The very first thing I ask my students to do is buy a large hard cover notebook that they will use as a vocabulary journal. We used to have a word wall, and we've had sticky notes around the classroom. And when it comes to flashcards we can be very creative. But now I'd rather they had a blog to a notebook, digital word walls to a washing line and QR codes for sticky notes. Here are some ideas
Journal
One thing that students carry around with them at all times is their phone. So why not use it for keeping a vocabulary journal. A blog would be a perfect for a journal. Not only would they have all the words in one place categorized but it also re-imagines the whole activity. A notebook can only have text, drawings or cutouts. And you can just imagine what could they put in an online journal.
First you must choose a blogging platform. My students are familiar with Tumblr and that is a good choice. But I was thinking of a blogging platform called Overblog. Students can use the applications (android, iphone) for writing down the new words once they hear or read them. Later they can write sentences, add photos, videos, audio recordings, screenshots of the context, links of the sources, or pronunciation, urban dictionary, etymology dictionary, word infographic ....
Observation Journals
The activity is to go to different places, observe and name all the objects around you. And if you don't know the word for something, you take a picture and look it up. Google image search would be what I'd use to find the word before Jelly. Jelly is a search engine that uses photos and social network. Students can take a picture of the thing they can't name and ask the friends from their social network for the English word.They also answer questions their friends might have. They get to communicate and learn from each other.
Use it in a sentence
It doesn't have to be a written sentence anymore. They can make a SoundCloud recording of their sentences, or a Vine video of them using the new word in a sentence.
But if they do write sentences they can use telescopic text. It is a tool for creating expanding texts. They write the word and insert the sentence. When folded they only see the word, and unfold it to read the sentence. Here is an example.
Flashcards
Creating their own flashcards is the most fun part in learning new vocabulary. I suggest using Instagram for creating flashcards. You can create one account that they will all use and you instantly have a word wall. The photos will need text so I was thinking of using an instagram overlay application like A Beautiful Mess. And there is a free version for android called Overlay.Or they can use Skitch to add text and share the photos on Instagram.
Vocabulary wall
I already suggested using Instagram as vocabulary wall, but there are other options like Pintrest or Padlet. So a word wall is more than words on a wall. It is photos, podcasts, videos, links, comics, Powtoon videos explaining the word, Storybird one word stories (a whole story written for one word), mind maps, word clouds (a foot shaped word cloud for the foot vocabulary), visuwords (word connected to its synonyms, antonyms,fuzzynyms)...
Sticky Notes
Sticky notes can be replaced with QR codes. And the sticky note can be text (the word, the collocations,a sentence, text, extract from a book, bookmark on a website...), audio (pronunciation, their soundclouds), video (their vine videos, animated stories), their journals, their word walls... And use Unitag QR code generator to make custom QR codes, and you'll know whose sticky note it is. Journal
One thing that students carry around with them at all times is their phone. So why not use it for keeping a vocabulary journal. A blog would be a perfect for a journal. Not only would they have all the words in one place categorized but it also re-imagines the whole activity. A notebook can only have text, drawings or cutouts. And you can just imagine what could they put in an online journal.
First you must choose a blogging platform. My students are familiar with Tumblr and that is a good choice. But I was thinking of a blogging platform called Overblog. Students can use the applications (android, iphone) for writing down the new words once they hear or read them. Later they can write sentences, add photos, videos, audio recordings, screenshots of the context, links of the sources, or pronunciation, urban dictionary, etymology dictionary, word infographic ....
Observation Journals
The activity is to go to different places, observe and name all the objects around you. And if you don't know the word for something, you take a picture and look it up. Google image search would be what I'd use to find the word before Jelly. Jelly is a search engine that uses photos and social network. Students can take a picture of the thing they can't name and ask the friends from their social network for the English word.They also answer questions their friends might have. They get to communicate and learn from each other.
Use it in a sentence
It doesn't have to be a written sentence anymore. They can make a SoundCloud recording of their sentences, or a Vine video of them using the new word in a sentence.
But if they do write sentences they can use telescopic text. It is a tool for creating expanding texts. They write the word and insert the sentence. When folded they only see the word, and unfold it to read the sentence. Here is an example.
Flashcards
Creating their own flashcards is the most fun part in learning new vocabulary. I suggest using Instagram for creating flashcards. You can create one account that they will all use and you instantly have a word wall. The photos will need text so I was thinking of using an instagram overlay application like A Beautiful Mess. And there is a free version for android called Overlay.Or they can use Skitch to add text and share the photos on Instagram.
Collocations
Students can learn the combinations of words that appear together by creating mind maps. Coggle is always my the best since it is simple to use, they can create as many mind maps as they want, download and share their mind maps .
I already suggested using Instagram as vocabulary wall, but there are other options like Pintrest or Padlet. So a word wall is more than words on a wall. It is photos, podcasts, videos, links, comics, Powtoon videos explaining the word, Storybird one word stories (a whole story written for one word), mind maps, word clouds (a foot shaped word cloud for the foot vocabulary), visuwords (word connected to its synonyms, antonyms,fuzzynyms)...
Sticky Notes
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