Wordle is Web 2.0 tool that creates word clouds based on the text you provide. I've used Wordle in various ways the past few years, and I love the results. It has a very easy to use interface and students love using it. The best part is that it's free and there is no need to register to use the site, so you don't have to remember another username and password.
The the video below walks you through creating a Wordle using the latest blog post from Rena Hanaway's Creating Ripples blog as the source text.
The cut and paste function of Wordle can allow the user to create some interesting word clouds. The biggest way I've used this in class is in creating thematic posters to go along with George Orwell's Animal Farm. Because the novel is now in the open domain, the text is available fully on various websites. Using these sites, I take each chapter and past them into the Wordle applet one at a time. Bumping the word count up to 999 so that the clouds are full of words, the resulting clouds give a great visual overview of the main events and prominent characters as the novel progresses. My students enjoy predicting the events that will occur in the chapters based on the names that show so prominently in the cloud. Below is an example of the cloud from chapter one of the book.
When I first started using Wordle, I noticed it looked at each word individually, so you couldn't use phrases. There is, however, a way to do this. If you have words that you want to be analyzed as a phrase, you join them with a tilda (~). This symbol is located beside the (1/!) key directly above the TAB key. I used this feature to create the cloud below, which has my name, the courses I teach, the name our student newspaper, various literary and grammar terms, and the names of several authors. To achieve this, I put my name in the text box as Mr.~Drummond, and then copied and pasted it 9 times so it would be the largest. For the author's names, they all had a tilda (~) between them, like Mark~Twain, Jasper~Fforde, Emily~Dickinson, etc.
It is interesting what a simple yet visually interesting way to use a tool like this. I came across a similar tool a few years back and was not quite sure how to use it. I had heard of word clouds being used to analyze speeches and the words most commonly used by one or to compare several orators. However now combining how you have used this with the information on Wordle my mind is racing. Nowadays most of the reading, whether it be in my science, history, or English class I retrieve from the internet. If I ask my students to then search their own or combine my choices and theirs for particular topics, we could easily and creatively come up with terrific visuals. Those visuals can be used as support for student presentations or as conversation starters, or essay brainstorming. I think, but I would like to try it before stating so assuredly, that this may be interesting to use when teaching students to scan material. I often struggle with teaching my students this skill. I think that many of my students with reading diffabilities (I heard a program on NPR today talking about how all the new words being used surrounding the Slater flight attendant melt-down catch on and become words based on usage and I thought I would give it a try! People are generally not ‘dis’ abled they are usually just differently abled) really have a difficult time letting their eyes relax because their brains are not making the connections quite as quickly as a fluent reader, and this may be just the tool to allow them to experience or to practice picking out words. When a skill like that comes naturally it is often difficult to understand the challenge. I often try to describe to somebody that it is like learning a new language where you have to stop at each word and translate it back to your native language, then piece each word together and try to decipher the meaning of the concepts as a whole. Wordle seems to accentuate the concepts among largely bodies of text that may otherwise be completely overwhelming and intimidating for students with reading diffabilities.
ReplyDeleteNice work Justin, I honestly would not have tried this if you hadn’t brought it up, so thank you!
Hi Justin, I enjoyed reading your informative review of Wordle. It is obvious that you are very comfortable with this program and have had a lot of time to work with it. Because of your familiarity with the program, you were able to share great insights on how to use it and the inside way to have the program do what you want it to do. The information you shared gave me great ideas on how I can use it in the future. I hadn't thought of using it to teach reading comprehension. I had only seen the program used in business concepts, this application opened my eyes to its usefulness. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHey Justin,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I teach video production, I'm in the English department at my high school, so I've heard a lot about Wordle, though I've never read much about it myself. I enjoyed reading your blogpost and viewing the video you linked, as it gave me a much better idea of how creative & user friendly this tool is! I agree that one of the best parts about this is that it's free and requires no login/password! That can be such a hindrance to people who are on the fence about trying something like this out.
I can certainly see how this could get students more interested in their reading assignments and such. Thanks for giving me a heads up about this and explaining some of the ways to use it (using the tilda and all).
Justin,
ReplyDeleteI love Wordle too. I taught/showed it to fellow teachers last week and they loved it. The students can create Wordles of novel characters, initiate discussions or as a "all about me" assignment. My daughter was asked to create a Wordle about her using 25 words for her Math class. Her math teacher was one of my students this past week. Another teacher created a Wordle about herself and Math for the first day of school. I used Wordle for discussion starters for the last two days and the students loved them. I have them hanging up in my room. They are very proud of them!
It is a very simple idea with a great impact!