[LM_NET] HIT: ELEM: use of Wordle

[Melissa Toner <mtoner8@YAHOO.COM>]

Here's a long overdue hit about using wordle with elementary school students.  I 
ended up using Wordle with my second grade students.  Each student studied a 
children's book author and/or illustrator, read the biography, and completed 
information on a note-taking worksheet made for this project.  Then as they 
finished, they moved on to the computer and typed the information from the 
worksheet into a Word document.  They used the copy and paste to repeat certain 
phrases more often for the wordle (for example: the author's name eight times, 
titles of his/her books five times, etc.).  This was a multiple week project (took 
even longer than I had anticipated with only 8 to 10 computers but oh well) so it 
worked well to have them save their work in Word and then they could begin again 
where they left off next week.  After I looked over their typing, they opened 
www.wordle.net/create and pasted their typing to create the wordle.  They hit 
randomize
 until they liked the way it looked and then were allowed to print a copy.  I also 
printed some extra copies to make a neat looking bulletin board.  
 
Anyway, my original post/target is below.  Hope you find some useful information 
and ideas in the responses.
 
My original post/target:
March 16, 2009
I am interested in hearing from anyone who has used www.wordle.net (word cloud 
generator) with students in an elementary school.  What kind of projects have you 
used it with and for which grade levels?  How did you incorporate the word cloud 
generated by Wordle as the end product of a lesson or research project?  I think 
my students would have fun using Wordle but haven't figured out how to make it a 
part of a project/lesson yet.  Thanks for sharing your experiences and ideas.
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
One of our language arts teachers had her students copy and paste their essays into 
wordle. Students then wrote the main idea of their essays using the resulting 
wordle.
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
I use wordle.net with my third grade students at the end of our thesaurus unit. I 
have the students write their names on a sheet of paper and then pass it around to 
the other students. Each child must write one nice word to describe the person. Of 
course you get lots of "nice" and "friendly" comments. We then use the thesaurus to 
find synonyms for any repeated word. When we go to wordle, I have them type 
wordle.net/create. That by-passes the gallery and hopefully avoids any of the 
inappropriate listings. They type in their name 3-4 times to make it larger than 
the othe words. When they have entered all their compliments, they can play with 
the fonts and colors until they find one they like, which they then print. My 
nephew happens to be in one of the classes and he still has his posted at home. The 
kids love the positive feedback they get from their peers, and the fun designs they 
get to make. Hope this helps!
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
I have used it whole group as a notes taker for research 
(differing sizes of each word was not the point, it was just a fun way to display 
notes, so I typed everything once.)
-with 1st grade-I typed in sentences about some facts they just found out from a 
presentation to be used as reminders when they wrote their "research paper" 
(I used key phrases of 2-3 words with 4th grade)
-In order to keep the group of words together, use this symbol ~ between words 
instead of spaces. (ex. Polar~bears~skin~is~black.) 
-I would suggest practicing typing using this symbol before working with the class 
because it quite slower than normal typing, but still do-able.  I would also 
suggest rewording kid's statements if they are especially lengthy.
-I then made a screen capture of the output and pasted it into Powerpoint, cropped 
the extra windows looking stuff with the picture toolbar and saved it as a picture 
file so I could print a poster size version of it for hanging in the 
classroom.  (I used Publisher to make the poster, but it could be done with 
Printshop or most other similar software.)
I have the idea of using it as a visual organization tool (graphical and similar 
to a pie chart), but have not done that with a class or grade yet.  
 -It would not give exact amounts, but would should give a fairly definitive 
'most' and 'least' answer, especially if there were enough total votes.  (I would 
suggest keeping the text all horizontal in this case.)
I am toying with the idea of using it while reviewing main idea.  
I am working on my MLS and copied and pasted one of my term papers contents into it 
when I was first seeing how it worked and was quite interested at how accurately my 
main idea/topic was obviously shown.  (Since my topic used the words like 
collaboration, teacher-librarian, classroom often, it certainly was displayed in 
the results, much to my surprise.  I looked back at the paper after doing this and 
noted how many times I really did use those 3-4 words so much more than others.)  
However, I realize it will not work with every selection, but you could be choosy 
