Welcome to the All Star Planning Podcast. My name is Kelsey, and this is the place where I talk all things teacher lesson plans. Today, I am talking about how I teach vocabulary and ask vocabulary questions. I think I teach vocabulary decently old school. Especially considering, um, how young I am. I have been telling my students since day one, that chemistry is a language.
Words with Multiple Meanings
If the kids don’t know the difference between an atom and a molecule they’re not understanding chemistry. And I know that like in real life, in the real world, people use those two terms interchangeably. They’re not the same thing. Just in case you were wondering. Um, element and compound, not the same thing. Element in the real world, very different from element in video games. very different from element in chemistry. Just there’s a lot to it behind the scenes, and I’m sure every subject kind of has this same thing. I don’t know, maybe it’s just because I’m a chemist, but I think the chemistry actually kind of, sort of is a language. You have to learn all of the different terms in order to be successful in understanding.
I think the same thing is true in a lab setting. A beaker and a flask are not the same thing. Um, the beakers, like the cup with a little spout and then the flask is the one that’s like narrow at the top. And then it’s a V-shape. They serve two different purposes. And that’s just one of the many things that my kids get confused. Um, if I were doing a lab and we needed a crucible, but my kid picked up an evaporating dish. Not the same thing and can change everything. In some cases, these little confusions can create giant safety hazards. So for me, it’s very important that my kids understand vocabulary.
Giving My Students a Glossary
I have kind of a process for how I get them to learn the vocabulary. And I can tell you that this is probably their least favorite part of my course and, um, too bad. Sorry guys. Um, you gotta learn vocab. It’s just the way that it is. So the first thing that I do is in my interactive notebooks. I give the kids a glossary. And this started my third year of teaching. I don’t quite remember. But I sat over the summer and I wrote an entire glossary and it is 10 pages long. Um, but when it goes in the interactive notebook, it’s actually 20 pages. So the kids have a composition book.
I print out all of these things, I chop them in half, I put them in order. It takes me hours. I usually sit and watch Netflix at home. Bring all the papers home and I sort them. So. Um, the kids will get a bundle of papers and they flip to the back of their interactive notebook and they glue them in backwards. So that it’s like the last 20 pages.
Interactive Notebook Tips: The Glossary
So they glue in. G 20 glossary, 20. I number the pages then G 19. Because I don’t want them counting because I am so afraid that there’s going to be a kid who double counts a page or accidentally skips a page and then there’s no room in their notebook. Like they glue in the first 18, and then 19 and 20 are just chilling outside the book. And then we don’t know the definition of, I don’t know what’s at the end of the chemistry alphabet? Watch glass possibly. I don’t know. So we glue them in backwards and then my kids have the chemistry definition of all of the words. I do this because I don’t teach with a textbook for my year one kids. That’s partially because I know kids don’t read textbooks. And because I don’t prefer the textbook that we have.
Also, I just think interactive notebooks are easier because I get to design them and put in exactly what I want the kids to know. Maybe it’s because I’m a control freak. But I like it. So they have all of the definitions. I realized that the kids need chemistry definitions because in my very first year of teaching. The first vocabulary assignment, they had to define the word balance. Which is defined differently in real life than it is in biology and it’s different in chemistry. So in real life balance, I actually had a kid say that like, they defined it as if you stood on one foot, you wouldn’t fall over. Which is the definition of balance. But not the chemistry definition. In chemistry balance is kind of similar to a scale. That’s a tool for measuring mass, not weight, kind of, sort of different.
Common Misconceptions in Vocabulary
That is important to me that they have the chemistry definitions. And if I’m not using the textbook. Then I need to tell them when you Google the words, make sure you put parentheses chemistry parentheses after it, because otherwise you’re going to get silly things like that. So I tell them this story, a bunch of them giggle, and, um, they don’t realize that they would have made the same mistake had I not brought it up. So that’s part of the reason why I love the glossary.
And then two, I am able to kind of sort of adjust the definition as I see fit. So in chemistry, we have the word saturated, which means it actually has two chemistry definitions. One is when we talk about solutions mixtures with water. And then the second one is when we talk about organic chemistry, which would be like a saturated hydrocarbon.
For my non chemistry people just realize that it’s one word that has two definitions within chemistry. So I get to in my glossary, say, uh, saturated and then give it two definitions. You know how, like in a real dictionary, there’s like a comma or a semi-colon between every definition of the word. I get to do that in my glossary. So depending on which definition or which theme or unit we’re working with, the kids can distinguish which definition to use. So I like my own glossary.
Vocabulary Homework Assignments
The next thing is that I make my students write the word and the definition. I’ve done this a few different ways. The most popular way is just for them to write the word and the definition. Because it’s fast. Um, I also have done it where the kids needed to write the definition, draw, picture, define it in their own words. Um, and then list a synonym. That’s a giant assignment to give kids and it eats a lot of time. And if you know anything about my homework,
Um, I told you that I give optional homework. It’s all optional except for the vocabulary, which I tell them that they absolutely have to do. So, um, that’s a big, big, big homework assignment and I’m not down with big homework assignments, but I’m not committing class time, to just writing vocabulary words. Like that’s very silly to me.
