Word study is one of my favorite areas of study this year. My students have expanded their knowledge of roots and prefixes through a year long activity filled study. At first I was stuck with how I could make each study different and create an exciting program. I began to search the internet and ask around for ideas. Today I am going to share some of the ideas I found for word study with you!
Quizlet– This free website allows you to add words and defintions, even pictures, and create flashcards. The program will create games, tests, and activities with your words so that you can study in fun and different ways. I assigned my students a set of words and they created their own quizlets, I also created a poetry unit and assigned students to complete two activities and a test. You can create groups in quizlet and monitor your student’s work. It is simple and easy to do and allows students a fun techy way to study words. I had students complete a discussion board after the first time we used quizlet and asked them to rate the program and give me feedback. Overwhelmingly the students liked and enjoyed the program, however they also said they wouldn’t use it on their own without an assignment that required this program.
Here are some examples of my own and my student’s quizlets, Poetry, Number root/prefix, and Say and Write roots.
Another free and easy website that produces word clouds based on text is Wordle. With this program you can copy and paste words from a document and it will create a grouping of words that appear in the text. Words that appear more often are larger and take a prominent place in the word art picture. You can choose colors, styles, font, and location to make different word art pictures. I used this with our study of Social Studies in the content area. I took the words from the chapters on African American History and put them in the program. I created 5 different types of wordle, then handed it to my students as a preview to the study. They made predictions about our unit based on the words and how big (how often) the words were used. I am also going to use this program in an upcoming lesson for students to create a word art picture.
In a previous Tech posts, I have blogged about glogster, kerpoof, and animoto. It is a way to create an online, interactive poster. In a recent study of number roots/prefixes, students were allowed to choose their own method of sharing their words. Here are a few examples of student work: word glog, 7-100glog, another 7-100glog, Kerpoof book, Kerpoof movie, animoto movie.
Other websites that you can find word activities:
Puzzlemaker
FunBrain
Vocabulary
Games with words
Dolch words for preschool
Spelling City