Reading,+Vocabulary+&+Technology

**Reading, Vocabulary & Technology--A 21st Century Connection**

**Description:** This fast paced session will provide resources and ideas on how technology can be used to address 21st century reading vocabulary development. Participants will walk away with ideas, resources and web sites that can be used in their classroom right away. Who said working on vocabulary couldn't be fun?

**Favorite Tools for Reading Vocabulary:** **VocabGrabber**: **@http://www.visualthesaurus.com/vocabgrabber/ ** VocabGrabber allows the user/student to copy and paste text into an area on the screen and then sort the words by curricular area, frequency, familiarity, etc. Words can be selected from the sorted list for use with virtual thesaurus to look for synonyms and build meaning. Noted researcher, Robert Marzano emphasizes the importance of working with words, building student meaning and exploring words as steps in the development of reading vocabulary. This site is one you will want to put on your "radar." Try VocabGrabber with pasages from the NeSA-R ~ 6th grade passage
 * **21st Century Skill:** Communication
 * **Best Practice:** Marzano's Similarities and Differences, vocabulary development (steps 2, 4 & 5)
 * **Reading Goal:** Vocabulary development


 * Vocabahead**: Word Videos Sub Site: This FREE site offers word definitions for all of the ACT & SAT words in video format. The students see[[image:vocabahead.png width="264" height="217" align="right"]] the word, hear a definition of the word and the a picture/image animation of the word is given. Showing 3-5 of these a week at the beginning or end of class as a vocabulary springboard is a low stress/easy to implement activity that requires very little work with big rewards for your students. If you wanted to add a creativity wrinkle.....have the students create their own video and share them with the class (or post them on a web page to share with others)
 * **21st Century Skill Addressed by This Activity:** Communication, ICT Literacy, Content Knowledge,
 * **Best Practice:** Marzano's Vocabulary Development Step 1--Teacher Definition & Step 3 Graphic or Visual Representation of the Word.
 * **Reading Skill Addressed:** Vocabulary development & content knowledge



**Word Sift:** http://www.wordsift.com WordSift helps students sift through written text --they simply cut and paste any text into WordSift and a word cloud is created that is clickable. Students can then click a word and view visual images of the word along with a visual thesaurus. Using the workspace, students can create a visual representation of unknown words, assisting in vocabulary development.


 * **21st Century Skill:** Communication and Creativity
 * **Best Practice:** Marzano--nonlinguistic representations
 * **Reading Goal:** Vocabulary development

**Quizlet:** @http://quizlet.com/ ~ High School Quizlet Example ~ Middle School Quizlet Example ~ Elemenary Quizlet Prefix Set with Picture~ Quizlet Prefix Set without Pictures The FREE version of Quizlet allows you to enter words, definitions, and pictures that can be used in a variety of ways to work on vocabulary. Flash cards are the main focus, but the gaming format and ability to put in pictures makes this free tool a "plus" for teachers wanting new strategies for helping students develop their vocabulary. This won't be for everyone, but it might be worth a look.
 * **21st Century Skill:** Communication, Creativity, ICT Literacy
 * **Best Practice:** Marzano--nonlinguistic representations, recognition and reinforcing effort
 * **Reading Goal:** Vocabulary development
 * **Demonstration Video from ESU#3:** ESU#3 Steaming Video on How to Use Quizlet


 * [[image:Screen_shot_2011-04-29_at_12.12.17_AM.png width="515" height="355" align="left"]]QR Reader for Mac:** http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/qr-reader-for-iphone/id368494609?mt=8
 * QR Reader for Android:** @http://www.appbrain.com/app/quickmark-qr-code-reader/tw.com.quickmark

**QR Generators**: http://qrcode.kaywa.com Use a QR Generator to create a QR (Quick Reference) code that can contain text, a web site, a URL that links to an audio file, movie file, etc. Use a QR generator to create a code that can be read by an iPad, iPod, iPhone, laptop, Android, etc. For vocabulary, a teacher could create a QR code with the correct word and then in a presentation, on flash cards, etc. the teacher could put the definition and students could scan the QR code to check their answers. This has been used on a whiteboard, on a bulletin board, in PowerPoint, etc. One teacher created a jeopardy game with the QR code in the lower right corner of the question that was scanned to reveal the answer. Here is a sample:

