BrentColey.com
  • Home
  • Books
    • Stories of EduInfluence
    • The Gift
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Speaking
  • Videos
    • Video Tutorials: Google Forms
    • Video Tutorials: Google Documents
    • Video Tutorials: Audacity
    • Math Review Videos
  • Resources
    • StudyCast
    • Student Podcast
    • Literature Circles
    • Flowchart Notes
    • Classroom Income Tax
  • About Brent
  • Contact Info

Thoughts on Teaching, Leadership, and Educational Technology

Define It

4/10/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
If you teach language arts at the elementary or middle school level, chances are explicit vocabulary instruction is an integral part of your teaching. In my fifth grade classroom, in addition to teaching my students how to use context clues to help determine the meanings of new/unfamiliar words, I pre-teach certain vocabulary words that are embedded in each story of our district-adopted reading series (in my case, Houghton Mifflin). I introduce the words before we start each story, students learn and review the definitions of the words during the week, and they typically score well on the vocabulary quizzes I give them. Sounds good, right? But what happens to the students’ knowledge of Story #1’s words when we’ve moved on to Story #2? Or taking it a step further, how well are my students remembering the definitions of Story #1’s words when we’re on Story #10? The question is not Are my students learning the definitions of the words? but rather Are they retaining the definitions of the words?

Now, if I told my students to study their old vocabulary words on their own, they’d be about as excited as if I told them to go clean their rooms. It's probably not going to happen. So instead, we play a game I call Define It, and in this post, I want to share with you how it’s played.

With about two months remaining in the school year, I take 100 vocabulary words that were introduced during the year and create a word wall. Each word on the wall is numbered, 1 through 100. Each day, a few students from each team (in my classroom, teams are made up of table groups) roll two 10-sided dice to determine which words they will try to define. The number rolled on the first die represents the tens digit of the vocabulary word's number, and the number rolled on the second die represents the ones digit. For example, rolling a 3 and then a 4 would mean the student would have to define word number 34. 

If a student is correctly able to define the word, his/her team earns one point. If the student can also use the word in a sentence, he/she earns a second point for the team. If students get stuck and are having difficulty defining a word, they can choose to have me use the word in a sentence. If they can then correctly define the word, they earn one point. This way, students are given an opportunity to practice defining words using context clues. So basically, students have a chance to earn two points with no help from me, or one point with some assistance. In the event that a student is unable to define the word after it is used in a sentence, I randomly select a student using my classroom's random sticks. If the student selected can correctly define the word, his/her team earns a point. This way, everyone in the class stays alert, because students never know when they may have an opportunity to earn an extra point for their team.

To make the game even more exciting, I like to make certain words “bonus” words, meaning they are worth double the points. For example, I may designate all even-numbered words as bonus words for the day, so if students roll an even number, they have a chance to earn four points instead of the typical two. This is also a great way to keep teams that are behind in points engaged, as all it takes is defining a few bonus words to get their team back in the game. Points are tallied, and the team with the most points at the end of each month wins a small prize.

If you’re like me and have struggled with helping your students retain vocabulary they learned early on in the school year, give Define It a try with your class. My students love it, and I think yours will too. 


0 Comments

    About Brent

    Brent has worked in the field of education as a teacher and administrator for 29 years. A former elementary school teacher and principal, he is currently Coordinator of Elementary Education in the Murrieta Valley Unified School District in Southern California. Read more about Brent here.


    Follow @brentcoley

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    RSS Feed


    Archives

    February 2025
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    May 2023
    July 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    November 2019
    January 2019
    September 2018
    December 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    December 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    July 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    October 2014
    July 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012


    Categories

    All
    Admin
    Android
    Assistant Principal
    Cell Phones
    Classroom Management
    Classroom Website
    Collaboration
    Cool Tool
    Copyright
    Creative Commons
    Ed Tech
    Eduinfluence
    Games
    General
    Google
    Ipad
    Iphone
    Ipod
    Language Arts
    Leadership
    Mac
    Mentor
    Organization
    Pe
    Plagiarism
    Plc
    Podcasting
    Productivity
    Self Care
    Story
    Studycast
    Teamwork
    Texting
    Vocabulary
    Whativelearned

Picture
Copyright (C) 2025 Brent Coley
Photos from somegeekintn, woodleywonderworks, Joybot, British Council Singapore, jseliger2, berkuspic, toddwendy, Alexandra E Rust, skippyjon, crdotx, tharrin, roybuloy, .FuturePresent., Just some dust, frankpierson, Jair Alcon Photography, Luigi Mengato, Muffet, stevendepolo, Pilar Soro, Sander van der Wel, jblyberg, jonathangarcia, DraXus, angeloangelo, Sthetic
  • Home
  • Books
    • Stories of EduInfluence
    • The Gift
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Speaking
  • Videos
    • Video Tutorials: Google Forms
    • Video Tutorials: Google Documents
    • Video Tutorials: Audacity
    • Math Review Videos
  • Resources
    • StudyCast
    • Student Podcast
    • Literature Circles
    • Flowchart Notes
    • Classroom Income Tax
  • About Brent
  • Contact Info