Cobb County ESOL

21 Digital Tools to Build Vocabulary

Effective building of academic vocabulary is important for all teachers, but absolutely essential for ESOL teachers. Learning Unlimited has a wonderful webpage with a list of 21 Digital Tools to support vocabulary instruction. Check out the site at http://www.learningunlimitedllc.com/2013/02/20-digital-tools-for-vocabulary/.

Maths Dictionary for Kids

Maths Dictionary for Kids may be written in British English, but it is an invaluable resources for assisting ELs with math.

Mathwords: online math dictionary

Mathwords is an online tool that provides math terms, math words, math formulas, pictures, figures and tables! This tool is designed for math students who need an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand math resource all in one place. It is a comprehensive listing of formulas and definitions from beginning algebra to calculus. The explanations are readable for average math students, and over a thousand illustrations and examples are provided.

wordnik

Want a new webtool to amp up your teaching of vocabulary? Check out Wordnik.com! At first you think that this tool is just another dictionary...until you start clicking around. You soon discover that you have access to multiple definitions, examples, related words, IMAGES and AUDIO! Wonderful tool for English Learners and ESOL teachers!

Vocabulary Instruction that works!

Marzano (2004) conducted a meta-analysis of research on what works in schools. This research indicated that teaching vocabulary in a specific way is probably the strongest action a teacher can take to ensure that the students have the background knowledge needed to be successful in the academic environment.

Six Step Process Dr. Marzano describes a six-step process in the instruction of vocabulary (Building Academic Vocabulary).  The first three steps are designed to assist the teacher in direct instruction.  The last three steps are to provide the learner practice and reinforcement.

Step 1:  The teacher will give a description, explanation, or example of the new term.

Step 2:  The teacher will ask the learner to give a description, explanation, or example of the new term in his/her own words.

Step 3:  The teacher will ask the learner to draw a picture, symbol, or locate a graphic to represent the new term.

Step 4:  The learner will participate in activities that provide more knowledge of the words in their vocabulary notebooks.

Step 5:  The learner will discuss the term with other learners.

Step 6:  The learner will participate in games that provide more reinforcement of the new term.

(Many thanks to the Academic Vocabulary Project for outlining the Six Step Process and providing rich resources for teachers!)

Click below for handouts to support your implementation of the 6 Step Process:

Overview of the process: Download Effective Vocabulary Instruction Chart

Overview of process: Download Marzano_mong

Voabulary Notebook Template: Download Marzano Vocab Template_6 per side

Vocabulary Log: Download Vocabulary log

Visual Dictionary

Check out Snappy Words, an online visual dictionary and thesaurus. It helps students not only discover the meaning of words, but draw important connections between associated words.

 

Lexile Analyzer

Do you want to know the Lexile level of the books your students are reading, or the level of your student's writing? Check out the Lexile Analyzer! It is a free tool that can assist you.

Using Foldables in the Social Studies Classroom

Foldables can even be used in the social studies classroom. Take a look at these examples based on Dinah Zike's work, but focused on U.S. History. An excellent site with lots of pictures of examples.

 

Foldables

Foldables! What an excellent way to address various learning styles and the needs of ELs. Dinah Zikes has created a number of resources for several content areas. Click below to access these resources:

Math: Download FoldablesBook

World History: Download Foldables

Reading and Study Skills: Download Reading-study-skils_foldables

ELA: Download Fold

Visual Dictionary - VisuWords.com

Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary — Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.

Enter words into the search box to look them up or double-click a node to expand the tree. Click and drag the background to pan around and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Hover over nodes to see the definition and click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections.

• It's a dictionary! It's a thesaurus!
• Great for writers, journalists, students, teachers, and artists.
• The online dictionary is available wherever there’s an internet connection.
• No membership required.

Word Sift

Word Sift is a tool created by Stanford University. It was designed to assist teachers in managing the demands of vocabulary and academic language. The site allows the teacher to paste in a text to create a word cloud, provides a visual thesaurus and a function called "squish" that will create a word thesaurus relationship map. Pretty cool! Check it out! The website also provides teachers with ideas for using this tool for Lesson Prep, Previewing Text, Group Activities, Literacy Support and Assessment. Click here to find out more About Word Sift.

Here is an example of the tool. Text from one of the blog postings was pasted and "sifted."

Visual Dictionary

Shahi is a cool internet resource for teachers that combines definitions with visual images. Type in the word and hit enter and you will receive a list of definitions by part of speech and various images. Check it out! (Cautionary statement: The images are pulled from Flickr, Google and Yahoo, so teachers should carefully monitor student use of this site.)

Visual Dictionary

Check out the Merriam-Webster's Visual Dictionary Online! A resource with 15 themes and over 6,000 images, games and tools that will assist ELLs in understanding important vocabulary and concepts.

Online Vocabulary Resource

Check out this vocabulary site! There are hundreds of resources that you may find useful. Categories on the site include Root Word Lesson Plans, thematic Puzzles, Word Lists and Test Prep/Assessment. There are also vocabulary lists for over 125 specific books.

Academic Vocabulary Strategies

A fantastic resource that follows Marzano's strategies for learning academic vocabulary: http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/vocab/notebook.htm

Also included on this website are vocabulary lists and cards by grade level and content area.

Vocabulary List from TN and OK

The Tennessee Department of Education has created an academic vocabulary list by content area and grade level. You can download a copy of the list: Download wordlist_final_8206.doc

Cobb's IWC secured permission to translate Tennesee's academic vocabulary list into Spanish. Click here to download a copy: Download word_list_spanish.doc (added January 2009)

Check out this wonderful online resource from Bedford school district in TN.  

The Department of Education of Oklahoma has also created an academic vocabulary list.  

Download the suggested words and terms at: 

 http://ok.gov/sde/sites/ok.gov.sde/files/BAVManual.pdf

 

 

Book Recommendation

Building Background Knowledge For Academic Achievement: Research On What Works In Schools by Robert J. Marzano ISBN-10: 0871209721 ISBN-13: 978-0871209726 Publisher: ASCD 2004

Content-Specific Vocabulary Lists

Illinois District U-46 has Content-Specific Vocabulary Lists K12 and literacy resources that can be shared with ESOL and content teachers. Check out this wealth of resources!