Expand Quizlet for Collaborative Work and Vocabulary Review Fun

One of the technology tools that we learned about for my Digital and Social Media in Education class was Quizlet. Quizlet is an excellent vocabulary review game that my students enjoy. They can access online note cards using their smart phones. We also play the online review games, like Scatter, on the day before the test.

Quizlet doesn't have to be a solitary study tool. In this post I share ways to expand Quizlet into a social activity.

First, students can enter vocabulary terms collaboratively into Quizlet. Quizlet offers an easy import option from spreadsheets. I create a spreadsheet using Google and type all of the vocabulary words into one column. I share the link with my students and they work together to fill in all of the words in the second column until the class finishes.

I don't like to spend class time on busy work, like doing vocabulary worksheets, but I still think vocabulary terms are a good way to introduce a topic and link to previous learning experiments. Doing the work collaboratively gives students more time to quiz and less time just copying from a textbook.

One of my favorite functions, other than the spreadsheet import, is the flashcard printing option. I keep decks of cards of my units to fill the odd time as students finish their labs at different times.

One game we play is actually from a bridal shower. We all had the names of Disney characters pinned to our back and had to have conversations with people to guess our character. For a vocabulary review, the students have either a word or definition pinned to them and they have to find their partner.

Another game we like is Old Maid. The students match their cards and the first student to lose all of their cards is the winner.

We also play Popcorn Race which I have blogged about before. I like that game because students are very competitive with it. It encourages them to learn their words so they can win during classtime.

Have you used Quizlet in your classroom before? I've really expanded on it in the last year and am happy with the results. My students have fun and do well on quizzes.