My mother was an editor for Instructor magazine many years ago. She had an amazing vocabulary and taught me the importance of learning words, beyond those included on a class list. I like to think that Mom is smiling from heaven as I share these resources that could be used to help students augment their personal vocabulary.

I recently came across a Web 2.0 application called VerbaLearn. I found the site unique from the standpoint that students can take a pretest to build a list of words that are unique to their personal knowledge base. Once the students have built a list of words to learn, they can use different online activities to help them practice and learn the words on their list. They also have an option to download those same words and definitions to an MP3 player and study on the go. Once students feel they have learned the words on their personal word list they can self-test themselves and build new lists of words to learn. I found this approach fascinating, but I did have mixed feelings about an optional pay-to-learn option the site offers. Students can solicit sponsors (probably parents or grandparents) to contribute money online. Then, as student learn their vocabulary they are paid for their increased vocabulary prowess. I do not sanction the pay as you learn option, but I do feel that some students would enjoy the MP3 option and I do like the idea that students can continue to challenge themselves as they learn new words.

You have no doubt heard about the FreeRice non-profit website designed to help stamp out hunger one word at a time. Every time a student answers a vocabulary correctly 10 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program. This site will appeal to the altruistic nature of your students and gosh darn it really is fun! Remember, you can change the banks of words using the subject link found at the top of the page and do take time to show students the video footage of the first consignment of rice that was delivered to Bangladesh. Watching the video will inspire you and your students to learn new words and earn rice for the next shipment.

Visuwords is an online graphical dictionary. To use the applet found on the site type a word into the search query at the top of the page and press ‘Enter’. A network of nodes or ‘synsets’ will pop out from the word that you entered. A synset is essentially a single concept that is represented by a number of terms or synonyms. Hover over a node with your mouse to reveal all the synonyms for a synset as well as its definition.

High School students can view videos posted by peers to learn various words that could appear on the SAT’s. A group of MIT alums recently ran a nationwide SAT Vocab Video contest, which was funded by Salesforce. These videos are definitely geared to High School students. There is no way that I could view every video and these videos were posted by teenagers. The videos I viewed had a lot of teen appeal, but might not be appropriate for younger students.

Update:  It appears that this site has changed it’s name to Got Brainy and now features images as well as videos.  Additionally, the material seems to be more monitored and appropriate for younger students as well as older students.

A few additional vocabulary building sites that you may wish to investigate are listed below:

• Vocabulary.com
• Word Warriors.com
• Vocabulary.co.il

When reviewing data with teachers, we often discover that students stumble on inference-type questions (I bet that comes as no surprise to all reading teachers out there!).  Below, you will find several inference resources I discovered as I researched strategies, tools, and resources that could be used to help students understand and develop inference skills.

So what is inference? Below, you will find several of my favorite definitions:

• Inference is a judgement based on reasoning rather than on direct or explicit statement. A conclusion based on facts or circumstances. For example, advised not to travel alone in temperatures exceeding fifty degrees below zero, the man in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” sets out anyway. (Dictionary of Literary Terms)
• Inference is a logical guess based on evidence based on evidence in the text.
• Inference involves making conclusions about a piece of literature when the connection is not provided in a piece of literature.

The following resources may be helpful as you teach the skill of inference…

• Practice Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions – good material to use with elementary students
• Brain Pop Jr. Make Inferences – excellent information that includes a link to a great little (free) Brain Pop Jr. video
• Inference Riddles – an interactive resource
• Teaching Tips:  Inference – a portal of additional links relating to Inference
• Teaching Inference, Interpretation and Analysis with New (and Old) Technologies
• Critical Thinking: Distinguishing Between Inferences and Assumptions – an excellent article adapted from the book, Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder
• Teaching Students to Make Inferences – a Bright Hub! article written by Keren Perles

Graphic Organizers that can be used to help students:

• Inference Notes (.pdf file)
• Text & Subtext: Drawing Inferences (.pdf file)
• Inference or Prediction? (.pdf file)

PowerPoints that help teach inference:

Good integration leads to great memories.  One of my favorite teaching integration moments happened when I worked with a speech teacher and her very speech-shy student.  The memory of that moment inspired this post.

We gave her student an opportunity to select a Voki character and then used the phone so the student could provide a voice for his character. The smile on the student’s face as he heard his character talk online in a personified voice was simply priceless. If you haven’t used Voki to give your students a voice (or should I say their characters a voice) you really need to check out this free and simple to use online tool. Of course, the success of using Voki with a speech student led me to wonder what other technology resources could be used to help speech students. So, today’s column is dedicated to speech teachers and their students. You can view my Voki sample on the left of this post or learn more about Voki by reading my previous Voki post. Below, I have posted some additional resources that could also be used to help speech students:

• Take time to download the free program Photo Story 3 as a motivational software option that could be used to give students an opportunity to practice speaking (via a microphone). Photo Story 3 can only be used on PC computers, but it is a great wizard-driven presentation program that students can use to turn images into movies (in .wmv format). Students can easily record their voices, add music and transitions to photographs and/or images to create a .wmv movie. You can learn more about Photo Story 3 when you access a resource site I created to supplement a workshop I gave a couple of years ago…simply click on the screen shot below to learn more about the program:

• Audiopal is a free online “service that gives individuals an easy and effective way to add audio to their online message.” While this Web 2.0 tool does not have the “glam” factor that Voki has, it does a fine job of adding voice to a site and could be used to record digital speech samples that could be posted to a student portfolio, accessed from the site, or sent to a parent via email. Audiopal was simple to use and did not require registration. Voice can be recorded with a microphone or via phone using a toll free number. I have embedded a sample recording below:
  
• Cinch is another tool that records a voice, image (photo of a student, maybe?), and text. When you register for a Cinch account you can save your Cinch recordings on your page. You can even organize recordings in albums…create an album for each speech student so you can track student progress and provide samplings. Cinch recordings can be shared via Twitter or Facebookor kept private. Recordings can be made via a microphone connected to your computer or you can call a phone number to record (the phone number was not toll free). Recordings can be twittered, posted on Facebook, posted to the Cinch site, saved on your personal Cinch page, or embedded on a webpage or blog.  UPDATE!!!! – PLEASE NOTE: this is no longer a free product I’m sad to report.
• Wetoku is another online recording service that presumably makes it simple and easy to record interviews…like…a speech teacher interviewing his/her student. I’ll be honest. I did not test this online tool, but the sample interviews looked interesting and I would classify this resource as a Web 2.0 tool that holds promise. If you take Wetoku for a test drive let us know what you think! (It has been receiving some great reviews…see a sample on The 16th Minute blog).