**21st Century Skill:** Communication and Creativity **Best Practice:** Marzano--nonlinguistic representations **Reading Goal:** Vocabulary development

Google squared can be used in a number of ways, but essentially you type in a word or phrase in the Google Squared search box and a table is generated "guessing" the type of information that you would like to see in a table form based on your search term. For vocabulary I used this tool when looking for Greek & Latin Roots....I typed in "Greek and Latin Roots" and a table was generated...try it.. Very cool! **21st Century Skill:** Communication, Life Skills, ICT Literacy **Best Practice:** Marzano--activities that engage **Reading Goal:** Vocabulary development
 * Google Squared:** @http://google.com/squared[[image:logo.png align="left"]]

**Create a "Motivator" Poster a Vocabulary Word at Big Huge Labs:** @http://bighugelabs.com/motivator.php >
 * Big Huge Labs allows users to quickly create a poster using images and words. Teachers and students are using this FREE tool to create a picture representation of a vocabulary word that they can display on a word wall with a picture, the word, and a definition. The "professional" look of the final creation is impressive and students as young as 2nd and 3rd grade could use this web site. See the example at right.
 * **21st Century Skill Addressed by This Activity:** Communication, Creativity, ICT Literacy
 * **Best Practice:** Marzano's Vocabulary Development Step 3 Graphic or Visual Representation of the Word & Step 4 Activities to Add Knowledge
 * **Reading Skill Addressed:** Vocabulary development & content knowledge

Similar to a traditional dictionary, Wordia allows users to search for the spelling, meaning and origin of a word. Wordia is unique in its ability to explore the personal connotation of a word through video. Students can even create their own video of the word meaning.
 * [[image:wordia-2.jpg width="168" height="146" align="left"]]Wordia: http://www.wordia.co **
 * 21st Century Skill Addressed by This Activity: Communication, Creativity, Computers, Collaboration
 * Best Practice: Marzano's Vocabulary Development Step 3 graphic or visual representation of the word & Step 4 Activities to add knowledge
 * Reading Skill Addressed: Vocabulary development & content knowledge

**VisuWords:** @http://www.visuwords.com/ Visuwords allows the user/student to look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts and it diagrams that help the student see how words are associated. Students can enter words into the search box to look them up or double-click a node to expand the tree, as students hover over words they see the definition and then they can click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify how words are connected. Marzano's best practices emphasize the importance of using similarities and differences and visual representations (this does both!
 * **21st Century Skill:** Communication
 * **Best Practice:** Marzano--identifying similarities and differences
 * **Reading Goal:** Vocabulary development

**Free Rice Vocabulary Builder:** Free Rice Vocabulary Builder FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program that has two goals:
 * 1) Provide education to everyone for free.
 * 2) Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free

The web site has an English vocabulary builder with words, definitions, and pronunciation and for each word the students get correct, 10 grains of rice is donated to the World Food Program.
 * **21st Century Skill:** Content Knowledge, Communication, Global Awareness
 * **Best Practice:** Marzano--recognition and reinforcing effort, homework (probably a stretch here) & practice
 * **Reading Goal:** Vocabulary development

**Snappy Words:** @http://www.snappywords.com //Snappy Words// is a free visual English dictionary and thesaurus that lets you search the meaning of words and other associated words. Students can type a word into the search box at "Snappy Words" and a visual web of similar words appears. A great interactive word wall.
 * **21st Century Skill:** Content Knowledge, Communication,
 * **Best Practice:** Marzano--identifying similarities and differences
 * **Reading Goal:** Vocabulary development

//"Vocabulary is not a developmental skill or one that can be seen as fully mastered. ////The expansion and elaboration of vocabularies is something that extends across a lifetime." //  (Kamil & Hiebert, 2005)