WordQ Tips

Getting learners to use subject-specific vocabulary

It can be difficult for learners to use specific, relevant vocabulary (“rotate” instead of “go round”, “evaporate” instead of “go away”, “step, stride or tiptoe” instead of “walk”).

With WordQ you can encourage your learners to develop their vocabulary in this way, so satisfying the requirements of the curriculum for relevant, subject-specific vocabulary.

And it’s easy to do!

1. Go to WordQ’s Options button, find and click on My Words...
2. Click on the Topic tab
3. Click on the New button and give your topic a name (e.g., Rocks and Minerals Grade 4, The Respiratory System Year 8, Story 1 Ms. Jones Group 3)

Now add the words you want your learners to use, one at a time, typing them in (make sure the spelling is correct!) and then hitting the Add button.

Usage examples for confusing words

Using the new WordQ 2 usage examples feature is helpful when words are easily confused. While WordQ includes usage examples for many confusing words, it does not cover the entire dictionary. You may wish to create examples for specific words.

For example, if you are doing a unit on volcanoes and you have created a topic in the way described, with relevant “Volcano” vocabulary (e.g. erupt, magma, lava, etc.) you can create a usage examples for “lather” and “lava” which are commonly confused.

All you do is, locate each word on the Options>My Words…>Main dialog and write out a usage example in the bottom text field. These examples will now be available when those words are shown in the prediction box. When the students try to type “The lather flowed down the mountainside” an arrow will appear next to the word ‘lather’ showing them the usage example you just created, reinforcing what you’ve been trying to hammer home for the last month!

Focusing on the prediction list

Sherri Parkins of Seneca College, Toronto, Canada has this suggestion for trying to get learners to really look at the prediction box, so that they can get the best use out of it.

“Get the students to use only one hand while learning to use the prediction box. This helps really fast proficient typists to slow down long enough to actually notice what WordQ can do for them. It has been our experience that even the fast typists and good spellers who profess not to use WordQ actually begin to incorporate it into their writing" 

Editing work

One of the best uses of WordQ is as an editing, or proofreading tool.

We have all had that experience of remarking on how much easier it is to correct someone else’s work than our own. The whole process of writing means that we often think that what was in our heads is the same as what is now on paper. Asking someone else to look through what we’ve written is normally essential if we care about the reception our piece of writing might receive.

In schools this is obviously true too. But learners typically hate having to review or edit their work – partly because they’ve done it once already and once seems plenty, and partly because they just don’t see their mistakes anyway, so what’s the point?
WordQ can really help with this.

Ask the students to write their work as usual, using WordQ to predict and select appropriate words. When they have finished, ask them to go through their work paragraph by paragraph (or section by section).

Ask them to highlight the paragraph or section, and then select the Read button. WordQ will now read this section aloud to the learner. Listening to it in this way is like having someone else read it and the learners will often hear the mistakes they didn’t see. If there are no periods, WordQ just keeps on reading, if there are periods where none should be, WordQ reads the phrase as if it’s a sentence – in other words WordQ reads exactly what is written, with the corresponding intonation. Learners can then spot their mistake themselves- without being made to feel embarrassed or irritated about their mistake. The joy of the perfectly non-judgmental computer!

When the learners have made the changes they feel necessary, ask them to highlight their whole text and have it read to them again, for one final revision.

One of our customers was particularly impressed by this feature:

“When the kids have finished their writing, get them to highlight it all, press the Read button and have WordQ read it to them. It's amazing how many mistakes they can find themselves, by hearing their work as well as seeing it"

Repetition

Many people learn by having things repeated – in fact it is generally believed that we need to see or hear something 7 times before we actually assimilate it, whether it is a new piece of vocabulary or a new fact.
You can use WordQ to repeat things to you; it could be the names of the planets in the solar system, the capitals of states or countries, difficult words, historical facts – anything.

“My daughter finds it really helpful to hear things repeated often so what I do is type up some of the facts she has to learn, historical facts for example. Then she opens WordQ, hits the read button and WordQ reads it and reads it and reads it- as often as she likes. That's the joy of computers, they never get bored! We’ve now started using WordQ French too and it’s really helping her French."

- Parent, Canada

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