Student+Friendly+Vocabulary+Word+List

Student Friendly Vocabulary Word List

For every unit in Technology Education it is essential that students know a list of vocabulary words to understand the principles corresponding to that unit. To have students take more of an active part in learning these definitions, I would use Web 2.0 applications to enhance their learning and to incorporate ELA standards into the activity. Rather than having the teacher give students definitions of words that they will be using in the technology unit; each student would be given two of the vocabulary words from the unit and they would post the vocabulary definitions on the class wiki. Then students would be required to make 2 contributions to the vocabulary definition by adding pictures, video or text to enhance the definition. This would allow students to help explain these words in a user’s friendly language to other students and form interactive discussions.

They would be given the following websites to assist them

[|www.**m-w.com**] Merriam-Webster Dictionary [|www.**bartleby.com**] American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://images.google.com/imghp?tab=wi Google Image Search http://video.google.com/?tab=iv Google Video Search http://www.howstuffworks.com/ How stuff Works http://kids.yahoo.com/reference Yahoo for Kids - contains a reference section with an online dictionary and encyclopedia http://www.askforkids.com/ Ask for Kids - contains many resources for students http://reference.al.com/ Research an Learn- nice research site and resource http://discovery.com Puzzle maker for vocabulary words
 * http://dictionary.reference.com/** Dictionary.com

This sounds like a great idea. Most of the "Tech Teachers" in my school do the unit vocabulary as a "do now". In short they don't want to take time from the project build time, but they must inform the student of the information...very single sided. I like your interactive idea, and if you only allow the answers on you unit quiz to come from this wiki site you will know who has been truly doing their work. Barry Spainer

I have used this kind of idea before in my Physical Education classes. At the beginning of each unit I provide my students with a list of key words that will be used throughout the course. The first homework activity involves them coming up with a picture and a definition that describes each key word. The best pieces of homework are then laminated and displayed around the gym so each student can have both a visual and written description of each term. Some of my more able bilingual students give definitions in both Spanish and English which I find very beneficial when working with ESL students. [Dave Manzalaoui]

This is wonderful. My only (unreasonable?) concern is that some students will attempt to cheat and have a small group of students write the definitions for the entire class. Then again, Barry has a good point on how this will be curbed, but then you'll never really know who's failing because they didn't do the work, and who's failing because they cheated on the in-class assignments. --Jason Feliciano

I to have used a similiar idea as Dave in my Physical Education classes where at the start of a new unit students are given an word search with all the key words that we are gong to use during that particular unit. They then have to go and find pictures that show what the word is and the best pictures that describe the word go up on our poster for all classes to look at. The kids really get into it and are very competative in finding the best picture for each word. (Doug Luciano)

I really likethis idea. This really is a helpful tool for students and teachers. It can be a geat way to express the students way of representing the words. The idea is fun and exciting. It can be work on as team competitions too. You can also use the [|discovery.com] puzzle maker for your vocabulary words. Another helpful site is [|aol.com]. The infinite abilities of words... {Arleen Chan}

Great idea to build the students vocabulary. Hopefully this knowledge will help them converse as they get older. I like the Google movie search link that you posted. I spent an hour searching for cool clips. Lee Nelson

Vocabulary building is great. I think it;s important to remember that all content areas have "jargon" and understanding using and being comfortable with specialized language is one of the earmarks of expertise in a particular area.