Digital Vocabulary Aka evoc

Why is Vocabulary Learning So Important

"To understand a text, one must understand the words that represent the ideas or concepts. Studies confirm the high correlation (0.6 to 0.8) between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension (Baumann & Kame'enui, 2004; Pearson et al., 2007) http://www.readingrockets.org/article/10-ways-use-technology-build-vocabulary

make learning words fun & engaging!

Think about these questions:

Why is vocabulary so important?

What methods or activities do you currently use to teach students new vocabulary?

How can technology help to improve student engagement and retention of new words?

Does a student's vocabulary knowledge affect reading comprehension?

Click HERE to learn more about the above topics.

Mix it up! Try one or all of these digital vocabulary strategies with your students!

Digital Notebooks

My Virtual Folder of Notes - make a copy of this digital notebook template and then share an individual copy with all your students. Designed originally for digital note-taking, but could easily be adapted for a digital vocab notebook.

Digital Notebook with Sections (designed by Slides Mania for Google Slides & PowerPoint) Available in both horizontal and vertical format.

Digital Notebook - Foreign Language Example (Spanish)

Digital Flashcards

FlashCard Factory by PearDeck - Flashcard Factory was designed to transform the way students engage with vocabulary. When you play Flashcard Factory students pair up and work together to create dynamic and engaging flashcards. Students collaborate to illustrate and define terms, making learning vocab an active and social experience! Flashcard Factory is free to use. Integrates with Google Classroom and Quizlet.

How to Use Pear Deck's Flash Card Factory Tutorial (Video)

Quizlet: Quizlet is a great way to get your students engaged with the material they are learning in class. Quizlet provides 5 independent learning activities (Learn, Flashcards, Write, Spell, Test) and 2 group learning activities (Math and Gravity).

"Getting Started with Quizlet" Google Slides.

Flashcard Stash: s a dictionary-based website for helping students learn vocabulary and more. Sign up for a free account to create and store word lists to support written text. Users can access definitions, example sentences from context, and images to support the word. Once created, teachers will have a set of digital flashcards to use to help students practice the words and concepts through some games and quizzes. Students can access the vocabulary activities through a link, without logging in.

Google Slides Flashcard Template - simple template students complete and use for review.

Google Slideshow/Vocab Slide Deck Template - Provide your students with a vocabulary list or allow them to self-select from a text. Using Google Slides, have students create a set of two slides for each term. On the first slide, they should have the word and the definition along with a photo that represents the word set as the background. On the second slide, they should describe why they chose the term. This is an easy, low-prep activity that allows students to think about the words in a more visual way. My students always enjoy this one and end up remembering the terms with ease.

Brainscape: another option for an online flashcard generator. Organize words into decks, collaborate with others, sync with mobile app and study smarter, using cognitive science.

Digital Word Walls

Padlet - is a free and user-friendly digital tool that allows users to create a digital wall of multimedia sticky notes which can include text, images, links, and videos. Teachers can create a vocabulary word wall and embed it into a webpage, blog, or wiki for quick and easy access 24/7. Students can contribute to a vocabulary word wall without logging in, which makes it a great tool for use in a classroom with students under 13. Walls are collaborative and they provide one place for easy access to those important vocabulary words. Just provide students with the words and some time to construct knowledge about them as they post a sticky note and build their own definitions.

Creating and maintaining your own Virtual Word Wall is also easy to do! Check out the following link for a video tutorial on how to make your very own Virtual Word Wall with Google Slides using clickable hyperlinks: Google Slides Virtual Word Wall

ThingLink – Create Multimedia Vocabulary Launchers

ThingLink is a tool for creating interactive images that supports a variety of multimedia. Users can create multiple “hot spots” on specific parts of an image to build multimedia definitions that include video, images, audio, weblinks, and more. Teachers can use ThingLink to create multimedia launchers to introduce students to vocabulary words and demonstrate meaning. Students can design their own interactive images to construct deep knowledge about the words as they are engaged in the process of building their own multimedia definitions.

Thing Link Teacher Challenge - Digging Deeper into Vocabulary

Example Lesson Plan/Video Tutorial for Students

Word Clouds

Word clouds allow for students to learn words using visual displays of word relationships within text. "Developing breadth and depth of vocabulary depends on building connections between words and developing elaborate webs of meaning (Boulware- Gooden, Carreker, Thornhill, & Joshi, 2007).

There are many different FREE word cloud generators. Below are a few to get started:

Wordle - Create word clouds from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them

WordArt - WordArt.com is an online word cloud art creator that enables you to create amazing and unique word cloud art with ease.

WordClouds.com - Wordclouds.com is a free online word cloud generator. Paste text, upload a document or open an URL to automatically generate a word. Customize your cloud with shapes, themes, colors and fonts. You can also edit the word list, cloud size and gap size. Wordclouds.com can also generate clickable word clouds with links (image map). When you are satisfied with the result, save the image and share it online.

Vocab Memes

Who doesn't love creating and sharing funny memes. Your students will too! Have your students create memes and/or gifs to learn new vocabulary. Students can create memes to define or use new vocabulary. Display the word at the top, and place the definition or a sentence using the word below.

Meme Generator - This site provides a quick and easy way to create image, GIF, and video memes.

