January 18

Word Up!

Wordle is a neat way to display a student’s writing in a different way. It may not be a paragraph or have any punctuation, in fact it may not even have a sentence. It will be filled with many, many words.

What it will be is text presented in an artistic way.  The text can be adjusted by color pallete, layout and font. Once the words are placed in the window, they can be adjusted as many times as you want. The size of the word depends on the use of it. Looking at the Declaration of Independence below, government is the largest word because it has been used the most. The smaller words are used less frequently. If you were to type the words in yourself, you would type one word several more times than other words to make sure it was larger.

Another example that is similar to Wordle is Tagxedo. Tagxedo offers the same features as Wordle. It also allows the creator to select from various shapes, which will enhance the presentation of the text. Once created, if you roll over the words they become hyperlinks. Clicking on them will take you to a website where you will find more information. (This feature is only available while in the site. Once it is saved as an image, you cannot click on the words.) Below is the same text as above, The Declaration of Independence, but presented in a shape.

 

How can you use this in the classroom:

  • create list of traits about a character
  • description of vocabulary word
  • words used in a Science or Social Studies unit
  • synonyms or antonyms
  • historical documents
  • back to school activity
  • book reviews

 

 

 

 

October 24

Family Heritage Week

Family Heritage week is the week of November 14-18 and coincides with American Education Week.

Below are a list of classroom ideas to recognize Family Heritage Week

  • For homework, the students can list words that distinguish their family heritage. Using the computers, have the students use a word puzzle site, such as PuzzleMaker, to create a word find. Print and hand out to the class for them to complete.
  • For homework, the students can list words that distinguish their family heritage. Use those words to create a poem, a Wordle, or cut out pictures from magazines to show the words visually.
  • Create a flag that defines each child’s heritage.
  • Celebrate life in our town by researching the history of it. Locate pictures of a main street from 100 years ago and compare/contrast the images of then and now.
  • Create a postcard with a picture to show symbols of the child’s heritage. Write a letter explaining the significance of the picture. This could be hand drawn or on the computer using a publishing program.
  • Each student will create quilt squares to represent their heritage. The squares can have pictures, words or both. The quilts can be arranged for a wall display.