Spelling Bee What are the different ways to play the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee? There are two different ways to play. In the Tournament Spelling Bee, you'll be challenged by a series of words, with the spelling difficulty adapted to your skill level. The more words you get right, the higher your score will go, on a scale from 200 to 800. You can also try a Community Spelling Bee generated from one of our subscribers' word lists. How does the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee work? Each turn, you'll hear the recording of the word and see its definition (with words suitably omitted that might give away the correct spelling). In the Tournament Spelling Bee, the more words you get right, the higher your score will go. If you play a Community Spelling Bee, the words from the selected word list are presented in random order. What happens if I misspell a word? If you spell a word incorrectly, you can keep guessing for as long as you like. How does the scoring work? How do I get on the high score list?
12 ways of creating stories with your EFL students I’ve been reading a fair amount recently about the value of storytelling – and, in particular, the telling of vivid and emotionally-engaging stories – to memory in general, and vocabulary-learning and grammar practice more specifically. It certainly seems that learning new words from a list is a duller and less efficient alternative to acquiring and retaining new vocabulary than involving your learners in narratives using the target words. With this in mind, here are four ways you can involve your learners in creating stories around particular lexical or grammatical themes, and a list (and brief descriptions!) of eight other methods from various corners of this site: Stories from boxesDraw eight rectangles on the board, with space between each one.Invite student volunteers to come and draw one thing, each in a different rectangle. Note: The two ideas above come from Creating Stories with Children by Andrew Wright. Stories from blank paper Show your students a blank sheet of paper.
Finding the game-like challenge!* *With minimal preparation involved… Following a recent Friday workshop on teaching teenagers, in which, amongst other things, we discussed the difference between playing games for the sake of playing games and adding a game-like challenge into the activities we do in class, I have been thinking about different ways we can do this, without spending heaps of extra time on preparation. Here are some of the ideas I’ve come up with: 1. Board it and collaborate Instead of (or as well as/before) having learners complete a table in their books, individually, why not put them in teams, put the table on the board and get them to race to complete the table accurately: Linking words with teenagers Here is an example from a teenager class of mine, looking at linking words in a writing lesson. 2. The age-old game of bingo can be used to liven up writing activities, as Sandy explains here or speaking activities, as I describe here. Bingo with L9 3. 60 seconds…starting now! 4. Kinaesthetic to the max! 5.
Teaching With a Mountain View: Top 10 Tips for Building Fluent Readers + Link Up! We have all heard about the shift that happens, usually between second and third grade, when students (should) go from learning to read to reading to learn. Unfortunately, for some students, their ability to read to learn is stifled by their inability to read fluently. Even for those kids who can read at an average pace, the faster and more accurately they can read and decode, the more effectively they can comprehend. When I taught third grade, and now as an interventionist, the importance of fluency is empathized more than ever (and has definitely met some critics). I know that fluency is NOT the end-all, be-all, but a lot of research proves that it is important, and a lot of schools are trending toward fluency being a high priority. 1. I know what you’re thinking—this is obvious. Update: I now have a FREE download that includes the above anchor chart! 2. Have you discovered the Super Speed games from Whole Brain Teaching? 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Day 1 of new passage ONLY: Every Day: 8. 9. 10.
Games Crossword GameJust like an old-fashioned word search! Using the mouse and the wordlist, find and highlight the hidden English words in the box! As the levels get harder, the words start appearing in different orientations. But hurry, the clock is running! Beginning the School Year: It’s About Connections Not Content Most classes, starting with about middle school, begin the school year with reviewing the content to be covered, expectations regarding grades, and other academic information provided by the teacher or instructor. The human or social element is often disregarded. What is interesting is that most learners enter the classroom wondering who is in the course. Because of this belief, I begin all classes focusing on having the students make connections between themselves and me. You are the focus of the class not me.You are important as a learner in this class.You will be expected to engage in the learning activities during class time. Based on age/grade level, I have begun my classes in a variety of ways. Team Contract Class members meet in small groups to develop guidelines for making the classroom a safe place to learn and to take risks. Team Building Games There are tons of team building games that can be used in the classroom. All About Me Activities Some example activities I have done:
Proof It! - A Fun Proofreading Game at Portland Proof Begin Game! proof-it The speaker called out, "/Ladys/Ladies/, choose your partner for the next dance!"!@#$@!$%^%$All of my /freinds/friends/ think that I have strange ideas about politics.! Every quiz consists of ten sentences, which will appear one at a time on the screen. The mistake might be a misspelled word, an incorrect punctuation mark, an improperly used word, or a capitalization error. The mistake might also be a missing word, or a missing punctuation mark. If your selection is incorrect, the word will turn red, and a message will appear telling you that your selection is incorrect. If your selection is correct, the word will turn green. In the text box, type the correct word or punctuation mark, and then either click "Submit" or press "Enter" on your keyboard. If you are correct, the next sentence will be displayed. Skipping Questions If at any time you cannot figure out the error in a sentence, you may click the "Skip" button. Click here for more games.
