Using Wordle in the Classroom

 Wordle is a free 'word art' tool that crunches any chunk of text in the production of a visual representation of the content. The resulting graphic emphasizes the most common words by amplifying their size based on frequency.

 Originally designed to give pleasure, Wordle is being used in interesting ways to provide compelling summaries of political speeches, blog posts, twitter feeds, news articles and more, but there are additional educational uses worth considering.

 The beauty of Wordle is that there is no signup or login and the whole process can be completed in as little as a minute depending on how complex you wish to get.

 Before checking a vocabulary word in the dictionary ask them to brainstorm all the words they associate with it. Gather up all the brainstormed words for a Wordle.  After the term has been formally defined, repeat the process and compare to the "pre-dictionary" Wordle.

 Brighten up your word walls with Wordle lessons.word walls  Students can brainstorm synonyms, antonyms, or definitions for their list of vocabulary words.  Add your word clouds to your existing word wall work to help stimulate those higher thinking skills in your students.  Keep a tally of the targeted vocabulary words that the children use in speech on a daily basis, and them to a Wordle cloud to show which are used most often.

 Enter the text of a famous historical speech into Wordle.  Sources of speeches: Sources of speeches: s.htm s.htm hesall.html hesall.html

 Instead of your traditional bar graph or pictograph, try using Wordle to organize your data.  Have all students take turns at entering their favorite color in to Wordle and generate the resulting cloud.

 as a means of visualizing whether they are over-using certain words or phrases.  This might help them avoid clichés and search for new vocabulary to express their ideas.

 Students can create KWL charts on what they would like to learn and find out about a given topic.KWL charts  Create word clouds at the end of a unit to summarize the key learning points or vocabulary from a given topic.

 pre-reading exercise - ask students to predict what the main ideas will be.  pre-reading option - a non-fiction reading and ask them to generate a title or headline before they see the real article.  Post reading - reflect on the reading based on a prompt (examples - main idea, what you've learned, funniest element, etc). Then collect all their reflections into a Wordle.

 History vs. Historical Fiction  Science Fiction vs. Fantasy  Myths vs. Fables  Fairy Tales vs. Tall Tales

 Wordle can be output in 3 ways. Printout, link to webpage (viewable in a public Gallery) or you have to manually screen capture it and create a digital image.  Consider using Jing ( for your screen capturewww.techsmith.com

 Wordle does not understand multiple words such as Harry Potter. This can be very annoying at times as Harry Potter will be recorded as two single words. You can get around this by joining words.  Harry-Potter, Harry~Potter, Harry_Potter or HarryPotter

 CleverSheep CleverSheep  Soul Cradler Soul Cradler  48 Interesting Ways to Use Wordle in the Classroom 48 Interesting Ways to Use Wordle in the Classroom  The Languages Resource Blog The Languages Resource Blog  Cool stuff for nerdy teachers Cool stuff for nerdy teachers  Box of Tricks Box of Tricks  Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…  25 Interesting Ways to Use Wordle in the Classroom 25 Interesting Ways to Use Wordle in the Classroom  Bright Hub Bright Hub  Guess the Wordle Guess the Wordle