Vocabulary Classroom Activity
This could very well be a vocabulary assignment to find synonyms or describe it in your own words. Or if you want it to do like a gallery walk and you put the word on chart paper, and then the kids go through and they write their own definitions on the chart paper, through a gallery walk. There’s options to do it in class as a learning experience.
But I, don’t like that. I feel like I don’t have the time for that. I know that it’s important. And I will incorporate those things as, um, do nows or just questions within my lesson. I won’t devote like an entire 20 minutes to something like that. It’s just not my style, but that is an option. If that is your style.
Vocabulary Homework Alternatives
I’ve done the homework assignment and a few different ways, but the primary way I do it is just with the word and the definition. I had done it once where I made the kids write the definition three times, which I think was just kind of mean. I’m not a fan. So most recently, we have just done the word and the definition. And I started incorporating vocabulary quizzes, which, um, again, the kids hate, but I love it.
Vocabulary Quizzes
I really like the quizzes because it forces accountability on the kids. Uh, to know the words and the definitions. And I always choose matching because I want to be able to provide the word and the definition. Um, I don’t ever want there to be like a spelling issue or they go and they ride the definition and they miss a critical piece of the definition.
I’m just not down with that. It’s something quick, easy, like, eight or so minutes. And there’s just a few a year, one per unit. And I know that the kids hate them, but the kids who know the words actually more or less can get it done in like two minutes. The kids who do well, really enjoy them because it’s a quick way to get a 10 out of 10 and they know that they know their stuff.
Vocabulary Review Activity
The next thing that I do is a bunch of different review activities. So I have vocabulary dominoes, which I have talked about on a blog post. Basically it is a little piece of paper, like a tiny little card. And on one half of the card is a word, the other half of a card is a definition. And they cut them out. Well, actually I have them all printed and laminated, but they take these little domino cards and they make a string.
So on one domino, it will say, what it’ll just say “chemistry.” And then they have to sort through and look at all of the other cards and find the definition of chemistry. So it would be “the study of matter and its changes.” So then they would take those two cards and put them side by side. And then after the definition of chemistry would be a new word. So perhaps that new word is “atom.”
So “the study of matter and its changes” and “atom” would be on the same card. And so that they form a little string. I have one of these for each one of my units. If you’re interested in looking at it, if you’re a chemistry teacher, actually anybody can look at it. I have it. I will link, um, my chemical bonding one.
Vocabulary Questions in Bingo
So that you can take a look at it, cause that is available for anybody and everybody. We do that sometimes. We will also do bingo. We’ve done bingo once or twice. I have a bingo board PDF that I can link in both the shownotes and the video description, depending on where you are consuming this podcast. The kids love bingo. They will, from a list of vocab words that I put on the board, they write the words on their own boards. Which is a blank grid, honestly, and then I will read them the definition and then they would have to check the words on their board. So it’s just another way to review.
I really like that for when my lessons end quicker than I had anticipated. You just keep a few bingo boards in your room and then you can pull up a vocab list and you can. Run a quick game of bingo when you have 10 or so minutes in class. Well, they, depending on how long your words are and how focused your kids are, they may actually just need 10 minutes to fill out the board, but you could, if you were really ambitious, pre-fill a bunch of boards. That’s not me. I am not that person. I’m going to let the kids write them and just have a bunch of blank boards for them. But it is an option.
Quizlet Live for Vocabulary Questions
I have also used Quizlet live, which the kids. Really really love. In fact, I have had kids beg me to play Quizlet Live. “Oh, can we play Quizlet?” They love it. So Quizlet Live basically, there’s a lot of different formats to it, but you can match words and definitions like in your teacher profile, and then you can share that with your students.
You can either use the definitions that Quizlet provides or you can use a vocab set from another teacher. I usually like to make my own. Sometimes I use theirs just to give a variation of the definition. That’s not always the Reavy definition. You can offer your vocab list to your students and they can use it on their own in digital flashcards. There’s also some like rocket ship game that they like, but with Quizlet Live, it’s an in class thing.
How Does Quizlet Live Work
Every kid needs a device and they are randomly organized into teams. And then those teams, groups of kids would get organized together in the room. And they are given a prompt, which may be a definition. So it would say the study of matter and its changes and all of the vocab words are dispersed amongst the kids. So they’re all given the same prompt, but they have to talk to each other about who has the answer “chemistry.” They want to talk to each other so that they can say, “Oh, it’s chemistry who has chemistry?”
And they can look for the word that matches the definition and it gets all the words get distributed amongst the kids in group. But they don’t want to talk too loud because all of the other teams are sitting near them and can overhear them. And on the projector the teacher screen. They can see how each of the teams is progressing. They’re always animals. So it’ll be like, the rhinos are in the lead and I’m always there, like poking them, like, “Oh, the giraffes, you’re falling behind.”
