VOCABULARY
Objective
The purpose of these activities is to provide guidelines for the parents to scaffold children's language learning of vocabulary words with educational apps. The vocabulary learning activities are divided into 4 sessions according to Cope and Kalantzis' (2015) Learning by Design framework.
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Materials/Resources
Picture cards
Tablet or IPad
Educational apps such as Metamorphabet, Endless Alphabet, Dr. Seuss's ABC, and so on
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Session 1 - Experiencing/Situated Practice
Duration - 30 mins (Variable)
During the first reading. when using educational apps such as Metamorphabet, Endless Alphabet, or Dr. Seuss's ABC, and so on to teach children how to recognise the letters of the alphabet, parents can connect the words in each of the alphabets to the real-world referent.
For instance, parents can ask children, "What does this word refer to?" and then point to the referent in the app to guide their vocabulary learning.
Parents can also connect the children's learning of the letter of the alphabet to real-life by asking them, "Which letter of the alphabet does your name start with?"
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Session 2 - Conceptualising/Overt Instruction
Duration - 30 mins (Variable)
During the second reading, parents can guide children how to identify the category of each animal in the app by asking the following guiding questions:
What is this animal called?
What type of animal is it?
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Session 3 - Analysing/Critical Framing
Duration - 30 mins (Variable)
During the third session, to develop children's critical thinking, parents can consider asking children the following prompters to support children in learning the features of animals:
Can all birds that have feathers fly?
What are examples of birds that have feathers but cannot fly?
​Session 4 - Applying/Transformed Practice
Duration - 30 mins (Variable)
During the fourth session, to enable children to apply the concepts they have learnt, parents can prompt children to make up a story using the words learnt:
Will you tell me a story of a bird that learnt how to fly?
Will you tell me a story of a bird that cannot fly?
Contributor: TWM