Online Resources for Vocabulary

I know this blog ought to be used mostly for reflection, but a blog like this is also an excellent place to share resources with other teachers. As Dr. Jones would say, "A teacher is foremost a thief, a shameless thief."

With that in mind, I wanted to show you a few websites devoted to assisting teachers with vocabulary instruction. Most of us know about FreeRice.com, but FreeRice, while socially considerate and addicting, is a generalized vocabulary program, and doesn't neatly integrate into your specific vocabulary instructions.

I recently stumbled upon WordAhead, which hosts short videos defining vocabulary in a visually appealing way. For instance:

The video defines the word, then illustrates an often amusing (if occasionally long-winded) example. Students will hopefully take to the visual, video format, and respond to it better than copying down definitions. If you'd like your students to try their hand at making their own videos or pictures, there's always BrainyFlix.

Lastly: VisuWords. If you're Web-surfing during technology class, you might just get stuck inputting anything you can think of into VisuWord's search engine, where it will generate a whole web of connected phrases and terms that students can explore. Warning: don't have your students look up "love." VisuWords takes a, um, more physical approach to the term.