5 More Reasons to Use Quizlet
As many teachers are in the midst of MAP testing or approaching End of Course Exams, the season of review is upon us. A number of months ago, Lara Boles, social studies teacher at West High, highlighted how she uses the online flashcard maker Quizlet to keep vocabulary and concepts fresh in the minds of her students. This week, prompted by a flashcard-related e-mail, I’d like to highlight 5 more reasons why Quizlet is a review resource worth investigating, and give some direction on how you can get your students involved with the content with very little headache.
5 (More) Reasons to Check Out Quizlet:
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Quick group creation: I go into more detail below, but suffice it to say that Quizlet has made it easy for teachers and students to create competitive and collaborative groups focused on vocabulary and concept review.
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Printable flashcards: No Internet access? No problem. Quizlet has a built-in method for printing out your cards for off-road access to review.
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Embed your review anywhere: Once available only for the vocab review games, embed code is everywhere on Quizlet now. Want your cards to display on your Moodle course, a practice test on your website, a game of Scatter on your wiki? Grab the embed code and display your set almost any place on the web.
- Audio in English … and 17 other languages!: Whether you are using Quizlet to teach foreign languages or just looking to engage another learning style, audio is a powerful tool, and audio is now included by default whenever terms or definitions are typed into the tool. The “computer voice” is rather good – you can try it out on the set embedded below. Just toggle the “Enable Audio” button.
Study these flash cards | Study statistics flash cards
- Live discussion right on the page: Each flashcard set gives you the ability to set up a chat window if you wish. The chats live forever, though each student does retain the ability to delete his or her own comments. While not an amazingly innovative feature, it does open up a place where students can leave feedback on the set, correcting errors that might have escaped a teacher’s notice or suggesting terms that might be added to the set.
Quick Group Creation
The e-mail I received this week was asking whether it was possible to set up a Quizlet group without manually creating student accounts one by one. Happily, yes, it is possible. In fact, Quizlet is designed for students to set up their own accounts, and they can do so even if they do not have e-mail addresses or facebook accounts. One straight-forward process for creating groups and registering your students is below:
- Create a group for your class or unit and set a password. (directions here)
- Reserve lab time for students to create their own accounts, possibly using mailcatch.com if they do not have e-mail addresses. (mailcatch directions here)
- During that same time, once students have created their accounts, ask them to search for their teacher’s username and select the appropriate group she’s created. (directions here)
- When students find the group, they will be prompted for the password, which the teacher can write on the board.
- Once all students are in the group, the teacher can change the group’s password, which will prevent others from “registering.”
A few moments of set-up and about 15 minutes in the lab can get a class up and reviewing with Quizlet.
Are there other features of this tool that have been helpful to you? Do you have a flashcard set you’d like to share? Tell us in the comments below!