The use of a Wordle in Elementary Arts and Music!

Starring: Jordan Carrier and Sarah Silar

“Two thumbs up!” –Ebert and Roeper

What in the world is a Wordle?

A Wordle is a word cloud that is meant to show the visual depiction of content area words. Orientation, color, size, and amount of words are all determined by the user.

How to make a Wordle:

1. Go to http://www.wordle.net

2. Click on create your own

3. Type in whatever words you choose depending on the content area

*To keep words together, use the ~ sign and to separate words, just leave a space

*The more you type a word, the bigger it shows up

An example would be:

Goldilocks~and~the~Three~Bears Goldilocks~and~the~Three~Bears Goldilocks~and~the~Three~Bears Goldilocks~and~the~Three~Bears Goldilocks~and~the~Three~Bears Goldilocks~and~the~Three~Bears Porridge Porridge

Chair Chair Bed Bed Baby~Bear Baby~Bear Mama~Bear Mama~Bear Papa~Bear Papa~Bear Just~Right Just~Right Just~Right Just~Right Just~Right Too~Hard Too~Soft Too~Hot Too~Cold Too~Big Goldilocks Goldilocks Goldilocks Trouble Trouble Trouble Sleeping Scared Scared Curiosity Curiosity Curiosity Curiosity Curiosity "Someone's~been~eating~my~porridge!" "Someone's~been~sitting~in~my~chair!" "Someone's~been~sleeping~in~my~bed!"

 4. You can change the orientation and colors of the words to your liking.

5. ENJOY! :) Wordles can be used in a variety of ways and really improve learning!

A quick video explaining more about Wordle and how it can be used! :)

History of the Wordle:

• Wordle was created by Jonathan Feinberg and IBM Research in 2009. Since its inception, Wordle has been used for multiple different purposes such as allowing students to recognize their over usage of a word within their writing to creating nameplates for students in the elementary school classroom. Wordles can be used in every subject and can be tweeked to fit any purpose that a teacher deems appropriate.

How does a Wordle work:

• Wordle works through a few core algorithms that decide the layout and final look that makes this technological resource so popular. All texts and colors for the Wordle have been copyrighted and are original products created primarily for Wordle itself.

Using Wordle in the Classroom:

• Summarizing: Wordle can be used as a great summary resource because it asks that main points be brought to the forefront. If students summarize the text with too many words, the Wordle will reflect that. This reflection will help the teacher assess where his/her students are in their development of summary. It will also make a visual aid of summarizing more accessible for the students.
• Personal Reflection: By using Wordle, students can reflect on what they wanted to portray as their main point in whatever subject they are working in. If students write this main point into their Wordle, it becomes more transfixed in their minds. This will be helpful when students review their essay or project because they will be able to identify if they were able to get their main point across within their text or they might have lost it somewhere in the middle.  
• Assessment: When a student does a project, the teacher might have them make a Wordle so that they can follow what the student wanted as the concept. This also will allow for shy students or students that “word vomit” in front of the class to assure that the work they put in is recognized. No teacher wants to dock their students for just having stage fright when they get up in front of the classroom. 
• Making things interesting: Students often get excited about illustrating their work or essays. Wordle allows illustration while still focusing on the content.      

Using a Wordle within an arts and music lesson plan:

Because Wordles can be used within many different settings, its usage within the arts and music curriculum is very similar to other subjects. Students can summarize plays by pulling out the events that create the rising action and climax. For younger students, plot summary should be the main focus. Wordle will allow younger students to recognize the climax of a play by making it larger. The rising action can be visually displayed by making the beginning actions smaller and then as they get closer to the climax, gradually larger. Character development and character analysis can also be done with Wordle which might help in areas such as Reader’s Theatre or Literary Talk Shows. Since students are asked to become the characters in both activities, Wordle might help the student realize what character traits they might want to display the most and what traits might come second. In most cases, character analysis would occur with older students because of the complexity of what might be the most important characteristic in a characters being, but younger students might be just as capable at perceiving this as older students. Within music, Wordles could display student’s reaction and feelings about a song. Students might also be able to list a musical vocabulary word such as rhythm as the largest word and use examples of rhythm smaller. This would help them to learn musical vocabulary and combine knowledge’s into one visual organizer.

Resources and Helpful Links:

An article to convince you to use Wordle in the classroom! 

A lesson plan utilizing Wordle to identify character traits! (Can be used for ice breakers or analyzing theatrical characters!)

A YouTube video for a full tutorial on how to use Wordle! 

A SlideShare slide show presentation showcasing 38 ways to use Wordle in the classroom!

A  blog post describing a classroom teacher's positive experience using Wordle at school!