The Versatile Blank Book

People find words fascinating – their origins, meanings, spelling and pronunciation, combinations, regional variations and nuances, and their relationships with other words. But traditional vocabulary teaching does not capitalise on this fascination. Filling in gaps, matching words and pictures and memorising words from bilingual lists does not develop any real sense for meaning, does not respect students’ intelligence or creativity, and does not let students discover anything for themselves. 

The Versatile Blank Book is a co-production between me and the student. In the first 65 pages, I teach them: 

• how to study vocabulary
• how to develop strategies
• how to use some online tools
• what features of vocabulary are worth studying
• how to identify these features
• how to record their findings meaningfully and creatively.

The students create the cover and title pages in the book, write their own title pages and dedications, and then they fill the last 100 pages with their own diagrams, tables, drawings, texts and notes that demonstrate their creativity and their higher order thinking skills (HOTS). The students create their own beautiful book.

This attractively produced, full colour book is only available from my page at Lulu. See the QR code below.

For a sample of the book, click the Download Now button above.

I recommend you buy a copy for yourself and for your students. It makes a wonderful gift that serves as a long-term activity book. This is a rich creative adventure that can influence their language development for years to come.