Ways To Use Wordle In Your Classroom Jen Wagner June 2009

What is Wordle http://www.wordle.net/ a graphic representation of most frequently used words.   in a speech, in a poem, in a book, in your head,  in scripture, in historical document, on a blog, in a wiki, overhead in your classroom, on twitter/plurk, at a presentation or staff meeting, and more! However, it is NOT limited to only frequently used words -- you can create a wordle to be what you wish the wordle to be.

Expand Wordle If you use a screen capture tool (such as Jing) and online venues (such as BigHugeLabs or SmugMug) you can create some one-of-a-kind gifts, posters, and more.   http://www.jingproject.com/ http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ http://www.smugmug.com/

Wordle Hints Retype the words you wish emphasized 2 to 3 more times than the other words to make them stand out Use a ~ between words to group words together such as We~The~People Look through your font choices Under layout – you can determine the maximum word usage. Can make your wordle truly POP!

Teacher Appreciation Have students brainstorm thoughts and memories about their teacher.  Print as poster, mousepad, or magnet.

Mother's Day/Father's Day After children create wordle, place the image on a mug.  Or use fabric transfer paper and make a tie.

Famous Speeches You can find a collection of speeches at http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/previous.htm

Class Rules Create your listing of rules or let students create their list.  Print as a poster or desk reminders.

Student Names Doublecheck and triplecheck you have EVERYONE before printing.

Correct Way To Spell Start a list each month of frequently misspelled words, change your wordle each month & compare.

Ways To Say Things Differently This can be done in a variety of ways including using the = sign.  Such as cat=katze or synonyms/antonyms

Characters In A Book Using a graphics program (PaintShopPro, PhotoShop, Pixie2, Paint) you can add images to your wordle.

Artwork Reflection Overlay students reflections on a piece of artwork -- a famous artist or your own classroom artists.

State Reports Create a unique state report, country report, animal report……….any report.

Classroom Lesson Turn your spelling book or grammar lessons into a wordle of review.

Poetry Have your students find (or create) a picture that shows a poem.  Customize the wordle coloring palette. 

Tell Me About…… Take a well known item (Olympic rings, maps, household item, etc) and create a wordle inside the object.

Guess The Book… Have your students create book jackets based on characters, plots, and locations w/in a book.

Review A Historical Document Have students review a document & pull out the words they feel should be emphasized!

Create a Memory This idea was use in Texas on June 12, 2009. It could also be used for class subjects or field trip memories.

Information Review Clipart courtesy FCIT:  http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/ 

Special Effects Information Many people have asked how I created the special effects (such as overlays of artwork) I enjoy the software Paint Shop Pro … and within paint shop pro (or any graphics program) – you can create layers in which to manipulate your artwork. The image I used would become the bottom layer and the wordle (which I used a screen capture) would become my second layer. I also used opacity (to subdue some of the backgrounds) and also used EFFECTS to create bevels and shadows.

Other Ways To Use Wordle Rodd Lucier has 20 ways on his blog at http://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2008/10/top-20-uses-for-wordle.html  Murcha has a slideshare of ideas at http://www.slideshare.net/murcha/using-wordle-in-the-classroom-presentation  Samantha Lunn has 23 ideas at http://languagesresources.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/23-ways-to-use-wordle-in-the-mfl-classroom/  Terry Freedman has 5 ideas at http://www.techlearning.com/article/Blogs/20322  Tom Barrett has a growing list at http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/wordle.htm  Chris Thomas has an excellent tutorial at http://www.iprimary.co.uk/tutorial.php?tutorialID=002  

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