Wordle is a really fun, east web tool that turns words into art called “word clouds.” These word clouds emphasize words that are used more often in a piece of text. Wordle makes text clouds from text you enter, from blog RSS feeds, or from delicious tags. There are even options to change font color, type, and the design of the words.
Lots of people, including Pam Elgin, have been tossing around ideas for the use of Wordle in classrooms. Here’s a few you might want to try!
About Me
Have students type their name three times (this will make it bigger than other words). Then have them type words that mean something to them. This would be a great back to school activity.
Describe a Famous Person or a Literary Character
You could do the same activity, but with a famous person.
Adjective Collage
Create a collage of adjectives. In the Wordle Text box, type the noun you want to describe three times (this will make it appear bigger than the other words). Then list all the descriptive words you can think of to describe the noun. Here’s an example:
First Name Welcome
This idea is a great one from Pam. Create a Wordle with the first name of the students in your class to hang on your door. (Example by Kristin Kap)
Type in Spelling or Vocabulary Words
Use for student practice with spelling or as a way to introduce new words in a unit! Students will love making designs and changing font, color, and layout after they have finished typing in their spelling words.
Use as a Hook or a Visual Cue
Create a Wordle to introduce a new unit of student or to help give students a visual of a concept. Here’s one for question words:
Create a Funky Twist on an Acrostic or ABC Book
If you want the words to fall in somewhat ABC order, make sure to check “prefer alphabetical order” under layout.
Quickly Make a Funky Sign
Brainstorming on a Topic (Music example by hbryson)
Book Review
Have student list all the words they can think of to describe a book or a chapter. Remember to have them type the important words more than once so they are bigger.
Vocabulary Words to Practice Reading
(Dolch Word List)
Letter Hunt (for Kindergarten)
You could do different versions with different fonts!
Pre-Reading Strategy
Show students the words from a poem or story and have them predict what it will be about. The Wordle below is from the poem Cannonball by David Crwwley.
Misuse of Common Words
Have students type in a story to see what words they use the most. Make sure they choose “Do Not Remove Common Words” under “Language” to see them all. Here’s an example from one of my summer school student’s blog (most used words include I, like, and):
And another in which the student started almost every sentence with “He.”
I could go on and on and on…I LOVE this tool! What kind of things can you think of?
Word of Caution: Be cautious about the Gallery. I’d recommend you NOT allow your students to browse through it….anyone can make a Wordle, and some are not as nice as others.
Update: Just learned something new, thanks to JBlack’s Awesome use of Wordle! You can keep words together in Wordle if you use a tilde (~) mark between words. So here’s another idea (and yes, I promise to stop now)! Idioms
Create a Wordle with Idioms. To keep words together, put a ~ between each word in the idiom. (Spill~the~beans.) This may be a little tedious for younger kids, but shouldn’t be too hard for older ones!
A group of technology educators on Twitter have been passing around this great site for Early Readers on the Smartboard. It’s called LookyBook, and it presents picture books in a format that you can use on the Smartboard (or any computer, really). Here’s an thumbnail example I felt was appropriate for this time of year. Click on the book once to turn pages and twice to see the larger version on the Lookbook Website.
Using the Smartboard, you can present a picture book in a way that all children can see it easily (or allow them to present it), AND you can WRITE on the book. Cirlce rhyming words, highlight descriptive words, pick out punctuation…all using the Smartboard pens. *The writing in a few of the books is pretty small, so you’ll have to check them out first to see if this will work.*
Another neat feature is that the site will allow you to customize your own virtual bookshelf where you can store your favorite stories. Currently there are over 300 books to choose from, but more are being added every day.
I finished “A Whole New Mind” a month or so ago, and am still going through many of the resources Daniel Pink included in the book. One resource is called StoryCorps, and it’s located in the chapter where Pink describes Story as one of the six high-concept, high-touch senses needed in the Conceptual Age.
Storycorps in a non-profit organization that specializes in stories…yours, mine, people we love. It records stories in booths all over the United States, and even sends out traveling kits for you to record individual stories. You can listen to some of them in itunes or on their website. What a super idea! In looking at the site, it appears they are going to be in our area next fall…Sept. 25-Oct. 18, 2008 at the WVTF radio station. I’ll have to keep a lookout for more info!
The process of recording a story of a loved one reminds me of something I did in college…a journal for my parents with questions about their lives. I didn’t have much money one Christmas while I was in college, so I bought two blank journals: one for Dad and one for Mom. At the top of each page I wrote questions like
What were your grandparents like?
