Freedom of Speech Vocabulary 2.0

I'm a teacher of the verbal, but really, I'm a visual learner. Even though I love words, I learn them by seeing pictures in my head (just ask how I remember some Hebrew letter sounds). Amy Crowley-Gonsoulin, Kurt Kohls, and Aron Sterling, all technology specialists for FCPS who will present "Freedom of Speech" throughout the summer, know that many students are visual learners too, which is why vocabulary instruction is so challenging. Vocabulary also is also one of the main reasons for the achievement gap in schools, according to curriculum consultant Robert Marzano. And to increase vocabulary, he says, one must increase background knowledge. Pair this with educational consultant Lynell Burmark's belief that visuals are the fastest way to instill background knowledge, and you have a recipe for Vocabulary 2.0, the idea that reading and writing images is becoming just as important and effective if not more important and effective than reading and writing words. Marzano plus Burnell equals making vocabulary instruction interactive and visual, just like the Web. Every step, from direct instruction to independent practice should include images and sharing.

So when teachers introduce new words, they should always be connected to visuals, through word art in Microsoft Word (see Word and PowerPoint Tricks posting), clip art in PowerPoints (see Word and PowerPoint Tricks posting), or photos (from a copyright-free site) in PhotoShory (see Digital Storytelling posting).

Then, during guided practice, students should put definitions of vocabulary into their own words, which they can share with visual tools online, such as Blabberize and Gizmoz, both of which are serious fun for adults, so you can imagine how students would react, especially when they know the world can see their work. (A quick tip for using Audacity with these sites: You can use a two-prong audio cable to plug the headphone into the microphone to play pre-recorded files straight into the online recorder.)

For independent practice, students should associate words with images, through comic strips, photos, or videos. All of these site are interactive, because they allow students to share their work with classmates and Web users worldwide; Voicethread, in particular, is basically a photo blog, where others can even comment on your postings.

I think the biggest realization from this session, though, is that the visual learners are taking over the world. In fact, we're revamping the 12th-grade English curriculum to focus on "media literacy," which focuses on reading other media besides words, such as art, film, advertisement, and even multimedia Web sites. Indeed, our whole idea of what reading material is will continue to change, so vocabulary instruction must continue to adapt.