Vocabgrabber

1.       Name of the Tool

Vocabulary Grabber

2.      URL of the Tool

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/vocabgrabber/

3.      Please select the one, primary category for this tool:

Presentation Tool, Vocabulary (concept maps)

4.      Please describe this tool in your own words in about 250 words.

“Vocabgrabber” is a tool used to help students identify the science terms (or any other discipline) in a text selection. This tool helps the students find the definitions, examples in the text, concept maps to relate the term selected to other terms in the context.  Also, by clicking on the familiarity button, students will see a larger concept map that includes terms from the selected text and other terms not included in the text. And by using the visual thesaurus, you can expand by clicking on the red or green dots (red: noun; green: verb) to expand the concept map even more. Concept maps are valued in education because they enhance students’ learning to application level (Bloom’s Taxonomy) as they see how the term correlated to other terms in different context.

The Visual Thesaurus is a useful application. (see the snapshot-1 below)

If you look at the term I selected (Wave), you notice that it is surrounded by 13 dots. The green dots represent verbs and the red dots represent nouns. On the right side of the screen you will see the definitions of the verbs and the nouns. The blue solid line represents a synonym, and the blue dotted line represents a relationship between the two terms. A dotted red line represents an antonym.

The Visual thesaurus allows you (the user) to create a word list, that you can access later to review the terms. Also you can share the list by e-mailing it,  or print the list. Also, you can click the question mark icon to seek help. By clicking on the setting on the top bar (see the snapshot-2 below)

Among the setting options is Languages. There are 5 languages to choose from. What do you need to know before using this tool?

1.       What do you need to have before using this tool?

To use this tool you need a computer and the internet connection and computer basic skills.

2.      How do you use this tool?

Below, I added a screen casting video to demonstrate the use of the tool.

3.      Please describe a scenario of how you might use this tool in a teaching environment (about 500 words).

Before handing out the assignment I will demonstrate to the students how to use it. See the movie link below (hopefully the video will count towards the 500 words)

Density (assignment’s selection)

Density is how much mass a material has for a given volume. Think about a sponge. Most artificial sponges today are made of a foamed plastic. Assume you have a one pound sponge. If you melt it down to a plastic soup with all the bubbles gone, it will be much smaller, but it will still weigh one pound. It is now denser. We use water as sort of a standard for density. We say water has a density of 1. If something weighs twice as much as the same volume of water we say its density is two. This is really handy for figuring out all sorts of things like if something will float or not. Anything that has a density less than 1 floats. Anything that has a density higher than 1 sinks. Ice is ~12% less dense than water so ice floats. Water gets bigger when it freezes so ice is less dense than water. It's a good thing too since life probably would not exist if that were not the case. A U.S. air craft carrier weighs more than 200,000,000 pounds, but I know its density is still less than one. I know this without even asking anyone since I have seen them floating.

Directions (to students):

       I.            Type the URL http://www.visualthesaurus/vocabgrabber/

    II.            Past the text in the box (see snapshot below)

       I.            Click on Grab Vocabulary Button. Then

a.        copy the four synonyms of density and the corresponding definitions

b.      Copy the seven samples from the text

       I.            Click on the familiarity buttons. Then click on the term compactness and new branch will appear on the concept map, copy the new map sort the terms in the new concept map as verbs and nouns.

    II.            Add the terms to your vocabulary list.

 III.            (For ESOL students only) I will ask them to write the concept map and the definition in their native language. (Most of my ESOL had Spanish as their main language)

8-      What are the advantages of using this tool in a teaching environment?

It is a known fact that the average reading grade level in high school is around 6^th grade level (might vary from 1 school to another based on the student population). Because, the gap in the reading grade level between sub groups is wide (see the table below)

 

Grade, year, and achievement level	Total1	White	Black	Hispanic	Asian/Pacific Islander	American Indian/Alaska Native
4th grade, 2007
Below Basic	33	22	54	50	23	51
At Basic	34	35	32	32	32	30
At or above Proficient	33	43	14	17	46	18
At Advanced	8	11	2	3	15	4
8th grade, 2007
Below Basic	26	16	45	42	20	44
At Basic	43	43	42	43	39	38
At or above Proficient	31	40	13	15	41	18
At Advanced	3	4	#	1	5	2
12th grade, 2005
Below Basic	27	21	46	40	26	33
At Basic	37	36	38	40	38	41
At or above Proficient	35	43	16	20	36	26
At Advanced	5	6	1	2	5	‡

* Source :TEA.gov under (research and statistics)

**(Basic indicates partial mastery of fundamental skills).

Also, if you observe the table above the gap between the sub groups doesn’t change during the 4 school years in H.S. This is an alarm that motivates teachers to multiply their efforts to improve reading skills by using reading strategies.

ü  “vocabgrabber” fits under concept mapping, which is a reading strategy.

“The major advantage of concept maps is that they present information visually. Visual thinking is preferred by many people with dyslexia and seeing information graphically can increase both creativity and retention.” http://learningcenter.unc.edu/services/handouts/Concept%20mapping

ü  Concept maps help students to incorporate new meanings into their prior knowledge, rather than simply memorizing concept definitions;

ü  “vocabgrabber” helps students incorporate the new meanings in a fun easy way, as well as, enrich students’ vocabulary.

ü  You have the choice of the Username/Password Authentication. You can use a combination of these to provide access to your students and teachers both at school and at home.

8-      What are the disadvantages of using this tool in a teaching environment?

Only digital texts can be used or the students have to type the text in the selected box. Beside that, I can’t think of any disadvantage.