My second 2.0 web tool is Wordle. Wordle creates “word clouds” from texts that one provides. There are numerous ways to edit the design of the Wordles, from color schemes to font style to how the words are displayed by size and direction. I have seen world clouds for a few years now and over the summer I even created a few with another program, but I have not used word clouds in my classroom. I plan on doing a few Wordle driven activities this year. There is a lot to like about “word clouds” especially for foreign language class. Students can turn those boring lists of nouns, adjectives, and verbs into something creative and pleasing to look at! Students could also personalize their Wordle by using adjectives that describe him or her. There is a cool feature on Wordle that allows certain words to to stand out more in the word cloud the more it is typed in the text box. I made a sample below by typing my name 10 times and other words I feel describe me, numerous times. It is so inspiring to look at a picture created by words!
I did have a few small glitches when creating a Wordle. I had to download Java which took a few minute and I was not able to pdf my Wordle. I did a bit of research but nothing seemed to work so I just ended up taking a screen shot of my Wordles. I feel students could use Wordle easily, the only reminders I would make when creating a Wordle are not to have a black background if you print so as to not waste ink and also double checking spelling. I rate it a 9 out of 10 for being user friendly.
I did have a few small glitches when creating a Wordle. I had to download Java which took a few minute and I was not able to pdf my Wordle. I did a bit of research but nothing seemed to work so I just ended up taking a screen shot of my Wordles. I feel students could use Wordle easily, the only reminders I would make when creating a Wordle are not to have a black background if you print so as to not waste ink and also double checking spelling. I rate it a 9 out of 10 for being user friendly.
I can see my students creating Wordles in the target language about:
- Foods they like
- Adjectives that do or don’t describe them
- Regions of Italy as a review project
- ARE, ERE, IRE verbs
- Irregular past participles
- Articles of clothing that go with each season
- Items that go in each room of the house
Great suggestions for Wordle. I can also see your students listing adjectives that describe themselves in English AND Italian. Better yet, how about adjectives in both languages that describe mom and it becomes a Christmas gift?! Wordle does have it's limitations but recently it allowed the designs to be saved as image files (.png) so it's a start. When creating these I always have my students create their lists in Word and then copy and paste just in case java isn't installed- better to find out and have the list still available!
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