Word Clouds Rock!

I first heard about Word clouds during a PD while I was in my internship.  The Word cloud generator that I first heard about was Wordle.  I taught a unit on Growth, Change and Life Cycles in a grade 2 class, and at the end of the unit, I wanted to pull it all together.  So I decided to use Wordle to do that.  Here is a sample of what we created together:

This Word Cloud was very useful to show what the students had learned within the unit.  What I liked about Wordle was that if the students said the same word over and over again, it would reflect as a bigger word within the Wordle. 

Lately, I have learned that there are many more options besides Wordle.  My son and I made a Tagxedo Word cloud yesterday.  He uploaded a picture of himself (eating a hamburger-one of his favorite things to do), and then typed the words that he wanted within his word cloud.  Here's what we came up with together:

 

I loved that you could choose the shape of the word cloud by uploading a picture.  This would be fantastic as a "get to know you" activity at the beginning of the year with students.  We could take a picture, and they could add the words that make them special.  Another great idea would be to use this to make a cover for your project on a particular animal, etc.  You could copy what you typed into the Tagxedo and use the corresponding shape that you wanted. 

 

In addition, there were also shape templates on the website that you could use if you did not want to upload a picture.  I liked that option.

 

Here are some other ideas of how to use Word clouds in the classroom:

 

 

• Use it to introduce a new topic to the class
• Self-reflection on work – as Wordle makes a word larger the more frequently it is used, students will be able to see at a glance which words or phrases they are over-using
• Put a personal narrative into a Word cloud so that students can see what is important to their peers within this narrative
• Use it to introduce new vocabulary
• Encouraging creative writing from key words in a Word cloud
• Turn essays or projects into posters
• Summarize survey data-type the responses into a word cloud to see the most common answers
• Create a gift for Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc.
• Student profiles-have students write a few positive words to describe each student in their class, then create a Word cloud with the compiled lists as a positive feedback exercise
• Word walls-brainstorm synonyms, antonyms, etc.  This would help stimulate critical thinking, while at the same time having fun!
 

Another great Word cloud site that is great for younger students is ABCya .  You can save and print the Word clouds that are created.  It is very user friendly. 

 

So what is your favorite Word cloud maker?  Do you have any other ideas on how you could use them in your classroom?