Building Vocabulary
Vocabulary is a major part of literacy for every content area. Students can use a variety of engaging web tools or iPad apps to increase their lexicon by creating simple projects. Here are a few sample projects for vocabulary building. Click on the buttons below to access the websites and start creating!
Vocabulary is a major part of literacy for every content area. Students can use a variety of engaging web tools or iPad apps to increase their lexicon by creating simple projects. Here are a few sample projects for vocabulary building. Click on the buttons below to access the websites and start creating!
Build vocabulary flashcards online or on the iPad with Quizlet. (iPad app or website) Students can add images to their cards to help them study, as well as play review games.
Use a photo editing tool like Pic Collage or Typic (iPad) or pizap.com to represent vocabulary terms in a variety of ways. Combine meaningful pictures with definitions or sentences using the word.
Take notes or define words with a mindmap like Popplet (iPad or website). Students can add images or links.
Haiku Deck is a great tool for both iPad and web browser to create a stunning slide deck. This could be used to combine images with content vocabulary. Limited characters forces students to write more concise statements. In the example below, the student matched images with vocabulary words, included the definitions and used the word in a sentence.
Smokejumpers - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires
Use a Word Cloud with vocabulary etymology, antonyms, synonyms, etc.
Thinkglink is a great tool for sharing content knowledge. Students can add links, videos, images or just text. In this example, the student used vocabulary from a biology lab in a word cloud first, then used that image for the background in Thinglink.
Padlet is a collaborative "cork board" for notes. Students can add images, links, videos, or text to the padlet wall. Great vocabulary review tool.
Google Docs is a powerful collaboration tool that also allows students to add images and links to make their notes more content-rich and meaningful. Students can import images and annotate them using Drawings, as well as create graphic organizers or illustrations to summarize their learning. See the image below for a "comic" using Google Drawings.
There are also great iPad apps for notetaking that students can use to learn and build academic vocabulary. These include Notability, Penultimate, Skitch, Notes+, Note, Notes HD or TopNotes. The following example used Notability. (image CC0 Public Domain pixabay.com)
Chatterpix Kids is a great iPad app for recording voice to make a picture "come alive!" Fotobabble and Blabberize are good web tools as well. This example is for science.