Google Draw

Decorated Vocab Words with Google Draw: Have your students decorate their vocabulary words in Google Drawing. First, have them type their word using the text box. Next, they can use the drawing and shape tools to add details on and within the letters of the word. This requires some critical thinking! Students really need to have an understanding of their vocabulary term as well as its part of speech in order to do the decorating.

Students could also use the built in image search to find png images to add to their letters like example on the left.

Take it one step further and have the kids download their decorated words as .png files and then insert them into a Google Slides presentation. Final step is to have the students use the word in a sentence.

Vocabulary Choice Boards (mix traditional with tech)

Vocabulary Choice Boards look like a bingo board easily made in Google Docs or Draw. Each box is filled with a different vocabulary activity. You can mix it up with traditional and digital learning activities.

Here a a few different examples:

Example 1
Vocabulary Choice Board with Google Slides
Example 2 (PDF)

Vocabulary Comic Strips

Vocabulary Comic Strips - Comic strips are a great way for students to demonstrate their understanding of words in a fun and creative way.

Check out this vocabulary comic strip lesson plan.
Check out the Live Binder: Cool Comic Creators (lots of links to different comic strip generators and other resources for using comics in your classroom)
Make Belief Comics Teacher's Resource Page
Google Draw: Check out "Ditch that Textbook: How to Add Google Drawing Comic Strips to Your Classroom Here is a simple Google Drawing Template to get you started.

Flippity Resources

Flippity is a fantastic free resource that offers a variety of activities to practice skills and concepts, including vocabulary development. Teachers can create activities from basic templates using Google Sheets. Some of the activities that teachers can create are Flashcards, Fun with Words, and Matching Game.

Vocab Videos

Have your students create vocab movies using the words in context with definitions and images or video. Any of the video tools listed below could be used. See example on left.

Read & Write for Google

Read & Write for Google - Read & Write for Google, is a Chrome extension installed on all ESM provided Google Accounts. One of Read & Write's features is a vocabulary list generator.

Read & Write for Google Tutorial

Create Differentiated Lists

As we know, different students have different needs. When working with a specific text students may be unfamiliar with different words. Use Read & Write for Google to help students create a differentiated vocabulary list.

Students use Read & Write to highlight words in a Google Doc or PDF. Once the words are highlighted, they can create a customized vocabulary list that includes the word, a picture, and multiple definitions. The best part of this process? It’s done in just a couple of clicks, and the vocabulary list is created as an editable Google Doc!

geogreetings

geogreeting.com is a fun little application that will spell out any word or phrase up to 40 characters using aerial images of buildings that look like letters captured through Google Earth. When you hover over each letter, the location of the building is displayed with the option to look at it via a Google Map. So cool!!

Vocab Slide decks

Here is an example of a Vocabulary Slide Deck for "The Diary of Anne Frank" done in Google Slides. It could be easily modified for book or subject.

Vocab Slide Deck Template

Google Slidshow (easy)

Provide your students with a vocabulary list or allow them to self-select from a text. Using Google Slides, have students create a set of two slides for each term. On the first slide, they should have the word and the definition along with a photo that represents the word set as the background. On the second slide, they should describe why they chose the term. This is an easy, low-prep activity that allows students to think about the words in a more visual way.

Student Created Google Form Quizzes

Have your students create vocabulary quizzes for each other using Google Form's self-grading quiz feature. If they do not know how to create quizzes in Google Forms, have them watch a YouTube video tutorial. There a lot of them out there, but here is a good one that is easy to follow.

Digital Alpha Boxes

Copy of AlphaBoxes

Alphaboxes is a simple table with one letter in each box. Students use the chart while they are reading to record unknown vocabulary terms. Each box should be filled with a term that begins with the letter in the box. You can have students complete any activity within the box you want. (i.e. provide definition and use in a sentence). Use the attached Google Doc Template.

Vocabulary Logos

Looking for something completely unique? Try to have your students create logos for their vocabulary terms (typography). Use these as examples. This would be a good way to use Google Drawings. Your students will enjoy figuring out the best way to portray their words.

Have students design text using one of the free text graphic and logo generators found HERE on the ESM Tech Hub.

NYC Math Vocab Scavenger Hunt

Vocab Scavenger hunt

A fun way for students to learn vocabulary is to ask them to go on a vocabulary scavenger hunt. Students go around campus and take pictures that represent the vocab. Students get out and moving and think of how their vocab is represented in a real context. Read more about it HERE.

Sample Vocab Movie with WeVideo.mp4

Wevideo vocab template

Wevideo has a great vocabulary template your students can use to create engaging vocab movies. Have your students work collaboratively or independently. Students can add images and videos directly from WeVideo's awesome stocked images library! Add a text box for the word

WAIT!! Don't forget to check out the FREE Lesson Plan page of the ESM Tech Hub for vocabulary lessons and resources

Copy of Copy of Shades of meaning template

Shades of meaning

The "Shades of Meaning" slide deck is designed to have students use an online thesaurus to find synonyms and antonyms of the vocab word on the slide. They find words that are "more" or "less" than the vocabulary word they started with. They type the synonym or antonym into the provided boxes and then they move the words onto the scale.

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