Practicing Vocabulary with Jetpunk

Last school year I came across the website JetPunk (http://www.jetpunk.com/).  Basically it allows you to create lists of words or phrases that students then are given a set amount of time to try to complete.  For example, I could ask them to name all the colors we are studying or write the capital that goes with each Spanish-speaking country.  (Since it is a free site, there are hundreds of quizzes available although many are related to pop culture rather than academia.)

I will use JetPunk as a warm up and an exit slip.  At the beginning of class students will try to write as many words as they can.  Then when time is up, I have them put a slash in a tally chart of where their score fell.  At the end of class after we have practiced, we take the quiz again, make a second row along the bottom of the chart, and compare our progress as a class.

Score chart with round one on top and round two on the bottom.  I have students put their tally mark in a range of numbers rather than the exact number.

The quizzes rely on spelling being correct although accents are ignored.  Students can write in answers in any order which is nice in one way but also means that they do not necessarily have to know what words mean, just that they fit in the category.

I like JetPunk because it can be a quick activity to jar kids' minds and show them how much they know (or don't know) in a short amount of time.  It also checks their spelling for them which means they can't overlook a misspelling (which they will do if they just write on paper).  I don't like that accents are glossed over and that vocabulary understanding is not as important.