Propagate is a new service that allows teachers to embed vocabulary practice inside any digital text. Right now the application is in Beta and is free for any teachers who are interested in trying it out. If you’re using digital text in your class, regardless of the subject area, Propagate is an excellent way to help students acquire and practice new vocab. Let’s check it out!
Let’s start with an example so you can get a better idea of how Propagate works in practice. Say I’m a middle school student, reading an online article for my history class. When I arrive at the article, there are already a few key vocabulary words highlighted. I can click on these words to see their definition and later, these words will be integrated into practice activities like flashcards and quizzes. In addition to the words in the article that are highlighted, I can highlight any words that I’m unsure of, and not only will Propagate display the definition, but these words will be added to my practice section as well.
Propagate in Action
For now, Propagate mainly works as a Chrome plugin, but they are working towards expanding the availability to all platforms and devices. That being said, students can access their Propagate account from any web-enabled device and engage in practice activities or explore assignments. They just won’t have in-text word highlighting available on any platform other than Chrome for the time being.
The Propagate Teacher Dashboard
Additionally, Propagate will be coming with pre-created word lists so teachers can easily assign lists like “SAT Vocabulary” or “Common Core 7th Grade English Vocabulary” making the creation and work time on the part of the teacher incredibly minimal.
A Sample Quiz
Finally, when students do login to work on the practice activities or quizzes, Propagate will automatically create contextualized sentence examples based on their words, so teachers don’t have to write anything at all for these activities. Propagate will even grade the student results so teachers can immediately see how their students are performing.
Quiz Results and Feedback
So, with that being said, if you are using digital texts in your classroom, I definitely recommend giving Propagate a try. You can contact them to find out more about the Beta testing and how to get involved. As to my rating, for now I’m going with the 4 stars just because they still have a little ways to go to be usable across devices and platforms, but once they’re to that point, they will definitely have a 5 star application.
The opinions expressed in this review are my own.
I was not compensated for writing this review.
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