Assignment Description (For Teacher Use)
Lesson 1: Understanding What Words We Don't Know
- I will practice reading a story and will model a think aloud for the students.
- I will come across a word that I don't know, and I will discuss with the students how I know that I didn't understand this word (i.e. Maybe I thought it meant something else, but when I reread the sentence, the meaning that I thought that word had didn't actually make sense. Maybe I was trying to paint a picture of the story in my mind, but I couldn't because I didn't know what one of the important words meant. Maybe I've never seen that word before, and I don't even know how to pronounce it.)
- Together, my students and I will take a look at that word and discuss what questions come to mind about it. We will use Popplet to make a concept map. One one side, we will have questions that come to mind about that word, and on the other side, we will document things we think that we think we know about that word.
- Then we will make a list of places on the computer that we could go to in order to find out what that word means.
- We will watch the "how to search" video, and I will translate for students as necessary.
Lesson 2: Creating Visual Representations
- 1st and 5th grade students will document words that they don't understand as they come across them within their reading series.
- 4th grade students will write down content vocabulary words that they don't understand as they come across them within the context of their general education classroom.
- Students will choose one word to work on at a time.
- On their own student page, each student will document what they think they know about a particular word that they didn't understand when they came across it in class, and/or document questions that they have about this word. (This may be done in the form of a bulleted list or a concept map.)
- Students will rate their knowledge of that vocabulary word before they begin researching it.
- Students will use whatever tools they find most useful to figure out the meaning of that word. (some such tools may be ASLpro.com (an online sign language dictionary), our classroom sign language software program, google images, the Meridian Webster Word Central online dictionary, a kidrex.org search, etc.)
- Students will make one product that displays their new understanding of the word. This may include examples and non-examples of a word, a definition in their own words, a visual representation of the word, synonyms and antonyms for the word. The more creative the better. It is not acceptable to simply copy down the definition of the word from the dictionary.
- If students would like to include pictures in their visual representation, they will need to use FlickrCC. This website includes copyright friendly pictures that are allowed to be copied for online use. In the "How To" section of this website, students will find a tutorial for how to use FlickrCC.
- These products may be created using Wordle, Photovisi, or Popplet. These will be websites that students are already familiar with. This way, students can grapple with learning the content of the new vocabulary words without struggling to figure out the new technology as well. If they have forgotten how to use any of these tools, they can check out the "How To" section of this website for a reminder. As we introduce more websites to the classroom, such as Animoto, Voicethread, GoAnimate, etc. students will be able to use these websites as choices for their representations as well.
- Students will explain the products that they have created by using Voki, typing up an explanation, or by videotaping themselves explaining their creation. The choice is up to each student. The student may either explicitly explain why they added each particular word and/or image to their vocabulary project or they can explain their newfound understanding of their vocabulary word. However, if they decide to explain their understanding of their vocabulary word, the explanation must include words taken from their visual representation.
- When students are finished creating their vocabulary representation, they will fill out the student self assessment.
- This will be an ongoing project that students will add to throughout the year.
Lesson 3: Collaboration
- Once students have successfully completed their first vocabulary project individually, they will be expected to visit other student's vocabulary pages and see how they are using vocabulary words at their grade level.
- Students may leave typed or video comments on each other's pages about their vocabulary projects and the meanings for various words that their classmates are constructing.
- Students will also start one collaborative project.
- When all three students are in my classroom at one time, we will come up with a list of words that we want to study and pick one word that suits the need and interests of all three students.
- All three students will add their own questions about the vocabulary word as well as what they think they know about that word to the same Popplet. Students will differentiate their thoughts by color.
- Each student will fill out the survey themselves about their knowledge of this vocabulary word.
- Students will collaborate to pick one medium that they would like to use to create a visual representation of this vocabulary word.
- Each student will research the vocabulary word on their own and add their new ideas about this vocabulary word to the class's visual representation when they are in my classroom.
- Once each student has had a chance to add to the representation, we will add it to our whole class page.
- Each student will individually describe what that representation means to them using Voki, typing, or videotaping their thoughts.
- When students are finished, they will fill out the student self assessment.