For this activity, students are tasked with creating an Instagram post imagining that their assigned vocabulary word was a person posting on social media. All aspects of the post should relate to the meaning of the vocabulary word. It is more than okay if more than one student is assigned the same word. This allows students to see multiple impressions of the word which gives more chances for lasting connections. Included you will see a sample post for the word “nebulous” that I made to share with my students before they began.
When creating the post, students need to consider:
- What would this vocabulary word’s profile picture look like?
- What would its username be?
- Would this word have a lot of posts/followers/likes/comments?
- What image would this word post?
In addition:
- In the caption, they need to use the vocabulary word in a way that demonstrates the meaning of the word.
- Comments and hashtags made on the post should also demonstrate a connection to the word’s meaning.
This can be done with paper and pencil or one of many online Instagram post generators (I used Code Beautify for my sample.) To avoid copyright issues, I used Canva AI image generator to create the images.
Before they begin, I present my sample to model my expectations. I give my students the option to do the activity either on paper or digitally. This way they are not hindered by their lack of artistic ability or knowledge of technology. When they finish, I then have them put a picture of their work in a Google Slide show so they can present and explain their choices as I demonstrated at the beginning of the lesson. This allows all students to see and hear about all vocabulary words to create a multitude of ways to remember the word’s meaning. We also compare the differing choices made by students with the same word. Many students recalled details from this assignment when taking the quiz. Any way to make vocabulary real and meaningful is a win to me! And this activity is fun which is a huge bonus for all of us.
