VocabularyIdeas

=How do You Teach Vocabulary?=

Here are some ideas. Feel free to add your own!

From Jen Silliman

Some things that I have suggested to my teachers are:[| Animoto video creation.] I absolutely love this program…It’s very easy to use, and it has so many uses. For vocabulary or terms, here is what I suggested: Assign each student one or two words to define. They will then create a 30 second Animoto video. The video must include the word, the part of speech, the definition, a sentence, and images that represent the word. In some of the classes, the links were embedded onto a wiki or in the teacher’s Edline account. This allowed each student access to the videos to help them learn the word. Each day, a select amount were shared and viewed in class. I have attached a link to one that I created as an example…Sample Animoto Video The same or similar process can be achieved with PhotoStory which some students preferred. Another idea that I suggested and several of them used was the website classtools.net. The students created their own review or study games and shared them on a wiki or Edline. The games on this site can be played individually, or there are also templates that can be used for whole group activities.

From Pat Engleman

In the past I have used paper slides for vocab. They are a mix of high and low tech. Here is the prezi I shared at bootcamp. If you have any questions, let me know. http://prezi.com/akhhuszarduc/paper-slide-videos/

From Ralph Maltese

**My suggestion is teachers and students focus on the thinking skills that a vocabulary unit can stretch. Suppose each week one subject area, say social studies or science gives every other subject 5 words per week. So the social studies teacher gives the other teachers the words coup d’etat, demagogue, disenfranchised, entrepeneur, ethnocentrism. In the other subjects students try to apply those same words to that content area. In English students think of a character who might be a demagogue….or a theme involving disenfranchisement. In math students can make a connection between ethnocentrism and Fermat’s Last Theorem. It doesn’t matter how accurate the connections are. It matters how hard the students are thinking at high levels (making connections is a high level intellectual activity), and students are more likely to remember those terms than the conventional Monday Give List, Tuesday Go Over List, Wednesday Check Student Vocabulary Sentences, Thursday Study Vocabulary, Friday Give Vocabulary Test, Saturday Forget Vocabulary Words. To follow my cross disciplinary plan, the next week the science teacher shares 5 terms with the other subject areas. The students can place their connections on a common vocabulary wiki, replete with pictures, links, etc.**

From Amy Guido

Do you have Promethean Boards? There is a FlipChart that you can download from Promethean Planet that is game called "Hot Seat." The students can be placed on teams and one student sits with his back to the board and the others have to give him context clues to have the student guess the word.

From Dorothy Knoll

Try [|bighugelabs.com], they have flash cards trading cards,etc that can be customized for activities. [|VocabAhead] provides vocabulary videos for students K-12. Grade school level provides a Word of the Day in videos and for secondary level, t here are over 1000 difficult vocab words explained using videos. Take Quizzes, create your own lists or share and import lists from others.

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