And then what happens is that if the kids get a question wrong, it restarts them back at the beginning. So they’re racing. But they’re also not trying to go too fast because they need the accuracy points. The kids love it. And then you can also link this vocab list on your Google classroom or whatever digital platform you have, and you can give it to the kids to study in flashcards. I love that.
How Does Flippity Work?
If you use Google sheets, there is an add on in the top bar. You can click add ons and then search for one called flippity. And in flippity, you like get a program of a Google sheet and you can match words and definitions. You could also, I’ve done this with, um, the element symbols and their names like C is carbon, O is oxygen. And it will create flashcards for the kids. You can create bingo boards out of it. So if you’re interested in creating your own bingo boards, you can do that with flippity.
There’s just like a few parameters depending on the type of activity that you choose. But I think that this is excellent for using in your classroom as a teacher directed activity.But you can also send it off to your kids to use as a study tool. I know for me, trying to get my kids to get flashcards is not always easy.
Alternative to Teaching Vocabulary Using Flashcards
My kids need like 350 approximately. So that’s four packages of index cards. It’s a pain in the neck. And then if the kid is short on index cards, they’re like ridiculously expensive in December. All sorts of just trying to keep track of them and they fall apart, they disappear, blah, blah, blah. There’s a lot of issues with index cards. So a digital set is fantastic. Plus I think most kids nowadays respond better to digital format than they do paper and pencil.
I’m sure there’s a few paper and pencil kids still out there. But in my experience, most of them would prefer digital. It’s part of the reason why I don’t use a textbook because I think if it’s not talking to them, they’re not interested. For the most part, there are still certainly kids who can appreciate a textbook, but I think many would rather just see a YouTube video or something digital and interactive, something that needs to be charged. That’s usually how my kids like it. So, I try to accommodate when and where I can. So that’s kinda my gist for vocabulary. I’m really into the quizzes.
Vocabulary Question on Tests
Oh, I forgot to mention on my tests the first few questions of my tests are always vocabulary questions. But they’re disguised questions. So it’ll be something like which of the following is a compound. And then it’ll list four things, right, multiple choice. So in order to answer this question, the kids need to know what a compound is. They need to know how it’s different from an element or different from a mixture or whatever my answer choices indicate.
So I think this is a great way to kind of trick your kids with vocabulary questions. And if you’re not a fan of matching this could also be your vocabulary quiz. Uh, “which of these is a line?” And then you have a segment, you have a ray, you have an angle, and then you have a line. That could be, in like your vocabulary shorthand with like the headers on top where it’s like AB, and then it’s a segment versus a line versus I don’t know what that looks like.
Vocabulary Quizzes
I know that it exists, but that is something that you could integrate into either your tests and make distinct, explicit vocabulary questions. Or you can Accumulate those types of questions and put it into a vocab quiz If you’re not a fan of matching. Cause I know matching can get very overwhelming.
Also on the matching. I don’t grade lines. If they draw lines, connecting words and definitions, I don’t do that. I give them a little blank to tell me okay. Uh, question three is B and question six is J. I make it explicitly clear that I don’t do lines. I think that’s just something important to throw out there.
Modeling Your Tests After Your Final Exam
But I absolutely 100% put those multiple choice vocabulary questions On my tests, because I know that it’s going to appear on the state final. And when we go over tests, Or if this is a do now question, or if it’s an in class question. I make sure to point out that, Oh, “if you don’t know the definition of element, it’s literally impossible for you to answer this question. If you don’t know the definition of Aqueous, you can’t answer this question.”
And just hammering that idea into their beautiful little brains, reminds them that they need to know their vocabulary words, and that chemistry is a language. And if they learn the vocabulary, at least in chemistry and my course, and the way that it’s taught, they will do well. Cause I think that’s, most of the battle is understanding the language of the course and every course kind of sorta has its own language.
Low Level & Vocabulary Questions are Important!
Those, I think are excellent questions for you to add in. Typically they’re low level questions, because it’s just like a regurgitation type question. Which is why it’s just one, two or three questions on a test and then a vocab quiz. You know, low point of entry. But it is something that is important because those, uh, low level skills and concepts are things that they need to know in order to get the high level stuff. Like I said, if my kid doesn’t know the definition of an element, they’re gonna have a hard time in chemistry. So it’s important for me to know that they know the low level stuff, that they know the vocabulary, they know the language, they know how chemists speak because that’s step one.
All Star Planning
So that is what I do with vocab. I think it’s mostly ol d school. I think it’s effective. So that is all I have for you today on teaching vocabulary. If you haven’t already, please sign up for the All Star Planning masterclass. That is where I show you how the five pieces of the All Star Planning method come together. So you can have a very solid curriculum that is super reliable and helps your lesson planning go nice and smooth. You can find that at plan.kelseyreavy.com. I will link that in the show notes, as well as in the video description if you were watching this on YouTube.
Please make sure to subscribe to the podcast. So you don’t miss anything. I put out new episodes every single Tuesday. So I will see you in the next one. Bye for now.
