Literacyhead: Teach Vocabulary Lessons Using Visual Art pt. 2

One of the greatest features of these Vocabulary Lessons are their versatility. Consider the following uses:

• Infer word meaning.  Using only the index page of over 200 alphabetized vocabulary terms (an ever-growing list), have learners guess at the meanings of words based on how they are illustrated.

• Illustrate new words.  Use the concept of typography to have learners produce their own illustrated words.

• Create a definition.  Depending on your learners, read to them or have them read on their own, the example sentences and look at the images associated with the vocabulary word.  Have them create a definition for the word.  Then, check their answers against the definition by clicking on the “View Definition” button.  Here is an example for the word symmetrical.

• Teach word parts. Use the search feature on Vocabulary Lessons  index page to find and sort word patterns.  As soon as you start typing a word part, the words begin sorting.  Here is an example of the results displayed for ight.

• Create word lists.  Want to teach a specific set of words such as antonyms or synonyms?  Create a group of words to be displayed together by typing them into the search bar, separated by a comma.  First the words will sort.  Once you click on the “View Vocab” button, the definitions, sentences, and associated artwork will display on one page.

Members of Literacyhead.com can use the “My Literacyhead” feature to create, name, and save vocabulary lessons.  These customized lessons are created by the teacher using content from the site.  Once saved, lessons can be accessed at a future date.  For anyone who is not a Literacyhead member, you can still access content throughout the site.  Just look for items marked with the “free” banner.  There are at least 1-5 vocabulary words available for free at a given time.

Other free features that you may find useful include:

Writing Prompts  Prompt student writing with sets of visual art grouped by themes.  Stick with the theme, mix and match themes, or create one of your own.

Art Galleries These online galleries, grouped by featured artists, can also be used to prompt student writing.  Or, encourage students to practice using newly acquired vocabulary terms by describing the images.

Websites:

CAPL (CulturallyAuthenticPictorialLexicon) –  This collection of photographs, arranged by language and context, can be used for language learning.

Wordle– Create word clouds by typing text into the site.  The most prominent words from the text are displayed larger and more frequently in the word cloud.  Allow learners to explore and design their own.

Literacyhead: Teach Vocabulary Lessons Using Visual Art pt. 1

Teach Vocabulary Lessons Using Visual Art

Think about the last time you were asked to define a vocabulary term.  For some learners, the conventional methods of reading or hearing a recited definition and example sentence might be effective.  But for many, just hearing or reading these may not penetrate deeply enough to make a lasting impression.

Vocabulary Lessons on Literacyhead.com take into consideration the increased likelihood of reaching all students at their varying degrees of learning readiness when they are presented with multiple representations of an unknown vocabulary term’s meaning.

Here is how Literacyhead can help you teach vocabulary; we’ll use the word flowing to explain.

First, the term is illustrated with a unique typography that represents the word’s meaning.

When a learner or teacher clicks on the word, they see the following.

When clicked, each image thumbnail will display the full image in a larger format.

Click here to see and interact with the actual lesson on Literacyhead.com.

In these visual vocabulary examples, students are not only given three examples of what the term means, but a non-example as well.  In most cases, the sentences and the artwork increase in complexity, with the first sentence and image being more straightforward and the third being more abstract. So, Literacyhead’s vocabulary “lessons” are naturally differentiated and are as appropriate for students who struggle with words as they are for students who excel.

Literacy and Arts

I started with an idea to write a post about literacy and the arts. Sometimes we feel disciplined to certain restrictions and principles of literacy and numeracy instruction. While we attempt to cater to visual and kinesthetic learning styles, sometimes it’s harder than it seems. Adding an art into literacy curriculum helps expand creativity for both you and your student. Images help students remember and learn high frequency words, so why not try to add them to a lesson?

One of the best resources I came across is Literacyhead . Literacyhead has lesson plans for teaching reading, writing vocabulary, basic words, technology and many more. The website itself has a year subscription for $99, but also gives several resources for free. You can download printable graphic organizers and Venn diagrams for your class that make writing in them more fun. When teaching vocabulary, make words fun as they come to life! Practice comprehension skills by having students draw a picture that goes along with the story, or have them write the script for additional dialog that they think would happen between the characters you’re reading about.

Brown University also developed the ArtLiteracy project to reach out to youth at a local high school. The base of the project is the belief that “literacy is more than an ability to do well on a standardized test; it is about finding the words to share our stories with the world and to listen and understand the stories the world has to share with us.” They developed a handbook that can help you create, edit, and interpret text with your student.

There are several ways you can bring the FUN in reading FUNdamentals and help your student increase knowledge in more than one area. Have fun and let us know what you choose to do!