Words as Art

Words can be really powerful.  Asking students to provide just a few words that define a piece of literature gives teachers a great insight into the students’ perspectives and understanding.  A great tool that uses words is Wordle (www.wordle.net).  This awesome website allows students to input words and then create a piece of artwork displaying those words in a visually appealing manner.  I've used these with my students in many different ways:

·         I've asked every student to provide a word (or a few words) that they feel best captures the main idea or essence of a particular piece of literature.  This works for novels, poetry, plays, short stories, or any text, really.  I suppose it would even work for a chapter in a science or history book as well.  Once I've compiled all words, I enter them into Wordle, and I’m able to create this amazing word cloud that I can edit by changing fonts, colors, and word arrangement.  One cool feature is that the higher frequency of a word, the larger it appears on the word cloud, so words the most popular words students provide are emphasized in the word cloud.

·         Wordles can also be assessment tools.  For example, students can make a word cloud using words that describe the main character and then present the Wordle, explaining why each word was included.

·         Students can choose especially captivating or enticing words that describe their novel to persuade fellow classmates to read it.

·         As a beginning-of-the-year ice-breaker activity, I’ve had students introduce themselves to the class by creating a Wordle in which they emphasize their most important characteristics or qualities by making those words appear larger in the word cloud.

·         I've also used Wordle for classroom decorations.  Just copy and paste the text or excerpts of a text into Wordle, and it creates a beautiful poster that you can get enlarged at a copy and print store.

There are really endless uses for this program, and I find that students really enjoy creating Wordles!  Any way I can assess my students without their knowledge is a plus!  Here is a Wordle I made that describes me.  I use this as a sample for my students: