A Whimsical Day in ELA

Devon Mullman

English Language Arts Teacher

Butte Central Catholic School

On Monday, 6th and 7th grade ELA classes dove deep into the imaginative world of Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth. The students traveled with the main character, Milo, to the strange and delightful land of Dictionopolis, where words are serious business! Following Milo's footsteps, our students focused on the concept of the chaotic and fascinating "Word Market" where words and individual letters are physically sold. To build a deeper and more functional understanding of the vocabulary introduced in the text, we brought the market into our classroom. The students didn't just look up the definitions of new words, but they became Word Merchants by researching their words and then trying to "sell" them to their classmates by explaining the word's value, articulating its meaning, and demonstrating its usage in a sentence.

Be sure to ask your student about the words they bought or sold in the Word Market- you might be surprised by the new vocabulary they bring home!