Session+4

__**Session Four**__


 * 4.1: 21st Century Vocabulary Terms **

1) Widget - ﻿A visual feature on a website linked from an external web location or program. ﻿﻿This feature is useful for a particular job. 2) Embed - To ﻿securely place ﻿ an external feature onto a website or wikispace.  3) Embed code - ﻿Language telling your web editor program to embed an external feature. ﻿I could not find "embed code" on Vocabulary.com. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">4) Link - A clickable piece of text programmed to send a user to a different web address. <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">﻿A clickable word containing an instruction that connects one page to another. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">5) URL - ﻿A web address <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">﻿on the world wide web. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">6) Upload - ﻿To add a file such as a document or a photo to your computer, site, page or handheld device. <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">﻿To transfer a file or program to a central computer from a smaller computer or one at a remote location. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">7) Download - ﻿To obtain a file such as a document or a photo from a remote computer. <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">﻿To transfer a file or program from a central computer to a smaller computer or to one at a remote location. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">8) Search engine - ﻿An index of websites. <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">﻿Retrieves documents and data from a database or computer network. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">9) Web 2.0 - ﻿A web sharing program. <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">﻿I could not find "Web 2.0" on Vocabulary.com.


 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">4.2: Vocabulary.com **

//<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1) Why might students and teachers find Vocabulary.com more useful than using a dictionary or glossary? // <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Vocabulary.com is like a one-stop shopping outlet for anyone looking to learn more about the applications, meaning, origin, pronunciation or usage of a word. I think that the site's comprehensiveness and versatility make it more useful and more appealing than the average glossary. Students probably get more valuable information from Vocabulary.com than they would from a glossary, and I would bet that teachers appreciate anything that increases the enlightenment of their students.

//<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">2) What type of student might benefit from the use of Vocabulary.com? // <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">I think that students who struggle with reading comprehension would appreciate the usage examples section. I also think that the site has appeal for advanced readers looking to make more connections with the text that they are reading. The site is interactive and user-friendly, so it should have a fairly broad-based appeal.



<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**4.3: Word Sift Screenshot**

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">//1) How is Word Sift an effective pre-reading strategy?// <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Similar to Wordle, Word Sift is an effective pre-reading strategy because it visually presents key words to the reader before he or she tackles the reading. The words displayed in larger print figure more prominently in the reading. When students see these, they are given an idea of what they should expect from their reading, preparing them for what they are about to read and getting their wheels turning about what they might already know about the subject matter dealt with in the article. The clickable interactive nature of Word Sift takes things a step further than Wordle, linking students instantly to online dictionaries, thesauri and visuals so that they can find out what the words they will encounter mean before they even see them in context. All in all, Word Sift makes learners more receptive to what they are about to read so that they can gain a deeper understanding from their reading.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">//2) How would Word Sift help students who struggle with reading?//

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The one-stop shopping nature of Word Sift would greatly help a struggling reader because it makes it so easy to find out what a word means. The fact that you can click on a word and have a definition, synonyms and visual examples pop up on the same window is great. Sometimes struggling readers are very easily discouraged. As they get more discouraged, their motivation levels decrease. Keeping all attention focused on one screen might help a reader in this situation to complete an effective pre-reading, making the eventual reading of the article more successful.




 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">4.4: Using Word Sift **

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The Web 2.0 vocabulary tools I chose are:

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1) Free Rice <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">2) Visual Thesaurus


 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">4.5: Using E-Vocabulary Strategies **

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Do you think the tools that you selected would be effective in your class? How would you use these tools in your class? Be specific so that you can share this with others in your department or school next year.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Visual Thesaurus, while an interesting concept, comes at a price, so that is an immediate deterrent. I can definitely see how it could be helpful because it provides students with a picture of the relationship between words. That said, I think that there are other equally effective word search tools out there such as Word Reference that are free and simple to use.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Free Rice is not a great pre-reading tool, but it is a fun, interactive and beneficial site for beginners to practice vocabulary and gain confidence in their language skills. I would definitely tell my French I students about it and encourage them to practice with it at home. I cannot really see it being terribly effective in class, but it could serve as an appropriate site for students to visit if they have completed their in-class work ahead of other students.