Teaching Vocabulary

In teaching letters, letter sounds, and vocabulary, I try to put myself in the position of the students. What if I were looking at these symbols and words in another unfamiliar language? How would I best learn to recognize this, for example: 一天  and understand the meaning? Those are the same strategies I would use with them. This little visualization also helps me to be more patient, knowing that this is something they haven't seen before.
I love the word inventory idea, and it fits perfectly with the lower grade levels that I work with the most. Having them place an emoticon next to the word to indicate their knowledge is age appropriate and effective, although it may be required to double check since some students that are eager to please may put smileys by all of them.
The older grades, 3-5 in my case, would benefit more from the graphic organizers and structural analysis. For some reason, they love breaking words down into syllables. I thought they would be beyond that, but they love it and ask for more words to break down. Studying prefixes and suffixes helps to enhance the meanings of words if they can correctly identify the base word. I think that word analysis would be a big part of my teaching, because I think it is effective in helping students achieve autonomy. I had not heard of the DISSECT mnemonic before, but I love it and look forward to using it as well as the word attack paradigm.
I am trying to absorb as much as I can about using technology in new ways (or at least, new to me) and the idea of QR codes and podcasts. I love that the steps are written out for you, but what technology do you use? I went to cengagebrain.com and it's a site for purchasing textbooks. Am I looking in the wrong spot or is this an outdated tip?
I have been using bingo games all year for word recognition, but the suggestion of saying the definition is one that I will begin to incorporate. That's a great way to reinforce learning and increase vocabulary.