This week I am sharing a site recommended by two teachers at the high school - Mr. R. Miller and Mrs. C. Phelps. Thanks!
Quizlet is the largest flash cards and study games Website with over 7 million free sets of flashcards covering every possible subject. It is great for mobile studying and easy for teachers to use. Plus, it's FREE! On their homepage, you can access their blog, find out what flashcard sets are new, try out a quick flashcard set, and browse for already created content by subject. There's also a quick minute video which shows you a basic idea of what they have to offer. It's well worth a look!
Since I had never used this site before, I decided to find something from the social studies curriculum to see how it worked. I found an African Map Test within the geography section. The flashcards included the country name along with a colored section of the African map to show me where the country was located. I had the ability to go back and forth within all the flashcards, so that was nice to be able to compare, for example, the difference in Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Further down the page it had the feature where I could listen to the pronunciation of the country name. On the right-hand side were a list of the most commonly missed items.
There was a spelling link which was interesting. The audio of the country name was spoken and I was asked to type the name. If I missed one, it would repeat the audio and show me where I went wrong in the spelling. Then I had another chance to spell it correctly. The learn link took me to a page which showed me the country visually on a map of Africa and I had to type the name. Next came a test link which included 5 written answer questions, 5 matching questions, 5 multiple choice questions, and 5 true and false questions. There were two games available - scatter and space race. In scatter, I had to match the name of the country with the actual geographical location. At the end it gave me a score of 56.2 seconds. If I had an account, I could save my score. In space race, as the map scrolled by I had to type the name of the country. If I missed one, it would show me the correct name and I would have to type it. The scoring page showed me my score, as well as the high score of all those completing the space race.
Just seeing this much of the site, I must say I was impressed, so I kept going! I went back to the Quizlet homepage and clicked on the link for Teachers. There was some content on the page such as FAQs (frequently asked questions), a quick video, and some teaher comments. What caught my eye, though, was the link right in the center which said I could take 5 minutes to create my own set of flashcards. On that page, I could give my flashcard set a title, a description, the subject matter and select the language (I've never seen so many listed in one place!). I even had the ability to add images to my flashcards. If I already had, say, a vocabulary list set in a spreadsheet, I could even import the data so I wouldn't have to type everything in by hand. I very quickly made a flashcard set of spelling animal names with 12 entries. I don't think they could have made this any easier and quicker! The interesting thing to me is once I set up my "Animals" spelling flashcards, the three study modes and the two game modes were automatically designed for me. I quickly completed the Speller study mode and was even rewarded at the end with a short video once I mastered each term.
As I built my first flashcard set, I was asked to set up an account. There is a paid version of Quizlet available for $15 per year. The paid version adds the features of being able to upload your own images, having no ads, and having an unlimited number of groups. I think the free version, though, would be enough for most teachers and students.
I know the high school students are using the flashcard sets made by our teachers on their mobile devices as a method of studying for quizzes and tests. How easy it would be to go through the flashcards one by one for an upcoming Spanish vocabulary test after I finished a project or test in another classroom. Using every moment of the day as study time, rather than just sitting and staring into space! What a novel idea!
This is truly a terrific site and I'm so glad the teachers shared it with me! Check it out for yourself soon!