Who was your favorite teacher?
How did you meet dad/mom?
I put a note in the front of the journal asking them to write the answers and give it back to me the following Christmas. They did give them back to me the next Christmas, full of stories. I can honestly say those two journals are my most treasured possessions, especially now that my mom has passed away.
So, what’s your story? What are your parents’ stories? We all have them, no matter our age. Even our students have stories! Wouldn’t be neat to have students record their own stories, or even stories of their loved ones? It could be a writing assignment, but also a lesson in learning to tell a story. I do have 4 or 5 portable mp3 recorders you can use if you are interested in doing this!
I attended a bunch of sessions at VSTE with presenter Tammy Worcester, and Instructional Technology Specialist. She has published a variety of books with ready-made lessons for the classroom, but she also has some great free lessons, tips and tricks, and internet resources on her website!
Here’s another great resource from the VSTE conference: It’s a Small World After All…Integrating Google Earth into the Virginia Standards of Learning. Sarah Walters, an ITRT from Loudoun County, has put together a nice collection of lesson plans and files to use with Google Earth. My favorites that I’ve seen so far is the Passport for a Virginia Traveler that goes along with the regions of Virginia (4th Grade Virginia Studies). There are also files that go along with the books How to Make an Apple Pie by Marjorie Priceman and Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey, activities for migration, and even a Google Earth file for Ponce De Leon’s Voyage. Thanks, Sarah, for sharing all these great ideas!!
I have had the opportunity to attend some really great sessions in the last two days at VSTE, and I am trying to get around to posting what I’ve learned. This site, Putting the Pieces Together: Integrating Technology with Marzano’s Instructional Strategies, is at the top of my list because it matches so closely to some of our division’s goals…and it’s just an incredibly huge resource! It was put together by Sheri Miller, an ITRT for Gloucester County, VA. It contains resources to match the instructional strategies from the book, Classroom Instruction that Works by Robert J. Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, Jane E. Pollock. Sheri has taken the researched-based strategies from the book and compiled ready-to-use resources that allow teachers to integrate technology with activities that match the strategies:
Similarities & Differences
Summarizing & Note-Taking
Effort & Recognition
Homework & Practice
Non-Linguistics Representations
Cooperative Learning
Objectives & Feedback, Hypotheses
Questions, Cutes, & Advanced Organizers.
The section on Summarizing and Note-Taking even includes strategies for integrating technology into Interactive Note-Taking (an upcoming in-service at our March 7 Professional Development Day)! And the best part? The activities are all ready-to-use in programs our schools already have: Kidspiration, Inspiration, Kidpix, Word, Excel, PowerPoint or on the web. It’s incredible!! Thanks Sheri, for a great session and an invaluable resource!
If that’s not enough, Gloucester County has also put together a great repository of websites matching the SOLs on their Elementary K-5 Resource page! I will definitely be spending some time looking through all these resources in the weeks after the conference!
If your class receives one of the monthly editions of National Geographic Explorer, you might want to check out the website that goes with the magazine!
National Geographic Young Explorer (Grades K-1)
Even if you don’t subscribe to the magazine, you will love this site! Here you will find an interactive version of the magazine posted online. It will read the stories to the students and allow them to virtually “flip” through the pages.
Suggestions:
Talk about a great way to use the Smartboard! Have your students find and underline important words, sounds, or punctuation and/or write in the answers to the question with the Smartboard pens.
National Geographic Explorer (Pioneer Edition) (Grades 2-3)
National Geographic Explorer (Pathfinder Edition) (Grades 4-5)
Here you will find online activities (games, quizzes, videos, pictures) to go with each month’s topics. They also link to the full text of one of articles in the magazine.Suggestions:
Have the students individually complete the online activity with the laptops after reading the corresponding article. If time is limited, the class could also complete the activity together using the Smartboard. Also, use the Smartboard to read the online version of the article together. Use the Smartboard pens to find important context clues, vocabulary words, main ideas, facts, etc. directly on the online version of the article.
Also…while you are looking at National Geographic, make sure to check out the main kids site… National Geographic for Kids
I could get lost on this site for hours. It contains articles, games, pictures, videos, news, activities….all in a very interactive and kid-friendly way.
