Fancy Word Skillz

In high school, kids prepare to take the SAT in the hopes of scoring high enough to qualify to get into top universities. There are some crazy fancy words that show up on the SAT - words that people rarely use in everyday conversation! How can we hardwire these words into our brains? A lot of them can be used in expressive movement! Try the following lesson below, which can be geared toward any age level, from middle school up.

Describe the movement you see in the pictures below. Try to describe the feelings the dancers are expressing.

In groups of 4-6 students, create a movement vignette by using an amalgam of 3-5 fancy words from the list. Then share your vignette with the class. You may choose to play music during your movement.

YOU MUST USE:

1. At least one word from the Form/Shape/Connection list
2. At least one feeling word
3. 1-3 other words of your choosing

EXAMPLE:

You might circumscribe the room exuberantly, then flag as you come to the center of the room, and then one person in the group could callously squelch each person to the floor. Try this, then create your own using other words.

• Assimilate: to absorb, or to become absorbed, to make or become similar
  
• Circumscribe: to draw a circle around
  
• Complement: something that completes or goes with something
  
• Contiguous: sharing a boundary; touching
  
• Reciprocate: to give back or respond in a similar way
  
• Relinquish: to give up, to let go
  

• Augment: to make greater, larger
  
• Burgeon: to grow and flourish
  
• Disseminate: to scatter widely, as in sowing seed
  
• Distend: to swell up or out
  
• Proliferate: to grow rapidly
  
• Redouble: to make twice as much
  

• Eradicate: to get rid of all of something
  
• Raze: to demolish to the ground
  
• Squelch: to crush as if by trampling
  

• Flag: to tire out or droop
  
• Lugubrious: mournful, dismal, gloomy
  
• Wilt: to become limp through heat, loss of water, or disease; droop
  

• Convoluted: complex and intricate
  
• Copious: large amounts
  
• Effusive: showing excessive emotion; overflowing
  
• Ebullience: intense enthusiasm; excitement
  
• Exuberant: full of unrestrained joy
  
• Grandiose: grand or large, very cool and awesome
  
• Impetuous: suddenly energetic/emotional; impulsive & passionate
  

• Apathetic: showing or feeling little or no emotion
  
• Brevity: shortness of time
  
• Callous: unfeeling; emotionally hardened
  
• Demure: modest and reserved
  
• Rudimentary: basic; in the early stages of development
  
• Transient: passing quickly in time or space
  

• Ambiguous: open to more than one meaning
  
• Cacophony: unpleasant, chaotic noise
  
• Enigma: a puzzle, mystery, or riddle
  
• Erratic: markedly inconsistent
  
• Sporadic: irregular, having no pattern or order
  

• Cathartic: feeling of relaxedness after an emotional outburst
  
• Conspicuous: easy to notice
  
• Embellish: to decorate or exaggerate
  
• Impetus: an impelling force or stimulus
  
• Juxtapose: to place side by side, esp. for comparison/contrast
  
• Placid: calm, peaceful
  
• Synergy: combined action
  
• Vacillate: to sway from one side to the other
  
• Vex: to annoy or bother
  

The rest of the class will describe what they saw and try to guess which words you used.

In your critique, consider the following words:

• Adroit: dexterous, deft
  
• Acumen: quickness, accuracy
  
• Incoherent: lacking cohesion or connection