Using Wordle in the Classroom
What is Wordle?
http://www.wordle.net/
• Wordle is a program which creates “word clouds”
out of the text of your choice.
• It is a GRAPHIC REPRESENTATION of the most
frequently used words or most important words
in a speech, a poem, a book, a historical
document or from your own thoughts.
• You decide how to present the word cloud re:
font, colour, directional word placement, etc.
• You save your word cloud for personal use, or
allow others to view & offer feedback.
Homepage
Create a “Word Cloud”
Copy &
paste
text into
the word
box,
then
select
“go” &
create
your
word
cloud
Customize Your Word Cloud
Edit Your Word Cloud
CHOOSE
FONT
CHOOSE
COLOUR
SCHEME
CHOOSE
LANGUAGE
CHOOSE
LAYOUT
Randomize
“Randomize” allows Wordle to set the layout, colour, language &
font of your word cloud – keep selecting randomize until you see a
style you like.
Click
“language”
on the
toolbar;
scroll
down to
“show
word
counts” to
calculate
the
number of
times a
word
appears in
your cloud
Word Counts
Wordle Blog
Search Wordle Blog for info
on Wordle: archived posts on
how various professions
(including teachers!) use
Wordle.
Wordle Gallery
Wordle Gallery
changes on a minuteby-minute basis! Poke
around in the Gallery
to see how the word
clouds of other
Wordle users look.
Advanced Feature in Wordle
• Using the “Advanced” feature in Wordle allows
you to vary the size of specific words by assigning
values to the words
• The value can be between 15-165
• Assign high numbers to the most important
words & lower numbers to the least important
words
• The higher the number assigned to a word, the
larger & more prominent that word or phrase will
appear in the Word Cloud
Use a tilde (which is
this symbol ~)
between two words
to keep them
together)
Characters/places/emotions in Emily
Brontë’s novel, Wuthering Heights
“Next Generation” Wordles
http://www.tagxedo.com/
“Next Generation” Wordles
http://www.tagul.com/
“Next Generation” Wordles
http://www.tagcrowd.com/
This blog uses Wordle to turn users’ playlists into
Word Clouds
http://giraffeincognito.com/2009/general/turnyour-last-fm-into-a-wordle/
Another
music
blog
using
Wordle
A poetry blog
using Wordle
A flickr post
using Wordle
A Lesson Plan Using Wordle
http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/view_lesson_plans?id=2701
Compare & Contrast: Senator Obama’s
Democratic Nomination Acceptance Speech
(left) vs. Senator McCain’s Republican
Nomination Acceptance Speech (right)
Other Lesson Plan Ideas
• Begin a lesson with a Wordle. Students discuss
vocabulary and predict the important topics in a
lesson. Students can create questions based on the
Wordle.
• Students analyze their own writing.
• Record what students ate for lunch, put it into Wordle
and see the most popular items. Discuss nutrition, etc.
• Create biographies.
• Pull out vocabulary from a story or lesson.
• Create a Wordle to aid recall of science terminology.
• Insert a Wordle into a Photo Story project.
Assessment: Two Rubric Samples for
Wordle
A wordle I Found in the Wordle
Gallery Entitled “Writing Rubric”
Links
• http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/wordle.htm
51 INTERESTING WAYS TO USE WORDLE IN THE
CLASSROOM
• http://www.slideshare.net/JenniferW/wordleideas
WAYS TO USE WORDLE IN YOUR CLASSROOM