Using Wordle in the Classroom

Using Wordle in the Classroom

What is Wordle?http://www.wordle.net/Wordle is a program which creates word clouds out of the text of your choice.It is a graphic representation of the most frequently used words or most important words in a speech, a poem, a book, a historical document or from your own thoughts.You decide how to present the word cloud re: font, colour, directional word placement, etc.You save your word cloud for personal use, or allow others to view & offer feedback.

Homepage

View gallery

Create a Word Cloud

Copy & paste text into the word box, then select go & create your word cloud

Customize Your Word Cloud

Edit Your Word CloudCHOOSE FONTCHOOSE LAYOUTCHOOSE COLOUR SCHEMECHOOSE LANGUAGE

Randomize

Randomize allows Wordle to set the layout, colour, language & font of your word cloud keep selecting randomize until you see a style you like.

Word Counts

Click language on the toolbar; scroll down to show word counts to calculate the number of times a word appears in your cloud

Wordle Blog

Search Wordle Blog for info on Wordle: archived posts on how various professions (including teachers!) use Wordle.

Wordle Gallery

Wordle Gallery changes on a minute-by-minute basis! Poke around in the Gallery to see how the word clouds of other Wordle users look.

Advanced Feature in WordleUsing the Advanced feature in Wordle allows you to vary the size of specific words by assigning values to the wordsThe value can be between 15-165Assign high numbers to the most important words & lower numbers to the least important wordsThe higher the number assigned to a word, the larger & more prominent that word or phrase will appear in the Word Cloud

Use a tilde (which is this symbol ~) between two words to keep them together)

Characters/places/emotions in Emily Bronts novel, Wuthering Heights

Next Generation Wordleshttp://www.tagxedo.com/

Next Generation Wordleshttp://www.tagul.com/

Next Generation Wordleshttp://www.tagcrowd.com/

This blog uses Wordle to turn users playlists into Word Cloudshttp://giraffeincognito.com/2009/general/turn-your-last-fm-into-a-wordle/

Another music blog using Wordle

A poetry blog using Wordle

A flickr post using Wordle

A Lesson Plan Using Wordlehttp://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/view_lesson_plans?id=2701

Compare & Contrast: Senator Obamas Democratic Nomination Acceptance Speech (left) vs. Senator McCains Republican Nomination Acceptance Speech (right)

22Other Lesson Plan IdeasBegin a lesson with a Wordle. Students discuss vocabulary and predict the important topics in a lesson. Students can create questions based on the Wordle.Students analyze their own writing.Record what students ate for lunch, put it into Wordle and see the most popular items. Discuss nutrition, etc. Create biographies.Pull out vocabulary from a story or lesson.Create a Wordle to aid recall of science terminology.Insert a Wordle into a Photo Story project.

Assessment: Two Rubric Samples for Wordle

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A wordle I Found in the Wordle Gallery Entitled Writing Rubric

Linkshttp://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/wordle.htm51 Interesting Ways to Use Wordle in the Classroomhttp://www.slideshare.net/JenniferW/wordle-ideasWays to Use Wordle in Your Classroom