Wordle for Learning

For those of you that are looking for creative ways to help your kids remember topics that they are learning, I would like to share with you one tool that I have recently added to our homeschool curriculum. I like to have options when it comes to note taking. While I encourage Cambridge note formats as I know from my own experience that they will allow you to take notes in a college setting, I also think that it is important to create creative ways to engage the brain. Wordle is one such tool that can assist your learning endeavors while keeping your kids technology savvy.

Wordle is a tool with one main purpose: To create an image based on the inputted words. You can create a wordle for just about anything. I have actually used it a number of times over the last year for work. Here is a sample of a wordle I created for my writing business, The Articulating Goddess.

 

By looking at the image I am sure you can get some idea of what kind of work that I do. It hit me last week that I could use this for school lessons. Why not? I actually learned about the program in one of my own college classes and I think it is a great tool to utilize to get your kids thinking about the words they are trying to learn. For example, when doing a history assignment on the Salem Witch Trials, we created this wordle together. 

To create your own wordle on any subject, there are a couple of ways to do it. 

First, you want to go to WORDLE

To create a new wordle, click on CREATE. 

You can do a couple of things next. 

1. Insert typed notes on a topic, an essay, or a personal writing in the upper box. 
2. Type words about your topic in the upper box.  
3. Link to a website of your choosing and allow wordle to utilize the RSS feed in order to establish a word pattern for your image. 

Once you have inserted your words, you will click 'submit' or 'go', depending on which input format that you chose. It's interesting because the tool will take the words from your writing, notes, or website, and input them into the wordle tool and pull out the most common words. It will automatically leave out common words such as the, and, or... or... 

You can create the format, change the colors, and customize your wordle. Once you decide that you like it then you are done. It can be difficult to copy the page and in fact, the tool will not allow you to simply save the image. Personally, I always just to a print screen and then paste to paint and crop it to save it. That's the simplest way that I have found. 

The tool can be printed and added to any lapbooks, posters, or notebooks. It adds color and creativity with the words that certainly verifies merit for the tool. 

We would love to see some of your creations! Try it out and let me know if you like it or what you used it for! 

Happy Wordling!