Activity Idea #2: Quizlet

I use Quizlet in my Health classroom to support the acquisition of key vocabulary from the Lifeskills curriculum. If you're a teacher and you haven't discovered Quizlet, read on.

Quizlet is an essential part of the 21st century classroom. One of the best things about Quizlet is that it's FREE, and it can be used in pretty much any subject or discipline. Once you make an account, you simply start creating vocab sets. The image above shows the main page for the list I created using words from the (you guessed it) Drug Abuse & Violence: Causes And Effects lesson. Actually, what I had done with my students was to introduce the unit by doing a shared reading using the student guide. We then had a short discussion, went through a brief activity, and then I asked my students to "be the teacher" and identify words that they felt were important to know from this lesson. "If you were teaching this lesson," I said, "which terms would you want your students to learn?" Students paired up and generated lists of 8-10 terms. We then shared out as a class and decided on the top 12. Those got entered into my Quizlet account, and then the students got studying. Which, on Quizlet, is a lot like playing.

This image depicts the "Gravity" game in which students see, one at a time, vocab terms for which they then have to type in the definition before the asteroid falls to Earth. Students can compete to see who gets the fastest time. Other games include Match, Spell and the more traditional Test. And then, there's LIVE. Which they absolutely LOVE. No exaggeration.

Students open a new tab and enter www.quizlet.live and then I, as the teacher, click LIVE on my Quizlet teacher page (projecting my screen onto my Smartboard for my students to see). I then click "Create Game" and a six digit code appears, which students then enter in order to access the Quizlet Live session. Students then enter their first names (you need at least six students to play Live). Once all students are entered, the teacher hits "Play Game" and the game begins.

This image is a demo version of what the student screen looks like. Students are randomly assigned to groups, and each group is given an animal name and image. For each term posted, the student is given a list of four possible definitions. If the student sees the correct definition, s/he clicks it and earns a team point. The student may not have ANY of the correct definitions, in which case it's up to a teammate to select the correct one. Teamwork and effective communication are a key component here. If a student clicks an incorrect definition, the team loses all points and they start again at zero. The team that gets to the maximum number of points first is the winner.

Have you ever seen students totally engaged and enthusiastic about an activity in your classroom? Quizlet Live produces this effect, almost like magic. It's awesome to see, especially knowing that they are simultaneously learning essential vocabulary.

If you haven't already, give Quizlet a shot. If you have, I'd love to hear what you think!

Yours in prevention,

Kate