An Original Writing Lesson on Metaphors from Corbett Harrison For this lesson's notebook page, after we explore Pat Benatar's metaphor in her song "Love is Battlefield," my students create original and interesting metaphors for the topic of love in their writer's notebooks; on a notebook page, each metaphor is established and extended upon with two details. Once students have practiced extending original love metaphors, they are asked to create new metaphors over the month that are more appropriate to their other core content areas: math, science, and social studies. Once a week in Language Arts class, students polish a new metaphor they have created outside of English class, then publish and illustrate it on a designated page in their writer's notebook. After the two-page notebook spread is complete, students can be reminded/prompted to use more metaphors during writing or during processing in the future. In 2012, I added a poetry extension lesson, which you can find below in the write-up. Idea #1...Teaching a Four-Metaphor Poem From day
Synonym Card Game There are 30 pairs of synonyms here (for a total of 60 cards) that can be used to play the games Fish and Memory. Students have to find the synonym card to the one that they have. The synonym pairs covered here are: large/big, tiny/small, noisy/loud, silent/quiet, quick/fast, sick/ill, leap/jump, push/shove, pull/tug, sprint/run, afraid/scared, spooky/scary, cold/chilly, home/house, rock/stone, garbage/trash, rug/carpet, kid/child, clever/smart, happy/glad, street/road, and throw/toss. You can use the game Fish or memory to practice this game. Fish goes likes this: A: (Has the card for 'fast') Do you have quick? B: Yes, I do. If the answer was yes, B gives the card to A and A gets a point. As well, these two worksheets review the vocabulary covered in these cards and will be useful for playing the game: Synonyms Vocab Worksheet 1 Synonyms Vocab Worksheet 2
Elimination games with young learners | Super Simple Learning Blog ♫ One potato, two potatoes… ♫ Many of us remember playing elimination games like Musical Chairs and Simon Says when we were young. These are games where you start with a group, and each round, one or more players is “out” and eliminated from the game. As you get closer and closer to the end of the game, the tension builds, and it can be a lot of fun (and beneficial for young learners). However, for some very young learners, these kinds of elimination games can be very upsetting. There are a few ways to handle this. 1) Demonstrate how to “lose” positively If you do play a game where participants get eliminated, be sure, as the leader, to eliminate yourself first. 2) Make getting “out” fun When a child does get eliminated in the game, give her a high five, let her sit in a special chair, make a silly noise, maybe even give her a sticker. 3) Eliminate the elimination For very young learners, often there is no need to have a winner or any sense of competition to make the activity fun.
Which Word Game - Pick the right word to fit the context I * to go to a private school, but I don't any more.!@#$@! "Used to" is the correct phrase. !@#$@!used! "Stationery" is writing paper. ! "Alot" is not a word. ! "Veins" are what blood flows through, while "vain" is an adjective meaning "conceited." ! In most instances, "effect" is a noun, and "affect" is a verb. ! A "reel" is a part of a fishing rod, while "real" means genuine. ! "Lend" and "borrow" are opposite sides of a transaction; the person who is borrowing receives, while the person who lends is the one who gives. ! "Won" is the past tense of "win," while "one" is a singular number. ! To "shoo" is to tell or motion something or someone to go away, while a "shoe" is a piece of footwear. ! "Lone" means only one, while a "loan" is something (usually money) that has been borrowed. ! Each game consists of ten sentences with a word missing (represented by a blank line in the sentence). This game is similar to Proof It! Click here for more games.
Guided Reading Keep checking this page for more free resources and activities to help you with your guided reading instruction! Research is clear about the need for early, effective reading instruction. Low-performing first grade readers will likely be the lowest performing readers in the fourth grade. As many schools are adapting to an ever-increasing range of learners, it becomes important to develop instruction to respond to these diverse students. Guided Reading is a teaching approach that is designed to help individual students learn how to process a variety of increasingly challenging texts with understanding and fluency. Tyner (2005) highlights key points that make guided reading successful: Small-group instruction provides comprehensive coverage of the strategies required to move students to greater achievement in reading. Although this page focuses on small-group reading instruction, the additional components of a balanced literacy program cannot be over-looked.
Crossword Puzzle Games - Create Puzzles Create A Crossword Puzzle Enter up to 20 words and hints (clues) below to create your own puzzles. There's no need to use all 20 words, you could use as little as two. Hints can be left blank. This free online crossword creator software can be a great tool for educators. If your puzzle has too much blank space in it, try starting with 10-14 words. This is the first version of the crossword puzzle creator software. Samples made with this free online puzzle maker : Easter FunSt. A free cryptogram maker is also available to create even more of your own word puzzles.