Integrating This Into Your Lessons
Students are given a resource for finding word meanings, pronunciation, and usage.
Students enjoy making Gif-tionaries to remember the meaning of vocabulary words.
Explore: Explore these Gif-tionaries to familiarize yourself with the possibilities.
Create a Gif-tionary: Create a Gif-tionary or an Illustrated Word Map to support students in learning vocabulary needed for a discipline. Your Gif-tionary should include:
- A brief statement or bullet points that provide context of what the Gif-tionary is for (e.g., language objective, content area, grade level, English proficiency levels of students)
- 8-12 words that are needed for a specific objective or content area
- An image or GIF for each term/phrase
- A student-friendly definition for each term (i.e., a definition that students in your context would be able to understand without any/very little explanation from you)
- OPTIONAL: Teach something about Word Origins through your Gif-tionary
Keep in mind that–like any definition created for students learning English–for a Gif-tionary to be effective, the visuals and definitions must be accessible. That means you need to consider students’ backgrounds. For example, would your 6th grade students understand a GIF reference to the X-Files? Thanksgiving? Have they been in contexts or situations that would have given them that exposure? Do your students have the language resources to access a definition like “A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison” or do you need to swap out or explain terms?