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Vocabulary  Scholastic

Page history last edited by Maya Nagata 10 years, 9 months ago

 

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/

Rea Cobre and Maya Nagata

 

     Scholastic is run by the Scholastic book company and offers many resources for teachers in more areas than just reading and literacy. This particular website gives a variety of options for parents, students, and teachers to browse through to help their students with classroom learning. This website is a helpful tool for teachers to help them develop strategies to teach some of their lessons in their classrooms. It presents teachers with different activities they can do in class or even simply just looking for books to implement in lessons Some of the online tools available for teachers and students are the Student Skill Builders, which are offered for spelling, writing, social studies, science and nature, creativity, and vocabulary. These Student Skill Builders, which can be found under the Resources and Tools tab or here http://teacher.scholastic.com/tools/, offer various online games and activities to help with these subject areas. 

 

 

     Under the Vocabulary section, there are three online activities the students can utilize: Flash Card Maker, Listen & Read, and Nina Names Things. Each of these activities offer the students a different skill or resource they can use for vocabulary help. Flash Card Maker allows the student to create electronic flash cards, and it includes a test mode which hides the answer side of the flash card. Listen & Read offers short online books that are read aloud to the students while they can follow along. At the end of the stories there are short activities that review new vocabulary or facts they have learned. Nina Names Things takes the students to different places like the zoo and the airport and asks them to select all the words belonging in the place they are at. Nina also reads aloud the words so they can hear the word they are selecting.

 

Tutorial

 

 1. The URL above will take you to the Flash Card Maker home page (this is the same place that clicking on the Flash Card Maker from the Student Skill Builders menu at the top of the page). Once at the home page click on the WORDS button which will take you to this page pictured to the left. 

 2. From here students can directly type in the information for their flash cards. The left column of text boxes is for the front side of the first four flash cards (each box represents the front of a different flash card). The text boxes to the right of the “front” boxes are the respective “backs” of the first four flash cards. The complete flash card is seen by the numbers that connect the front and back of one flash card: 1)Front & 1)Back complete one flash card. 

 3. Once all the flash cards are created, click See It! >.

 4. Now you will be able to flip through the completed flash cards. The “front” cards have ? symbol on them and the “back” cards have an A on them (? for question and A for answer).

 5. The image to the right is what you will see after clicking on the See It! button. TEST MODE will take you through the flash cards and only show the ? side to test what you know for the A side of that question. You go through this for each card. 

 6. As you move through the flash cards you have three options: print, edit, start over. PRINT allows you to print out the cards you’ve created. EDIT allows you to edit anything on the cards you have created. START OVER will delete all the flash cards you currently have and take you back to the screen where you add words to your flash cards. Clicking the start over button will allow you to create a whole new set of flash cards. 

 

  1. Clicking the link above will take you to a list of Listen & Read books available online. 
  2. Once there select a book and it will take you to a screen like the one below. This page gives a brief description of the story, the grade level, and the short activity at the end of the story. From here click on Go to the Activity. This will take you to the online book.

 

 3. Next, click on START READING

 4. The book will begin and as the reader reads the words, the student can follow along. The student will control when the reader starts that page by clicking on LISTEN. The student also controls when they move onto the next page using the arrows on the screen.

 5. At the end of the story there is an activity called Sound It Out. This activity goes over some of the words from the story again. The students have the option to hear it read to them again by clicking its respective LISTEN button.

 6. From here, students have the option to READ AGAIN or find MORE BOOKS by clicking on the respective buttons.  

 

 

 

  1. Clicking on the link above will take you to the home page of the game Nina Names Things. In this game the student or teacher selects the location or place the game is going to take place at. Click on the place you want to go to.
  2. Listen to the directions read to you and follow. (Drag the items that belong in the location you’ve selected into the box.
  3. Once you are done you can either continue to play in the same location or move to a different one. This can be done when the menu pops up, signifying you selected all the necessary things.  

 

 

 

Applications in the Classroom

Introduction to Vocabulary Words

- Using Nina Names Things to get the students excited about learning new words.

- Nina Names Things would also be a great starting point for discussion. 

Prep: Decide on a location and prepare some challenging words to fit in the place-new words students wouldn’t think of on their own. Also, begin writing the list of vocabulary words for discussion from the selection of items from the game.

  1. Select a location/place to begin with, and as a class go through the words that belong in the box.
  2. Once all the items are selected, the teacher can ask the students to contribute additional words that belong in the location. Write all these words on the board.
  3. The teacher can incorporate more challenging words for the students to learn.
  4. As a class, go through the list defining and clarifying meanings. 
  5. Students can select 5 (or any number the teacher would like) words they have learned or now have a better understanding of. 
  6. Students can then use their selected words for a homework assignment that goes into the spelling, definition, tenses, and uses in a sentence.

**Using Nina Names Things can be used to work on this lesson as a class. Students will work together to complete the game and also bring different words to the discussion following the game. 

 

Preparing for a Vocabulary Quiz

- Using Flash Card Maker to help study for their vocabulary quiz 

- This activity will help students kickstart their studying while also giving them the tools and supplies necessary to study.

Prep: Students need a list of their vocabulary words and definitions ready-through notes or a handout etc. 

  1. Each student will work on their own set of flash cards at their own computers.
  2. Using their list of vocabulary words they will input their information.
  3. Once their set is completed, students will go through the Test Mode to see where they are with the words. 
  4. Once the students have gone through the Test Mode, they can print their flash cards out.
  5. Students can now add their own informal definitions to the back sides of their flash cards to help them better learn the meaning rather than the straight definition. This way the students have the definition and some notes to help them with studying.

**Using Flash Card Maker will start the students on their studying, while also giving them a new resource and skill to be applied in all other areas of school.

 

Listen & Read Assignment

- Using the Listen & Read online books, students can experience being read to all on their own.

  1. Students will be asked to Listen and read at least 2 books for the week. 
  2. Students will either write flash cards for words they have learned from the story they did not know or write sentences using the vocabulary words they do know. 
  3. Students who do not have access to a computer or internet at home will have time during the week to access the computer lab or classroom computer during recesses/free time. 
  4. At the end of the week students will turn in their flash cards or sentences to show their participation in the assignment.
  5. The class can discuss stories they enjoyed or didn’t enjoy to point out both good and bad books their classmates can look out for. Students can also discuss good vocabulary words they discovered or the further understanding they experienced about a word. This discussion will help students share experiences with the resources they are using and get them excited to continue using the resource beyond the assignment. 

 

Web Links

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/books-teaching-vocabulary-building-strategies

  • This building strategies link gives teachers different options of books that they can use to help them teach their students with more advance vocabularies. The prices listed on there are quite reasonable and of great use.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GvdkQyJ9a0

  • This is a YouTube video about how useful scholastic book club is to children and teachers and how it helps them enrich their classrooms. There’s a lot more going on than what you see on the page and there is so much more to it than just reading. 

http://prezi.com/9v7b__lhdx80/scholastic/

  • I found this prezi presentation on Google about scholastic. It gives information about how scholastic had started and more of the things that it actually offers to everybody rather than just it being an educational website.

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/website-reviews/scholastic

  • This is a media article about the usefulness of the tool scholastic.com. This is a quick review for parents out there and their children from Common Sense Media. It also gives some rating on how good the tool is and what you can find there.

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/vocabulary-do-my-words-paint-pictures

  • The link is a short exercise on how to model vocabulary teaching. A teacher says a word and then students closes their eyes and try to picture what the word says. It’s simple but fun. 

 

Sources: scholastic -image at the top of the page

 

 

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