Wordle June 25, 2008
Posted by anne marie in ELA, SMART Board, Special Education, Websites.Tags: SMART Notebook, word clouds, Wordle
trackback
Over this past week or so I have seen a plethera of posts about this really cool site called Wordle. Wordle is a free website that allows you to create word clouds from text or from a del.icio.us tag. I told you it was cool!! Cool, and very user friendly. Simply copy text in any language, paste it into the Wordle text box and it will create clouds with the most commonly occurring words in the text. Once created it gives you the option to edit the shape, colors, font and layout of the cloud. You can delete any words you do not want/like by right-clicking on them. It also gives you the option of printing your creation or saving it to the gallery-YEAH!! I also want to mention that for students who may require a “specialized” cloud, with limited words, it does allow you to simply type words into the text box.
Since learning about this site my mind has been whirling, thinking of possible ways that I can incorporate it into my lessons using the SMARTBoard. For my classroom I would create a Wordle word cloud with specific words, paste it in my SMART Notebook lesson and have students use SMART markers to circle or highlight words according to the particluar lesson- kind of like a word search of sorts. I could even use the Notebook shade to hide and reveal words. Some ideas I envision would be to create word clouds for word review/identification, identifying parts of speech, identifying rhyming words, find words that begin with a specific letter, find words that would complete a sentence or answer a question,etc. The possibilities are endless-YEAH!! Here is quick example I created for identifying words that describe body parts. I would review/read words with my students and have them circle the words that are body parts. 
I also think this would be a very motivating, fun way to teach/review the computer skill of copy and paste. So let your imagnation lead the way to some fun and creative lessons this fall using the Wonderful World of Wordle!
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?