What is  Visuwords?

Visuwords™ is an online graphical dictionary. This type of dictionary search tool reaches the visual learner the most effectively. However, this tool will be a great tool for those learners that need connections. This tools is a very interactive, investigative  tool that students can use when they are working with vocabulary and definitions.

Visuwords allows you to search any word and will give you the definition, a visual word web of the word you are searching, the root word and any words or concepts associated to your original searched word. Also serving the purpose of being a thesaurus.

How it Works:

Just type a word that you would like to know more about into the search query at the top right of the page and hit 'enter' when done. Your word with it's definition and all it's associated words and connections. There is also a legend on the left side of the screen that shows the connections and associations to your original word.

Benefits of Visuwords:

• It's a dictionary
• It's a thesaurus
• It's visually appealing
• It's an online dictionary available where anywhere there is internet
• It's an interactive tool for students to learn definitions as well as word associations
  

CDE Standards being met: Fourth Grade

Content Area: Reading, Writing and Communicating
Grade Level Expectations: Third Grade
Standard: 2. Reading for All Purposes

3. Increasing word understanding, word use, and word relationships increases vocabulary

     v. Use glossaries or beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases.      (CCSS: L.3.4d)

Content Area: Reading, Writing and Communicating
Grade Level Expectations: Fourth Grade
Standard: 2. Reading for All Purposes

2. Comprehension and fluency matter when reading informational and persuasive texts in a fluent way

     v. Scan to locate specific information or to perform a specific task (finding a phone number, locating a definition in a glossary, identifying      a specific phrase in a passage)

Possible Lesson Activities using Visuwords for teaching vocabulary:

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson886/assignment.pdf

If you use this lesson, you can use a follow-up tool of www.makebeliefscomix.com to do the make a comic strip story.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/reading/bestpractices/vocabulary/pdf/bingo_lingo.pdf

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/using-word-storms-explore-886.html?tab=1#tabs

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/internalization-vocabulary-through-word-307.html

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/using-word-storms-explore-886.html?tab=4#tabs

Another challenge/level to do with words is have students do a challenge of how many words they know:

Have them do the word challenge, and write down the words they get wrong, and look them up on Visuwords to find the correct definitions to grow their vocabulary knowledge.

http://dynamo.dictionary.com/

Another element you could add is to collect everyone's vocabulary word and then create bingo cards to play a bingo game to enhance everyone's vocabulary with the online tool of http://teachenglish.ws/bingo-generator/

Worksheets that can be used:

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson886/storm.pdf

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson886/storm-sample.pdf

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson307/wordmap.pdf

Citations/Further Exploration:

http://www.visuwords.com/

http://www.readwritethink.org/

http://teacher.scholastic.com/reading/bestpractices/

www.makebeliefscomix.com

http://dynamo.dictionary.com/

http://teachenglish.ws/bingo-generator/