WordStash

=WordStash= WordStash is a dictionary based website for helping students learn vocabulary and more. Teachers can sign up for a free account and create word lists to support written text.. With a click of a button, users can access definitions, example sentences from articles and pictures to support the word. Once created, teachers will have a set of digital flash cards to use to help students practice the words/concepts through games and quizzes.

At first glance, this seems like a handy tool for reviewing vocabulary, but after experimenting with the tool myself, I realized that the tool can also be used to help students build their own knowledge about vocabulary terms and concepts, which makes it a much more appealing tool.

At it's most basic level, users can create a word card in a few quick and simple steps. Following those steps will yield word cards like the example below.
 * 1) Add term
 * 2) Choose the appropriate part of speech from a list.
 * 3) Click on the appropriate definition to add it to the card.
 * 4) Add an image from the Flicker or Wikipedia database.

My goal with this activity was to create word cards to support understanding of The Louisiana Purchase, so I decided to dig a little deeper to create a more fine-tuned word card. Here are the modified steps followed: Truly, by building my own specific vocabulary card I also developed my own understanding of the word as it was related to the content and I think this could be a very meaningful activity for students.
 * 1) Add term
 * 2) Choose from a list to determine the part of speech
 * 3) Read the given definitions, then search for an article on the Internet that uses the word in context. Word stash has a button to find context clues, but I found it easier to do my own search.
 * 4) From the context, develop your own definition of the word. Type that definition on the word card..
 * 5) Add a more accurate image from the database by typing in a more manually adjusting the search term. In this case, the term "territory" yielded a generic image, but type in "Louisiana Purchase" did the trick.

Sign up for a free teacher account and try [|WordStash] for yourself.