Tammie Zentgraf

Video Reflection:

Vocabulary is such a fundamental challenge for many of my students who are in the special
education program at my school. The video demonstrates the instructional use of Quizlet to
support increased academic vocabulary with my students. I have been looking for better and
more interactive ways to engage students to learn academic vocabulary in mathematics to the
extent that it becomes integrated into their long term memory. The video shows an introduction
to Quizlet demonstrating an already established vocabulary list and later splices to a segment
where my students are engaging in Qiuzlet Live, a team game they are trying out for the first
time.

The vocabulary list is one they have been exposed to in different ways throughout the year but
is comprised of words and a concept they still struggle with. At the beginning of a new concept I
typically introduce the pertinent vocabulary words needed for that concept. Whenever available
I google pictures to demonstrate the vocabulary words as several of my students are strong
visual learners and it helps to have an image to attach to the words. Quizlet does not have the
image component but I needed a resource that would give my students an opportunity to
interact with the words in different ways to get more confident with their meanings and make the
connections to their long term memory. Quizlet provides varied interaction with the words that
the students need.

In the beginning of the video, you will see Quizlet being introduced to my students, they have
their chromebooks at their desks and I have Quizlet up on the interactive board. We go through
together looking at the list that is already in place for them but we also go through the process of
how to add a word to the list. We discussed how words can have different meanings depending
on their context. For instance, the word we added was product, there were several
mathematically related definitions for the word product and the definition the group decided
would be most helpful to them was the simplest definition of times. The options though,
included definitions that were from its many other uses, two examples are the result ofor the
physical end result of manufacturing. It provided a good opportunity to discuss how this one
word can apply differently depending on its context.

After discussing the process of adding a word to the list, we also looked at the tools available
within Quizlet to practice the words and its meanings. We briefly went over the options and tried
the matching game together as a class. This game posts the words and their definitions mixed
together and you have to link the word to its proper definition in a timed setting. Just the simple
addition of the timer going off, engaged the students in a different way than if the same words
and definitions were on a piece of paper that you had to connect with a line. One of the
students noticed the Quizlet Live option and inquired about this feature. I was not yet familiar
with that feature so we explored it as a class and watched the built-in tutorial on Quizlet live and
then gave it a try. Because of the length of the video and the difficulty uploading it due to its
size, I ended up splicing that section of the video out. This video segment was all taken on the
same day so the video restarts after we together investigated how to use Quizlet live.

Quizlet Live is approximately the last 2 minutes, you may notice that we were still getting the
hang of it but were able to try it out as a class and have since made use of if it again and it went
more smoothly. Quizlet live randomly assigns all signed-in students to teams and they work
together to select the correct definition of the word that is displayed. If someone makes an
inaccurate choice, their team is blocked from further submissions for about three seconds so the
other team has a time advantage for responding. It was a bit chaotic but it did get this group of
students fully engaged and participating, that was a victory!

As far as measuring their academic progress I had a vocabulary quiz that I administered during
our fractions unit that revealed my students had not fully integrated the definitions and meanings
of these vocabulary words. Students scored on average 6 out of 15 or 40%. This lead me to
seek another way to provide them with opportunities to experience the words and definitions
that will engage them and cause interaction that would create a meaningful connection with
these words. After using Quizlet this past week for the first five minutes of class each day, I see
my students answering questions about these words with more confidence. When given a
different quiz of these same words, the average student score was 11 out of 15 or 73%. A
significant increase in their ability to connect this group of words with their mathematical
definitions.

The errors I saw on the first quiz were irregular without a specific pattern. There were 4 of the
15 that the whole class had correct but the remaining correct answers were spread out over the
other 11 words. I knew that those four words were solid but there was confusion over the
majority of the words being used in this unit. After using Quizlet and seeing the improvement, I
could identify that there was now two sets of words causing confusing as the majority of the
incorrect answers. Student were confusing the definitions for Least Common Denominator and
Greatest Common Factor as well as the definitions for simplify and equivalent fraction. Next
week I will now hone in on identifying the differences between those concepts as my students
will continue to see those concepts in future lessons.

Overall, I did see a significant gain in student understanding or at least student memory after
introducing and using Quizlet. I will be interested to see if they will remain as engaged with
Quizlet as I continue to develop more word lists and have them create some word lists to
practice with as well. I think for a first attempt this was a success. Something I would do
differently if I had another first time is I would have explored the Quizlet Live feature before
introducing it to the class, although it was a good experience to learn about it together. It would
have been a little smoother to have done that piece ahead of time. I am pleased with this added
technology in the classroom and will continue to use it as we move through different units in
math. I could additionally see putting lists together for my students who I provide classroom
support to in their English Language Arts class.