and it is a very visual way to show main idea.  I was impressed with my paper 
example.  
On a personal side, I have used the sister site http://www.wordle.net/advanced  
to make an interesting scrapbook page of attributes of my children by saving the 
output as a picture file(like in the first example) and adding photos in areas that 
did not have words.  (This could even be done for students by the teacher or by 
themselves if they are old enough to manipulate photos with directions.)  The 
attributes of each child could be tallied using the input of their classmates, 
which would give the number count.
Lastly, also on the personal side, I have a 2 year old niece that has had health 
problems since she was born practically and stayed in the hospital for a long 
majority of her first 6 months of life.  Happy to report she is thriving and on 
all developmental areas is performing up to her 2 years age!!  Anyway, to keep 
everyone up to date along the way, her mother maintained a site on 
www.caringbridge.org  I copied and pasted all the journal entries and guestbook 
entries into wordle and it made a beautiful collage of words that, again, quite 
accurately reflect their journey of the past two years.  I plan to give a framed 
copy of it to her and her parents on the second anniversary of her coming home 
from the hospital.  (I would have done it on the first anniversary if I 
had known about wordle-I love using it!)
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
I love wordle too, but I would be careful using it with students.  If they happen 
to go to the gallery on wordle, they may view wordles that are not child-friendly. 
  I did use it with my book club.  I asked them what makes a good book, and I 
entered their responses in wordle and posted that on our website. Check it out:
http://hms.seekonk.sharpschool.com/cms/one.aspx?PortalId=249026&pageId=592087
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
I would not use it with kids. They do not censor the use in any way and there are 
frequently entire works with nothing but the word F@CK. I talked to the man who 
created the site and he understands that this limits our use of the site but 
doesn't have the means or interest in censoring. Just FYI.
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
Our first and second graders use wordle with spelling words.  We get the added 
benefit of a fun product after a monotonous activity of typing spelling words. I 
would suggest typing the spelling words in Word (or a word processing program) and 
then copying the words into wordle.  Another librarian in our system had 4th 
graders research biography of a person, then create a poem with some info in 
wordle.
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
I have used Wordle with 5th grade for a book review project and 4th grade for a 
thank you for an author visit.  The kids love it but I have found some issues.  
There are no filters so I don't let them save to the site, they create, then we 
capture the screen and save it that way. It did not work on more then half of my 
computers, so it was slow process.  My 5th graders generated words for the MCBA 
(MA Children's Book Awards) using a template - 2 words about the setting 3 words 
about the main characters , 4 words describing how the book made you feel, .... 
this was a minimum number of words they were encouraged to use more. After the 
Wordles were created they were used as the intro picture for podcasts we created 
with student reviews. This was a whole new thing for me, but the kids really liked 
it and all felt successful. I still have some kinks to work out but.... nothing 
ventured, nothing gained.
http://www.newton.k12.ma.us/horacemann/MCBA_Reviews/Field/Field.html
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
I am having students do it as a book review device.  They have to identify 
keywords about plot, characters, setting and unique words that are elemental to the 
story and then they have to make the most important words the largest and decrease 
the rest in according to importance within the story.  They have to read deeply to 
do this well and will often go back to the book to draw upon language that 
describes and illuminates high points and turning points within text.  We take 
these wordles and put them onto prepared file folders for the books that the 
students can browse when selecting books and it gives them a student perspective of 
the book along with the author information, first page, back cover and other data I 
display on the folder.
They love it.
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
I used Wordle with second graders as the culminating activity in a character ed. 
unit on "Bucket Filling" (based on Carol McCloud’s book, Have You Filled A Bucket 
Today? [Ferne Press, 2006]).  After reading stories about characters who are 
"bucket fillers" because they help others rather than hurting them, the second 
graders created lists of ways they could be bucket fillers (making special note of 
how our words as well as our actions affect how other people feel).  They made 
