Wordle+and+Word+Cloud+Strategies

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http://www.wordle.net/

Creates word clouds from inputted text. The size of the words in the word cloud depends on the word's frequency in the input text. The word cloud can be customized using different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.

**Resources**
[|Wordle Advanced] [|Worlde Blog] [|How to Create a Wordle]

**Strengths**

 * Free
 * No account needed
 * Easy to use
 * Ability to print Wordle without saving it to the gallery
 * Ability to take out common words (like the, and, or, but)
 * [|File may be saved as a pdf or svg]
 * Words that go together can now be kept together by inserting the tilde character (~). The tilde is converted to a space when the Worlde is created, and the words will appear next to one another ([] ). (inability to keep words together was previously listed as a weakness)
 * Wordles may be embedded into a blog or wiki

**Weaknesses**

 * Unable to edit the format
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Can only be save as a .jpg or .gif file using print screen and then it must be edited/cropped to contain only the Wordle

<span style="font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">**Opportunities**

 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Use Wordle as a word analyzer
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Use Wordle for Literacy

<span style="font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">**Threats**
==<span style="font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">**Ideas for Use in the Classroom** == ==<span style="font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">**Examples of Uses in the Classroom** == <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[] <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[] <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[] <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[]
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">No moderation in the gallery
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Searching for a Wordle is not a good idea for students because there are many in the gallery that are inappropriate.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Some school systems might block site due to district filters.
 * <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 0px;">[|Looking at Poetry through a Wordle]
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Wordle famous speeches to determine themes
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Have students create a Wordle of themselves as an get to know you activity
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Create a wordle and have students pick out the word that does not belong
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Have students define/ explain each word. Similes can be used so students can compare the similarities among the words
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">How many compound words can you make?
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Give students a specific topic, such as "Wars" and have students use Wordle to write all the wars they can think of. (This would allow students to use their memory, while being more entertaining than merely writing a list.)
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Establish a literacy center where students use Wordle to list words that have the sound of the week. The students could also type the spelling words of the week, thus allowing students to have another experience with the words without boring them.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Students can build upon their vocabulary knowledge throughout the school year by consistently updating the Wordle as they learn new information
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Students can create an acrostic of famous historical people or events for Social Studies classes. For example: <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|John Adams].
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Students could use this as part of a "What I Know" brainstoriming activity. The teacher could assign each student or group section of what they are about to study (1960's - policital movements, pop culture, science & technology) and have them come up with as many facts as they can. The group would present it to the class. As each group presents their Wordle, the rest of the class would fill out their "What I Want to Know" sections of their reading organizer writing down any questions they have about the information that is being presented.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Teachers could assign topics for review for tests. Each group would have to create a Wordle from an assigned group of topics from the teacher (The Pigman - characters, themes, setting). The group would have to present their Wordle to the class. Each member of the class would have a blank study guide so they could write down important points from the Wordle presentations to use as their review.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Create a wordle from the reading assignment to use as a pre-reading activity.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Have students create a wordle of material as review and they have to show what is more important by making those words larger. Can show if they understand big ideas and what is most important.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Have students create wordle of an interview. They put in key words and make what was most important stand out.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Character study through vocabulary lists.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Have students type their spelling words and print out a wordle to study from.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Using the advanced options, have students make a wordle for a reading story making the title the largest font, characters size based on importance in the book, and setting in the same fashion.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -21.75pt;">(1) Resources links and/or class examples <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Home - <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|www.tagxedo.com] Gallery - <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[] Blog - <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[] 101 ways to use tagxedo - <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[] Daily Events - <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[] Celebrity Tagxedoes - <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[] Discussion Forum - <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[]

<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> (2) SWOT

<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> (a) Strengths – <span style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 1.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Free · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Easy to use with step-by-step directions available · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Excellent technical support · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Allows author to be very creative · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">User can change color scheme, fonts, and other technical functions · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">User can upload his or her own pictures to be used for a template · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Can be web 1.0 or web 2.0; it is the user’s discretion · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Other languages are available (with support) · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">No email or log in is required · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Can load words from a webpage · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Can embed your creation into another page (i.e., facebook, blog, twitter (with app), etc.) · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Can save your creation as a jpg or png · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">There is a whole page on ideas for use (101) · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Can add punctuation and frequency modifiers · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Can color-code similar words with “Déjà Vu” function

<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> (b) Weaknesses <span style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 1.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">You cannot regulate what your students see in the gallery · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Some word choices do not fit or fill in the template completely · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">If using Web 2.0, user cannot control responses to their contributions/posts · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">When loading words, only one website is available at a time, no multiple pages · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Uploaded pictures are sometimes unrecognizable

<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> (c) Opportunities <span style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 1.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">There is a whole page dedicated for uses of tagxedo (101 page) · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Teachers can create tagxedoes to support particular lessons · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Post student creations in classrooms, websites, or other showcases

<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> (d) Threats <span style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 1.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Words and/or pictures may not be suitable for younger audiences · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Students may post information that makes them identifiable · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Students may create and share inappropriate items

<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> (3) Ideas for the classroom <span style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 1.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Have students do a movie/book review in tagxedo · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Have students comment on current events using tagxedo · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Make gifts for students, friends, relatives, other teachers · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Make tagxedos about celebrities, historical figures, or memorable events · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Have students make a self portrait (self reflection) using tagxedo · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Expand user vocabulary by color-coding similar words · <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Contrast terms by comparing tagxedoes created for each term

Downloadable Software []