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The Free Dictionary by Farlex: Vocabulary Practice
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Activity Description
Using this site, students will practice vocabulary by learning and using the word of the day, playing the spelling bee, and looking up two idioms and one acronym. Students can customize their page to include as many features as they like. Other features included in the side menu include a thesaurus, medical legal and financial dictionaries, acronyms, idioms, and encyclopedias.
This Web site is rich in possibilities. Beyond vocabulary practice the site offers a variety of dictionaries in various languages (Spanish, German, French, Italian, Arabic, Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian, Greek, Russian and Turkish). There are games to play: Hangman, Spelling Bee, Words Within Words, Matching. There are also great sources of information: Article of the Day; In the News; This Day in History; Today's Holiday; Today's Birthday; and Quotation of the Day.
Preparation
- Preview the site to familiarize yourself with all it's features.
- Print the Example Document titled Vocabulary Practice, one or more for each student.
- Practice the different activities as you will be demonstrating them for the students.
How-To
- Introduce the Web site.
- Show the various features of the site.
- Have students work in pairs to go through different parts of the Web site.
- Hand out Vocabulary Practice worksheet.
- Students fill in the word of the day for the next day, bring the worksheet to class and discuss what they learned.
- See our suggestions for using The Free Dictionary app under Related Resources (above).
Teacher Tips
- You can start your day with the site. Have the assignment on the board and have students fill out the worksheet before class discussion begins.
- TheFreeDictionary now allows you to create your own personal homepage. This would be a fun activity to do with students, going over the various features together.
More Ways
Use the other features:
- Games to play:
- Hangman
- Spelling Bee
- Words Within Words
- Matching
- Sources of information:
- Article of the Day
- In the News
- This Day in History
- Today's Holiday
- Today's Birthday
- Quotation of the Day
- Encyclopedia
Program Areas
- ABE: Adult Basic Education
- ESL: English as a Second Language
- ASE: High School Equivalency Preparation
- ASE: High School Diploma
- AwD: Adults with Disabilities
Levels
- Low
- Intermediate
- High
- All Levels
- Beginning High
- Intermediate Low
- Intermediate High
- Advanced
Lesson Plan
Select a topic.
Brainstorm words that go with the topic, first in pairs, then as a class.
Write words on the board.
Introduce today's topic and vocabulary list. In pairs, students go through the vocabulary list, ways the words are used. Share with the class.
Demonstrate the website The Free Dictionary especially the tools listed on the side: dictionary, thesaurus, medical dictionary, lega dictionary, financial dictionary, acronyms, idioms, encyclopedia, English grammar, Wikipedia, and the Free Library.
In pairs discuss ways to use these resources. Gather as a class.
Hand out the worksheet Vocabulary Practice.(see Documents) In the worksheet students will use the Word of the Day, Spelling Bee game, Idioms, Acronyms, and find One More Thing they liked at the site.
In pairs, students fill out the worksheet , Vocabulary Practice. (see Documents) for one of the Vocabulary words for this week
Gather as a class and share what was learned about using the site.
From each pair, have students share with the class what they learned about the vocabulary words. As a pair, write a story using this week's vocabulary words. Share ideas as a class and create one story together using all of the vocabulary words.
Discuss how to use this site outside of class. As pairs, make a list of five ways to use the site. Gather as a class and share the ideas.
Documents
- The Free Dictionary Vocabulary Practice.docx - Vocabulary Practice
- The Free Dictionary Vocabulary Practice (3).docx -
Subjects
- English Language Arts
- English 1-4
- Language Arts - Reading
- Comprehension
- Language Arts - Writing
- Language Facility
- Organization of Ideas
- Learning and Thinking Skills
- Demonstrate ability to use critical thinking skills
- Demonstrate the ability to use information and communication technology
- Reading
- Vocabulary
- Writing
- Basic Sentences
Standards
- Reading Foundational Skills
- RF.4 - Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. (Fluency)
- Reading
- CCR Anchor 1 - Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
- Writing
- CCR Anchor 2 - Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
- Speaking and Listening
- CCR Anchor 1 - Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
- Language
- CCR Anchor 2 - Demonstrate command of the conventions of English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.