Did you know???
There are some great, free word cloud Web 2.0 tools available online to enhance teaching and learning in your classroom! My favorite at the moment is www.Tagxedo.com. Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, student generated lists, slogans and themes -- into a visually stunning word cloud with words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text. What I love the most about this tool is that the user gets to choose the shape of the word cloud.
I have been using Tagxedo with all of my classes this year as a brainstorming tool. For example, in third grade, we are doing a research project on Georgia habitats. To kick off the unit, we brainstormed words related to Georgia habitats and created the following Tagxedo:
To use Tagxedo, the user simply clicks on create, chooses a shape, and types or copies text into the text box by clicking the load button. Click submit, and watch the magic happen! You can then play with font, color, and other style features to make your Tagxedo exactly what you want.
Other possible uses of Tagxedo or other word cloud tools include:
- Brainstorm a topic or create a discussion either inside the class or online
- Teach vocabulary
- Use them in reading activities to promote comprehension
- Students can use them to feature important ideas from a discussion or a video content
- The entire class can use word clouds to react to a certain topic
- Have students create word clouds that generate understanding of a concept, standards or vocabulary word.
- Illustrate classroom thoughts or views using a word cloud to survey students.
- Create a class word cloud that highlights class expectation
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