GotBrainy for Expanding Vocabularies

Check out a terrific Web 2.0 site called GotBrainy, which can help students visualize words with pictures.  Visual pictures and connections are useful for expanding vocabularies, as they allow students to make associations with words to help recall their meaning.


That's where GotBrainy comes in as a clever and fun way to represent words with pictures.  The site challenges students to find appropriate pictures for SAT and ACT-type vocabulary words.  They can be witty, memorable and hilarious, like this one:

GotBrainy.com

They also have to use the words in a correct, contextual sentence.  You can have students upload their pictures and sentences to the site.  Alternatively, you can use the words and pictures already on the site and show them to students as examples.  Then, allow your class to use magazines, web photos or pictures they take or illustrate to represent the vocabulary words you want them to practice.  Encourage them to be as creative as possible, as they will likely remember the meanings of new words that they associate with a funny or interesting picture.