Four ways to use Wordle (and one way not to)

Let's get this out of the way right now: Wordle is not an end product. The first time I saw it, I thought, "How does making one of those show learning? I would never accept that as a final product from a student!"
It wasn't until after reading a bit about it and playing around with it, that I began to realize the potential of Wordle as a teaching tool.

So what's a Wordle?

Wordle is a web-based tool where you can paste text and create "word clouds." The illustration here shows a word cloud based on the Gettysburg Address, and it took about two minutes to create. Did I learn anything from making it? No. But I could certainly learn and teach a lot from it.

How can I use it in the classroom?

1. PREVIEW A PASSAGE--Give your students a Wordle and ask them to predict the topic of the reading it came from. What predictions do they have? What questions? Is there vocabulary they are unfamiliar with?
2. REVISE/CHECK FOR MEANING--Have your students create a Wordle from their first draft of a paper. Are there any surprises? Words that they overused? Opportunities for improvement?
3. FIND A "JUST RIGHT" READING TEXT: A Wordle will make it easy for a student to tell if the vocabulary in a particular passage will be too difficult, too easy, or just right.
4. COMPARE VIEWPOINTS: Take news accounts of a politically charged event from various sources and analyze the differences in word choice. Are there differences that jump out at you? What does it reveal about possible biases?

And how does it work?

It's really easy to create a Wordle, but you'll want to play around with it a bit to get the best effect. Here's a quick tutorial to show you the basics.



If you need to see a full-screen version of the Wordle tutorial, click here.