Lesson #4
Vocabulary Practice with Quizlet Using Words from the Book Two Old Potatoes and Me
Purpose or Language Learning Objective
Students
are learning about the plant cycle as part of a science unit. The purpose of my
instruction is to help build vocabulary, specifically vocabulary that pertains
to parts of the plant cycle, and to help build understanding, comprehension and
appreciation of the plant cycle. This activity is an introductory activity
where students will begin to learn 10 new vocabulary words.
Lesson time: 30 minutes
Student group: 3rd and 4th grade moderate
to advanced
Lesson details
- I will explain to students that we will be reading the book Two Old Potatoes and Me together as a class. We will build on our knowledge of the plant cycle and learn some new words and concepts.
- I will present the 10 vocabulary words to the students on our SMART Board. I will read the words aloud and ask students to repeat them back to me.
- With a partner, students will discuss the 10 words and work together for about 5 minutes to see if they know the meaning of any of the words.
- With a partner, students will then use laptops to access the Quizlet flashcard set I created. I will tell them ahead of time that I do not expect them to know very many of the words, and that the activity they will be doing online is not a quiz. They will not get penalized for wrong answers, and they will not get rewarded for correct ones. This activity is simply intended for them to begin to learn these new words.
- Students will go through each flashcard one at a time using Quizlet, looking at the “definition” first and the “term” second. Before they flip the card from the definition to the term, students will be told to look at the vocabulary words on the SMART Board and to try and make an educated guess about which word matches the definition. Together, the two students should agree on what they think the correct word is, say it to one another, then flip the card to the term to see if they were correct.
- Once the students have had a chance to complete all the flashcards, we will read the story together perhaps using this link:
- I will ask students to specifically listen for the vocabulary words while the story is being read.
- Following the reading of the story, I will refer one last time to the list of vocabulary words and ask students if they can give me definitions using their own words.
- On upcoming days, students will continue to work with their new vocabulary words, completing other activities on Quizlet including “Space Race,” “Scatter,” and “Speller.” We will also spend time rereading the story and analyzing the concepts presented in it.
Review/Analysis
How will you use this resource to meet the needs of your
instructional purposes?
I will use Quizlet to introduce the new vocabulary words, to
allow students to “work” with the words using many of the quiz/game functions
it provides, and I will use the “test” function of Quizlet to do a summative
assessment at the end of the lesson.
What handouts or directions will you provide students to
focus learning and adapt this resource for your instructional goals?
I will project the vocabulary words using our SMART Board. I
will inform students that we are learning vocabulary words specific to the
plant cycle and that can be found in the story we will be reading together. I
will tell them that some of these words might be new for them, but that they
probably will have heard a few of them before. I will remind students that for
today’s assignment it is not important that they become experts in these words.
We will be studying the words, and the concepts to which they are related, all
week. Today students will just be discovering the words and their definitions.
Are the format, organization, design and language level
of this resource appropriate for your instructional goals?
Quizlet is appropriate for my goals. I actually find it to
be an excellent resource, one that students can learn quickly and that they
find engaging. It lends itself well to the learning of new words, and for the
practicing and mastering of words as well. The beauty of Quizlet is you can
adapt the resource to meet the language level of your students. Almost all the
content the students see is content you created. And it’s very easy to use. As
long as you can instruct students how to find the appropriate flash card set,
they should have no problem using this resource. I see Quizlet as being
appropriate for students as young as 2nd grade. Oh, and you can
download flashcards onto iPads or iTouches as well, making this resource very
flexible.
What are the potential problems, either language based or
technical, that you may need to troubleshoot or prepare for?
My guess as to the potential problem with Quizlet is that
students are going to want to jump immediately into the more engaging aspects
of the program. I will need to instruct the students to just click through the
flashcards one at a time like my directions call for, and to not advance into
any of the games located below the flashcards. I will also remind students that
they will have plenty of time in the days to come to play these games.
Thanks for sharing this great lesson! I really like the way you are using quizlet as a pair work project. I like the way this pushes them to drill it orally as well as reading it. I like that you push them to do the quiz BEFORE you've taught the meaning of these words so that as a pair they are guessing and invested in discovering which word means what. One thought I had... was you mentioned that you want your students to listen specifically for the vocabulary words as its read. could you give each pair one or two words from the list to listen to on a 8x10 piece of paper for them to hold up when it is said? or have everyone in the class raise their hand anytime they hear one of the vocab words? or count how many times their word comes up... of something along those lines, so their actively showing their specific listening for these words?
ReplyDeleteThanks for helping pique my interest in quizlet! I'm gonna have to spend some time looking at that site and seeing what all can be done with it.
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteYour lesson provides valuable opportunity for collaborative work for your students. They would need to communicate with their partners in order to come up with matches between definitions and the words. The best way of anchoring new vocabulary in memory is using it repeatedly in different activities and exercises; this possibility is catered to in your lesson, as you have mentioned that your students would continue to work with this new set of the vocabulary in the next few classes.
Another activity might be to have students write a summary of the information presented in the video clip in their own words, and compare their summary to their partners’.