Shades of Meaning

Our state standards are asking students to be able to know and understand the differences in word meanings. Shades of Meaning is a phrase used to describe the small differences in meaning between similar words and phrases. Understanding the Shades of Meaning helps with concept development of words such as the denotation and connotation.

- Denotation is the dictionary meaning; EX: Woman and lady both refer to a female adult.
- Connotation: feelings an ideas that have become attached to certain words; EX: even though woman and lady both refer to a female adult, lady suggests one who is well-mannered or proper.

 

There are many ways to incorporate Shades of Meaning activities into your daily routine either whole group, small group, or center time.

• Give students a target word and then they must work together to find synonyms (or provide them) and place them in order from weakest to strongest meaning. Students will have to defend why they put their words in a certain order. There is NO right answer.  
• You can also have a set of words made and students can use them in a center to determine the strongest and weakest words.

Below is an example out of paint strips fro the store. You can have students take it a step further and write an example of each word that has personal meaning to them. You will want to encourage the students to have better word choice in their writings.