How the Internet Can Help Kids Build Their Vocabulary
By Jim Moulton
9/11/09
I like words. I do a lot of writing and public speaking, so this makes sense. Do you like words? Do you wish your students liked words more? I thought it might be helpful to share some of my favorite word-centric, Web-based resources, and see what other folks can share back. All of these sites help increase one's control over words, and hey, words are power, right?
Now if this was October, we could be celebrating Noah Webster's birthday, but let's just have some fun with words just because. Take a look at these, and be sure to share your favorites with all of us:
- Visuwords.com is a free online graphical dictionary that can help kids see the complexity of language.
- SpellingCity.com offers a simple and free tool for helping elementary kids practice and self-test themselves on spelling words.
- Vocabulary.co.il specializes in games around words and idioms.
- Freerice.com rolls philanthropy and SAT preparation into one!
- Weboword.com helps build vocabulary through comics.
- Merriam-Webster.com includes pronunciation and a thesaurus too.
- Thatquiz.org is primarily a mathematics quiz site, but also features vocabulary-building quizzes, with some SAT preparation.
- Vocabulary.com offers free word puzzles and activities.
So, there are some places to begin, but this is not the final word by a long shot. What are your favorites?
I like savethewords.org for adopting random words and getting kids interested in new words.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Princeton Review Vocabulary Minute!! I've been using it for several years now, and it is a fantastic podcast for learning latin/greek roots and synonyms.
http://www.princetonreview.com/vocab-minute.aspx
To the above list, I would like to add the website www.aafter.com for having some real fun while learning words.Building vocabularyhad never been so easy.
Tony
Vocabulary
I appreciate the information you have posted! It will come in handy with our children. Thank you!
vocabulary
Thanks so much for the ideas, I have been searching for specfic strategies that I can teach our students to learn to help themselves to become better equipped in reading by developing a strong vocabulary.
WeboWord - Vocabulary Visually
Hi Jim
We are ecstatic that you noticed us and found us worth mentioning in your blog. Apart from presenting our own stick-figure based illustrations for words, we encourage our readers to create their own and share it with the world through us.
We @ WeboWord strongly believe that once a visual association is built with a word, it is a property - forever. With this in mind, we have set out to simplify the process of building vocabulary while encouraging teachers, students and parents to get actively involved in building vocab through the fun of sketching! :)
We are glad to find support in you and look forward to some valuable suggestions from you too.
Thanks and warm regards,
WeboWord
consultant
Thank you for the excellent websites. I especially liked: SpellingCity.com; Vocabulary.co.il; Vocabulary.com. These sites provided much information for vocabulary enhancing experiences for young learners.
You should check out Kenji Hakuta's new site www.wordsift.com. I think it's an exciting tool to use to plan. Haven't played with it enough to know for sure how I'd use it directly with students. But it definitely gives me a lot to think about as a teacher of language.
Wordnik
(Staff comment)
Love this thread. Another great resource is wordnik.com, a total time-sink for the linguaphile! Some interesting integration with Twitter and Flickr, too.
Vocabulary
I like the links that you have included on this page. I have used visuwords before and I think it is cool to see the different words that are rooted to one word. I also like the freerice site.
However, I have also used this site http://dictionary.reference.com
My students like to use it because on this site they can find the defintions for their vocabulary words, as well as it has a thesaurus, encyclopedia, and translator that the students could use for their vocabulary development.
Vocabulary
I like to use the website starfall.com. It has phonics, stories, games, and printables for teachers.