Word clouds can be used:
- to improve student vocabulary
- as a self-assessment tool when writing
- as an activating strategy
- as a getting to know you tool
Wordle is a word cloud maker I have used in the past. I was disappointed to find that Wordle no longer works as Java is not supported with the current Chrome version. I found a great replacement word cloud maker called Tagul.
My group of team time students have been reading The Year of Billy Miller as part of this year's Global Read Aloud. They each chose one character and brainstormed as many adjectives as possible about that particular character. We then took the words as a class and input them into Tagul. The group was excited with the results which are instantaneous after inputting the words. Students asked if they could try Tagul on their own! Here's one of the group's word clouds:
This lesson will serve as a great jumping point to develop student vocabulary and help students come up with creative language. How many ways can we say the word "nice?" Dig out those thesauri!