Suggestions:
Have students watch videos and play games that align with units in Science, Health, and Social Studies. Read the stories and complete activities and games in Language Arts (like Photo Fill-ins or the Cartoon Factory). Have students research animals for projects and find information in the form of pictures, words AND video. Check out the Young Explorer World Atlas in Social Studies. There are so many things to choose from…take a look and see what you find!
How Your Students Can Find These Links:
I’ve posted a link to the site on the SCS Links for Kids Page. To find it, go to your school’s website and click Students > Links for Kids, choose your grade level, and look under Science.
I thought this site (which lets you custom create a map of states) is pretty fun. Here are the places I traveled in 2007. I’ve have to do some research back into vacations during my childhood to figure out where I’ve been in my lifetime…we did a lot of driving when I was little. create your own visited states map
I could see uses for these sites in the classroom (beyond where you’ve traveled) like stories the class has read from around the world or correspondence with other classrooms or a Flat Stanley project. Do you have any ideas?
Last week I had a chance to go spend time in NYC. This was only my second time ever visiting, and really the first time I had a chance to check out some of the famous places there. Here’s a thirty second overview of what I saw:
I brought back some pics and short video clips of these places. I’d like to increase our collection of pictures and video clips for kids to use in digital projects without having to worry about copyright. Even though there are sites out there that allow you to download pics for educational uses, there are a number of reasons why doing this is difficult (or not safe) for younger students. Having a folder of pics that match SOLs that students can use freely would help. I’ll add the ones I brought back from NYC. If you have any other digital pics or short digital videos (especially ones that match SOLs) that you don’t mind sharing, please leave a comment here or drop me an email.
I’ve had a few requests for some fun sites to use with your students during the holiday time. Here’s some I’ve run across lately!
Norad Tracks Santa Want to track Santa as he makes his trip around the world? This site has games to play until Christmas Eve, when you can track Santa’s route on Google Earth.
If anyone has anymore great sites they are using with their students, please leave a comment. I’ll do my best to add the sites you suggest to the Links for Kids Page so that you can use them easily in your classrooms!
Beth Swain recently send out an email talking about the upcoming technology and math inservices she will be offering. I think these are going to be great, and I highly recommend them!!
1. November 27th, 3:00 to 4:00 pm, G W Carver Computer lab- this workshop will focus on websites for teaching SOLs from the patterns, functions and algebra strand. There is something for every level K-5. They have basic patterns to balance scales plus much more. I am sure you will find something to take back to your classroom to use. You will have time to play and explore the sites during the workshop. (RSVP to Beth by Nov. 19)
2. January 15th, 3:00 to 4:00 pm, G W Carver Computer lab - this workshop will focus on using the Smartboard in your classroom. I have activities/ideas/games for k-5. You will get hands on experience with the smartboard. Many of the activities are templates that you can customize to your level of students. The focus of this workshop will be on math vocabulary and the SOLs in the number and number sense strand. (RSVP to Beth by Jan. 4)
She plans to schedule 3 more workshops to focus on other Math strands. Recertification points will be given for attending all 5.
I’ve had a chance to see a “sneak peak” at what she will be sharing, and I think you will walk away with things you can use in your classroom right away! I’ve had people asking for ideas to use in remediation time and things to do with the Smartboard, and these workshops will give you ideas for both! Hope you will be able to join us.
It’s been a crazy week in my personal life, so not much “free time” to really surf the net…and not much time to keep up with K-12 Online Conference. But I’m not worried…that’s the great part…most of the conference (all the presentations, at least) will be there waiting for me when things are more manageable on the home front.
That said, I have had the chance to check in on a couple presentations. This one really caught my attention:
Brian Crosby is a 5th grade teacher in Nevada and a blogger on Learning is Messy. He shows actual projects that he has done with his at risk 5th graders…that’s why I was really drawn to this presentation (click here to see). It is really worth the watch!!
For a list of other great presentations available through the K12 Online Conference, click here. Pay no attention to dates….once the link is posted, most of these presentations will be available whenever you have the time to watch/listen. There are a few live events…but these too will be archived so you can watch later.
The process of recording a story of a loved one reminds me of something I did in college…a journal for my parents with questions about their lives. I didn’t have much money one Christmas while I was in college, so I bought two blank journals: one for Dad and one for Mom. At the top of each page I wrote questions like
I put a note in the front of the journal asking them to write the answers and give it back to me the following Christmas. They did give them back to me the next Christmas, full of stories. I can honestly say those two journals are my most treasured possessions, especially now that my mom has passed away.
Here’s another great resource from the VSTE conference: 
