for public viewing. Displaying a student’s GIF during daily agenda review creates authentic audience and encourages pride in academic work. These digital vocabulary builds are ideal as flexible “in-between” tasks students can work on when finishing early.

The final section, “Vocabulary SpotIt!”, adapts the commercial game Spot It! for vocabulary review. Using a Google Script, Kelly uploads images aligned to unit vocabulary (e.g., world religions) and generates decks of cards where each pair shares exactly one matching image. To claim a card, students must identify the image and correctly apply the associated vocabulary word. This game format is competitive, engaging, and reinforces precise academic language. While preparation is required, Kelly notes that it remains manageable and is suitable for whole-class or small-group use.

Kelly concludes by reframing vocabulary instruction not as a large, isolated intervention, but as something that can grow within the “small pockets of time” educators already have. When teachers integrate intentional exposure, novelty, digital creativity, and structured games, students gain the repeated encounters necessary for academic success. As Kelly writes, using her own focus words, increased vocabulary exposure helps students “thrive” because the “surplus” of language they encounter positively “impacts” their learning across subjects.

Original Article

Title: Low Prep and No Prep Vocabulary Activities Author: Megan Kelly
Platform: MiddleWeb Substack
Date: Originally published 2022, reshared Jan. 16, 2026

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Prepared with the assistance of AI software

OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (4) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com

Source: https://middleweb.substack.com/p/low-prep-and-no-prep-vocabulary-ac...