What is the Visual Thesaurus?

“The Visual Thesaurus is an interactive dictionary and thesaurus with an innovative display that encourages exploration and learning.”

Trial available until December 15th – use the following linkhttp://www.visualthesaurus.com/promo/6AEEH24G

Content from http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

Educational Features With the Visual Thesaurus, you can integrate technology into a standards-

based curriculum and help your students:

• Find the right word and explore. The Visual Thesaurus has over 145,000 words and 115,000 meanings. Your students can search for the word they're looking for and then follow a trail of related concepts.

• Improve their grasp of the English language. The Visual Thesaurus's intuitive interface helps your students find words through their semantic relationship with other words and meanings. Its focus on connecting words through their meanings results in a more precise understanding of the English language.

• Hear words pronounced correctly. The Visual Thesaurus offers a choice between a British and an American English accent.

• Understand the relationships between English words and meanings. In addition to synonyms, the Visual Thesaurus shows 16 kinds of semantic relationships. Your students will see that a nose is part of a face, that a horned poppy is a type of flower, and that epinephrine is a type of vasoconstrictor.

• Expand their search to the Internet. From any word, your students can initiate an Internet search for either web pages or images.

• Check spelling. The Visual Thesaurus suggests alternatives so your students can find the right word even when they're not sure of the spelling.

Benefits for Students of all Ages

• Ages 12-14: For this age group, seeing the richness of the English language can spark explorations in vocabulary and word usage. It's not unusual to see students from this age group spending hours clicking through the Visual Thesaurus, finding words that they hadn't seen before, and listening to pronunciations. As they explore, they are learning new words and concepts, and discovering subtleties of the English language.

• Ages 15-18: Older high school students can use the Visual

Thesaurus as a vocabulary builder and will benefit from using more descriptive words in their creative writing, poetry writing and essay writing. The Visual Thesaurus also helps students prepare for the SAT. Science and medical terms from the Visual Thesaurus dictionary can be integrated into upper level science courses.

Type in a word to look up…

A visual, interactive map

appears with words

associated, parts of speech

& proper pronunciation

Click on a node..

• The associated definition appears.

• The part of speech is evident with color coding

• The particular use of the word & its definition are on the side bar – as well as other definitions.

Select a definition from the sidebar…

• The visual map transforms to represent that definition.

• The dashes lines indicate a “type of” relationship of word meanings. (shown here with Help on to display pop-up)

Word suggestions available when spelling isn’t correct…

Useful settings for expanded possibilities.

• Easily turn these features on & off:– Antonyms– Participles– Derived from– Verb Groups etc/

Antonym shown with red dashed line.

Application for Foreign Language Students…Search by selected language dictionary &

translation displayed…

Displayed meanings displayed from foreign language dictionary

Software doesn’t offer audio of foreign language pronunciation at this time.

For students with I.E.P.’s…

• Audio reinforcement• Visual relationships

between words displayed

• Associations easily made.

• Color coded to reinforce parts of speech.

• Display Settings can be customized for students

Change font size, circle size, add 3D contrast, line color, scale

to adjust to students’ needs.

Visual Thesaurus website offers daily support surrounding related issues…

• A daily article on pertinent issues on: Grammar, Language, Online, Usage

• Featured Word of the Day

• Vocabgrabber – creates vocabulary from any text.

• Spelling Bee – take the challenge

• Keep up with BLOG issues in education

• Featured Word Lists created by other educators on pertinent topics

Visual Thesaurus website offers daily support surrounding related issues…

Explore with this link. Trial ends December 15th

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/promo/6AEEH24G

• Share link with students/other faculty members to complete a lesson, writing assignment etc.

• Get student/faculty feedback…they can e-mail me directly.

• Give me your feedback…– Charlene E. Conway, Instructional Technology

Specialist, PNHS & PSHS– ceconway@plymouth.k12.ma.us– A webinar is possible if there is interest – let

me know.