Educator Resources

Put the Visual Thesaurus to work in your classroom

Teachers at Work

A column about teaching

Short But Rarely Sweet: Short Stories in the Classroom

March 15, 2010
By Shannon Reed
I don't naturally love short stories, even though I do like small things: fairies, marshmallows and babies all come to mind. But in my personal reading, I prefer the meatiness of a long book, be it fiction or non-. Even in my magazine reading (and I am a devoted magazine reader), I catch myself flipping ahead to see how long an article is before I start. To my mind, the longer the better, which is why I am inordinately fond of Malcolm Gladwell's articles in The New Yorker. Continue reading...
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Teachers at Work

A column about teaching

Reading What You Want
March 9, 2010

Wordshop

Vocab activities for your classroom

Let Freedom Ring!

February 18, 2010
For Black History Month, take a look at some of the speeches that have inspired progress towards racial equality in America. Beyond looking at the historical context of each speech, students can use VocabGrabber to analyze the linguistic patterns in a particular speech to gain insight into what rhetorical devices made those spoken words so memorable. Continue reading...
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Edulinks

Useful sites for educators

Grammar Rules!

March 11, 2010

Learning grammar doesn't have to be dreary! Long gone are the days of sentence diagramming, or so it seems if you check out the fun interactive content on these grammar sites:

Grammaropolis

Grammar Bytes

Grammar Gorillas

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Contest Corner

Vocabulary Goes to the Movies

March 1, 2010
In the Teachers at Work article "A Daily Vocabulary Bonanza for Teachers," Bob Greenman extols the New York Times television listings (of all places!) as a rich source for classroom vocabulary instruction. As Bob explains, the capsule movie reviews in the Times listings are packed with great vocab words. In this month's Contest Corner, we invite you to concoct your own vocabulary-packed movie reviews. Send us three of the best examples you can find, and we will send the winning entrant a Visual Thesaurus T-shirt! Continue reading...
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VOCABGRABBER

Automatically create lists of vocabulary from any text using the Visual Thesaurus VocabGrabber.
Try it now!

SPELLING BEE

Think you are a good speller? Take the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee and find out!
Click here to start.
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Featured Lesson Plan

Using Key Words to Unlock Math Word Problems

March 9, 2010
How can identifying key words help students solve mathematical word problems? Continue reading...
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Why Visual Thesaurus?
The Visual Thesaurus is an ideal teaching resource for children of all ages, with a visually captivating display that engages students in learning new words and concepts. To find out more about how you can integrate the Visual Thesaurus in your classroom, click here.

Visual Thesaurus :

Proven Results

A federally-funded study has found that the Visual Thesaurus can significantly help students struggling with reading comprehension.

Read all about the research here.

Instructional Videos

using the Visual Thesaurus in the classroom

Want to learn how to use the Visual Thesaurus to add some extra oomph to your classroom activities? Just click on the instructional videos above!

Calendar

Events for Educators
Mar 18: VT @ CSPA
Visual Thesaurus staffers will be making two presentations at the Spring National Convention of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, an event for high school journalists and their advisers.  Continue reading...
Mar 29: March Webinar for Educators
Our free monthly webinar helps educators get the most out of the Visual Thesaurus.  Continue reading...
Apr 17: VT @ ACES
The American Copy Editors Society is holding its annual meeting at the Loews Hotel in Philadelphia from April 15 to 17. Visual Thesaurus editor Ben Zimmer will join two copy editing chiefs (Bill Walsh of the Washington Post and Merrill Perlman, formerly of the New York Times) in a session on Saturday afternoon entitled "Your Grammar Questions Answered." Click here for conference details.
Apr 25 - Apr 28: VT @ IRA
The Visual Thesaurus will have an exhibit at the 2010 annual convention of the International Reading Association at McCormick Place in Chicago. Visit us at Booth #1813! Click here for conference details.
Apr 26: April Webinar for Educators
Our free monthly webinar helps educators get the most out of the Visual Thesaurus.  Continue reading...