Dictionary & Thesaurus
Overview
Dictionaries and thesauruses can serve as resources for students to expand their Vocabulary knowledge, as they provide easy access to definitions and similar words to help students remember words and meanings more readily. Using these resources is particularly helpful in increasing Disciplinary Literacy when students access content-specific texts with high-level Vocabulary. Students can also enrich their Composition pieces when they use a dictionary or thesaurus.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch how this high school teacher uses a visual thesaurus to help students understand puns. At 10:24, one of the students presents their pun and explains their Vocabulary process to the class, using information found in the thesaurus. The second student presentation shows how the group problem solved when they did not understand a key vocabulary word in their pun.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Learn how the Merriam-Webster Dictionary app allows learners to conveniently search for and define unfamiliar words. By offering voice search and audio pronunciation functions, this product supports learners who prefer audio over text. The embedded quizzes also allow for continued Vocabulary building and practice.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Multisensory Supports Strategies
Audiobooks allow students to hear fluent reading and to experience books that may be above their reading skills.
Communication boards are displays of graphics (e.g., pictures, symbols, illustrations) and/or words where learners can gesture or point to the displays to extend their expressive language potential.
Dictation, also referred to as speech-to-text, an assistive communication technology that translates voice dictation to digital text, provides students with transcription difficulties the opportunity to participate in the writing process by allowing them to use their voice to generate and record ideas.
Adding gestures and motions to complement learning activates more cognitive processes for recall and understanding, particularly within content area instruction.
Short breaks that include mindfulness quiet the brain to allow for improved thinking and emotional regulation.
Brain breaks that include movement allow learners to refresh their thinking and focus on learning new information.
Connecting information to music and dance can support Short-term and Long-term Memory by engaging auditory processes, Emotions, and physical activity.
Using earplugs or headphones can increase focus and comfort.
Transforming written text into audio supports learning by activating different parts of a learner's brain for comprehension.
Visual supports, like text magnification, colored overlays, and text manipulation, help students focus and properly track as they read.
Research has shown that students write longer pieces with stronger quality when they use word processing software.
Word sorts are multisensory activities that help learners identify patterns and group words based on different categories while promoting Vocabulary development.
