Wordle

A free web site that is great for both teacher use and student use is Wordle.  Wordle allows you and/or your students to list different items related to a certain topic/theme such as Favorite Things about Eason Elementary.  When the students type out their list within the editing mode (click on Create at the top) and then they click Go it jumbles their list of words with different fonts, colors, shapes, sizes and angles of the text.  Every student could be doing the same topic/theme, but their finalized product would be published differently depending on how Wordle jumbles up their words.  Of course you and/or your students can change the layout, color, size and shape of the jumbled words after it is published and before it is printed.

            There are couple things to keep in mind when using Wordle that makes it unique.  If for example you or your students truly have a #1 or #2 item on their list, you would want to make sure these are typed more than 1 time on the list within the editing mode as then it produces a bigger sized word when all of the words on the list are jumbled together.  Another thing to keep in mind is if you have two words such as the words computer lab, but you want them to be published together after the words are jumbled together you will need to type them without a space such as computerlab.  If you type them with a space they will be separated and jumbled throughout your published document, but if you type them without a space they will stay together.

            Please take a look at Wordle and try it out by making a list of “TenThingsStudentsShouldKnowToBecomeABetterReader.” Think about what you need to do to make this title on Wordle bigger than the other words.  Read above for help.

Also take a look at Tagxedo.