For my first real post I knew I had to share my current favorite tool.  It’s fun, useful, and so easy to use.   It’s a site called Quizlet and it’s a great resource for teachers and students to review vocabulary from any subject.  It allows you to create online flashcards, practice tests, and two different games students can use to review the material.

All you have to do is sign up for a free account and then you can start uploading vocabulary lists that you’ve already created right onto the site.  Quizlet will create 5 different applications with your lists and you can share them with your students.  Your students have the option to set up a free account or they can use your materials as a guest.  If they set up an account, Quizlet will keep track of what words they still need help with based on their performance on the tests and games on the site.

I’m not going to go through all 5 applications, you can browse that for yourself, but I do want to talk about my two favorites.

First the online flashcards.  These work really well for those of you who like to play the game, ‘around the world’.  If you have an interactive whiteboard it’s especially fun because you can tap the flashcards to reveal the answers.  There’s also an option to print out the flashcards, so students can practice on their own at home if they don’t have access to a computer.

There’s also a game called Scatter.  Quizlet puts some of the words and translations (or definitions) on a screen, then students have to drag the words over their translations.  Once the word is on top of the correct translations, they both disappear.  It’s a timed race so the faster you make the matches the higher your score is.  Once again, this is a great game to play with an interactive whiteboard, that way the whole class is playing together.

My students absolutely love this.  And I noticed that their vocabulary quiz grade went up whenever we used this site in class.  I highly recommend you give it a try.  And if you use the texbook series ‘Bon Voyage’ feel free to search for my sets and use them in your class.