these lists into Word documents and repeated the ideas that they liked the best two 
or three times (repeated words come out bigger using Wordle).  After creating the 
documents, they pasted them into the Wordle program and fiddled around with the 
fonts, backgrounds, etc.  I cut each Word cloud out and pasted it onto 
construction paper and made a bulletin board outside the library.
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
I was playing around and put my wordle on my webpage(a work in progress please 
don't judge) if anyone wanted to see!
http://sites.google.com/site/mrsadame/Home
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
A group of kids & I made "TAKs" cards using Wordle.  They typed encouraging words 
and then happily played with colors and fonts and I printed the final product.  
They then signed them and sent them to their "TAKs Buddy".  Some of the second 
grade classes are typing their spelling & vocabulary
words (keyboarding practice) and then making a Wordle of the results.  It's a nice 
ending to a tedious task - nobody likes to keyboard.  One of the teachers is 
planning to make Mother's Day cards using Wordle.  I made a Wordle of the "I Have 
a Dream Speech" and turned it into wallpaper for the laptop I use with my 
ActivBoard.  That resulted in many questions and I'm planning to "Wordle" other 
important American documents.
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
I'll tell you this: those word clouds seem primarily decorative. I see no evidence 
that what happens graphically and liguistically have any relation. Also watch out: 
one of the recent posts displayed prominently on the page happened to be 
pornographic. That would liven up an elementary school teacher's day now, wouldn't 
it?
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
I have used it with compositions the kids have written. I have also done a 
Thesaurus activity for a family night. The families created lists of words that 
represented their family using the thesaurus feature in Word. They typed their last 
name 3 times and the first names of the kids and parents twice. It works best if 
they have a list of about 40-50 words (that's why the thesaurus is a good way to 
generate the list). They printed the clouds and the parents were thrilled. Some 
wanted to frame them or hang on their fridge.
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
The creator doesn't recommend the use for children because he doesn't control the 
ones that are posted. I was making one yesterday and one of the examples that was 
on that front page had some very inappropriate words.  My theme in my library this 
year is The Land of Learning. I input the first names of all the students and staff 
in my building along with The Land of Learning into Wordle. I discovered there's a 
setting that allows you to determine how many words can be used so that it would 
allow all 650 names that I had. I am taking the file to Kinko's to have it printed 
up on poster paper so that everyone can look for their name. I think it will be fun.
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
Have you seen the article "50 ways to use your wordle" by Nancy Keane?  It's in 
the NH "Connections" newsletter (educational technology)
http://www.nhste.org/Connections%20Newsletters/Connections%20AUG%2008%20.pdf
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
I used wordle with my fourth grade students. After I read the story, "Boundless 
Grace" I had the students use the programs to describe Grace using five different 
adjectives. The kids loved it and so did my principal when she observed me!
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
I love Wordle.   8th graders read historical fiction books and kept "Important 
Words" lists while they read.  They had no problems with lists, priorities, etc. 
 I did ask our tech guy at the district level to block the Gallery option, though. 
 Sometimes words/wordles appear that people have generated that are not G rated. 
 By blocking the Gallery, students could still generate the Wordle and print, but 
did not see anything inappropriate. 
Worked like a charm!
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
One of my teachers used it as an activity/review after a biography unit. She had 
each student do one about their person.
 
*~*~*~*~*~*
 
Melissa Toner
Library Media Specialist, NBCT
Elon Park Elementary
Charlotte, NC
mtoner8@yahoo.com


      

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
  You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
  by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, you send a message to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER:
1) SIGNOFF LM_NET
2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL
4) SET LM_NET DIGEST

 * LM_NET Help & Information: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/
 * LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
 * EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/join.html
 * LM_NET Supporters: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/category/links/el-announce/

--------------------------------------------------------------------