The fifth graders in our building along with their teachers, Mrs. Adametz and Mrs. Veze, created some pretty impressive word clouds this week. They built these clouds based on the inner character traits that they observe in one other. Not only was this an introductory lesson on character traits, but it was also an engaging back-to-school community building activity. The students used the web tool
Taxedo to create their clouds but there are many word cloud creation tools available for teachers and students besides this particular one.
If you want to try a similar project on the iPad,
Word Clouds by abcya is a free and easy to use tool. When combined with
PicCollage, any number of photo options are available. Below is a character traits word cloud example using those two applications.
Word Clouds can be used in so many different ways. Try them for:
- synonyms
- antonyms
- main idea
- activate prior knowledge
- exit ticket
- adjectives
How do you use word clouds in your classroom? Please share in the comments below.
Heidi,
ReplyDeleteSince reading your post, I've used Word Clouds several times in my classroom. To start out, I've been taking notes right in the Word Clouds app by typing key words students use when they discuss a topic or explain a concept. By the end of class, we have a great visual that displays the students' ideas.
Here's one from a science experiment we did this week:
http://explore.sswiki.com/Molecules+in+Motion
Paul,
ReplyDeleteThis is an effective and easy way to document your students ideas and knowledge. I love that you are putting it on your wikki so that the students can continue to refer back to it. I think your parents probably enjoy it as well. After your students see you model this enough, they will probably want to create their own word clouds!
I use a website called www.sporcle.com -- it's for mentally stimulating diversions. It makes students: think, type, and spell correctly. I believe others could possible use it to supplement their material, etc...
ReplyDeleteJust today I had my 6th graders go to the site, search for corporate logos, and then "play" a few of the timed games. They had a blast but got frustrated when they couldn't remember something or spell something correctly. That is what makes this site so fun and useful. Tomorrow, my 6th graders are going to revisit the site and play another logo game (some did their games in pairs -- this is good for those who can't type well or spell well). Then, I'm going to have the students pick 10-15 of the corporations and search the Internet for their advertising slogans. An example: for Nike, their slogan is Just Do It. They'll have to type the company name and slogan into a word processing document and save the document as Corporate slogans. They'll then have to copy and paste what they typed into the www.wordle.net or www.tagxedo.com word cloud generator. From their, they'll print and submit the word cloud for a grade.
Richard Mitchell
Rich,
ReplyDeleteThis is a website I am looking forward to checking out soon. Thank you for sharing your idea! I love that it encourages kids to use several digital tools to accomplish the final task.