VocabGrabber: Visual Vocabulary

Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus has launched an interesting new tool called VocabGrabber that helps teachers and students to quickly focus on the important vocabulary from almost any text.

VocabGrabber intelligently extracts words from any document and shows how those words are used in context. It's an asset to language arts teachers or anyone who wants extended insights into how language works.

Copy and paste a passage into a box on the VocabGrabber web site, click the Grab Vocabulary button, and an organized interactive visualization of vocabulary words and phrases in that text quickly appears. How often words appear in the text is compared with the frequency of these words in standard written English.

Students get to see how words are used in context instead of memorizing tedious, boring word lists. VocabGrabber makes words come alive, providing relevant authentic examples of words in action. Students can explore the connections between words and meanings through visually interesting word maps.

Teachers can use VocabGrabber to highlight vocabulary specific to a curricular subject area. It can also be useful to students preparing for state standardized tests, or national tests like the SAT and ACT. Teachers can choose the most appropriate vocabulary words and can preview, along with their students, the words that are most important to improving reading comprehension .

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