Vocabulary Module

As a science teacher, I introduce new vocabulary to my students daily. This can be a great undertaking considering the vastly different backgrounds of the students I teach. Much of a student's understanding of new terms depends on their background knowledge and the "size" of their vocabulary. And I believe the root of the problem lies within the fact that most students have never been taught HOW to learn new vocabulary. After reading the vocabulary module, I have decided to apply a few new vocabulary teaching strategies to my classroom.
Many students are turned-off by repetitious, out of reach definitions found in the textbook, which is often way above their reading level in the first place. I thought I was allowing my students more opportunity for creativity by adding a personally constructed sentence to their textbook definition, but I was wrong. Instead, I plan to require what I have done previously, which is a definition put in their own words, as well as, as sentence using the word, synonym, root word, or derivative of the term, and a picture describing or explaining the word in a vocabulary journal.
Following the above practice I plan to make the normally required "Word Wall" and interactive part of the classroom. In order to introduced terms before each unit, which will ease the anxiety of reading new information, I will allow students to pair-share their vocabulary journals. Then each student will place a word or term on the word wall after explaining their interpretation of the word to the class.
Also, as a fan of strange and unheard of words, I am going to introduce a quirky or interesting science specific word at least weekly in each class. We will use this activity to "dissect" words finding the root, prefix, suffix, and Greek or Latin derivative to strengthen the ability of each student to independently learn vocabulary in the science classroom.