Wordle: using word clouds in a lesson

Jun 18th 2008
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There has been a flurry of posts in the edublogosphere this week about Wordle, a very useful tool that allows you to create word clouds from text (or del.icio.us tags). It’s very simple to use: you just copy text in any language, paste it into Wordle and it will sift through it and create clouds with the most commonly occurring words in the text. You can then edit the shape, the colours and the font in the cloud and even remove words you don’t like by right-clicking on them.

I thought I’d use it with my sixth form (16-17 year olds) and then report on it. This was my lesson preparation:

  • I chose two online newspaper articles about the current topic we are studying: the environment.
  • I copied and pasted the articles into Wordle, creating two word clouds.
  • I created two word documents with the full articles and made enough copies.
  • I also printed both word clouds on one piece of A4 paper and made enough copies.
This is how the lesson went:
  • I handed out the hard copies of the word clouds to pupils and asked them to fold their papers in half so every other pupil would be looking at a different word cloud.
  • Pupils were asked to look at the word clouds, with a dictionary, and try to ascertain the gist of the original articles.
  • Half the class then explained to the other half what they thought their article was about while I displayed each word cloud in turn on the interactive whiteboard (see illustrations), highlighting words one at a time and extracting relevant / useful vocabulary.
  • I then handed out copies of the original articles in full to my pupils and discussed the vocabulary further.

The lesson went very well and I found Wordle to be an useful and interesting tool to use to engage my pupils in text analysis, looking at language and vocabulary in detail. My pupils liked the way Wordle automatically picked up the gist of any given text so much that they asked me about how to use Wordle to help them revise in other subjects.

I certainly see myself using it again, not only as a text analysis tool, but also as a tool to elicit speaking and creative writing. I’ll let you know how I get on!

Have you already used Wordle in your lessons? What do you think?

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José Picardo

José is a Modern Foreign Languages teacher at a secondary school in England. He is interested in the way technology can be used to enhance teaching and learning and has been curating Box of Tricks since 2007.

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  • cmckell

    Great idea!
    There is a huge body of research to support prereading strategies like this, and it improves vocabulary too!

  • cmckell

    Great idea!
    There is a huge body of research to support prereading strategies like this, and it improves vocabulary too!

  • http://www.huntedweb.com/ Tania

    I used Wordle on our classroom’s interactive whiteboard with two classes of 5-7 year olds. Each time we did a re-layout or changed the colour, the kids looked up in amazement.

    From our class blog:
    We went on an excursion to the art gallery – the National Gallery of Victoria.

    Have a look at our word cloud. DEH and DEI brainstormed a list of words that sprang to mind from the excursion, then voted on the ones we felt were most significant. The more popular the vote, the bigger the word appears…

    http://huntedweb.googlepages.com/home22

  • http://www.huntedweb.com Tania

    I used Wordle on our classroom’s interactive whiteboard with two classes of 5-7 year olds. Each time we did a re-layout or changed the colour, the kids looked up in amazement.

    From our class blog:
    We went on an excursion to the art gallery – the National Gallery of Victoria.

    Have a look at our word cloud. DEH and DEI brainstormed a list of words that sprang to mind from the excursion, then voted on the ones we felt were most significant. The more popular the vote, the bigger the word appears…

    http://huntedweb.googlepages.com/home22

  • http://www.skambalu.edublogs.org/ skambalu

    I really like this idea that you have shared … I found Wordle on Thursday via another blog that I found via Twitter … I love the look of it, and look forward to experimenting! Thanks.

  • http://www.skambalu.edublogs.org skambalu

    I really like this idea that you have shared … I found Wordle on Thursday via another blog that I found via Twitter … I love the look of it, and look forward to experimenting! Thanks.

  • http://wordle.net/ Jonathan Feinberg

    I’m very happy to see that Wordle has life beyond its intended use of providing pleasure.

    For some reason, teachers in particular have taken to Wordle. Is there some pedagogical theory that suggests a wordle-like tool?

  • http://wordle.net/ Jonathan Feinberg

    I’m very happy to see that Wordle has life beyond its intended use of providing pleasure.

    For some reason, teachers in particular have taken to Wordle. Is there some pedagogical theory that suggests a wordle-like tool?

  • Guest

    Hi Jonathan,

    First of all a big thank you for creating Wordle, it’s such an useful tool for language teachers!

    I have been thinking about your question and I suppose that the answer is something like this:

    - Wordle produces beautiful word clouds which turn the otherwise dull task of text analysis more attractive to pupils, therefore more motivating.

    - It is in electronic form, so it can easily be transferred to a number of other media: paper, interactive whiteboards, blogs etc

    - It automatically captures the gist of any given text, so it helps pupils focus on the vocabulary, register, grammar, etc. in a way that is both accessible and motivating.

    That is what I can think of off the cuff in my lunch hour. I am sure there are more pedagogical reasons why Wordle lends itself so well to education in general.

    Perhaps someone would like to suggest some more?

  • http://www.boxoftricks.net José Picardo

    Hi Jonathan,

    First of all a big thank you for creating Wordle, it’s such an useful tool for language teachers!

    I have been thinking about your question and I suppose that the answer is something like this:

    - Wordle produces beautiful word clouds which turn the otherwise dull task of text analysis more attractive to pupils, therefore more motivating.

    - It is in electronic form, so it can easily be transferred to a number of other media: paper, interactive whiteboards, blogs etc

    - It automatically captures the gist of any given text, so it helps pupils focus on the vocabulary, register, grammar, etc. in a way that is both accessible and motivating.

    That is what I can think of off the cuff in my lunch hour. I am sure there are more pedagogical reasons why Wordle lends itself so well to education in general.

    Perhaps someone would like to suggest some more?

  • http://www.huntedweb.com/ Tania

    Why is Wordle popular with teachers?
    It fits into so many areas of the curriculum…

    - Visual art

    - Maths (representing data)

    - English (vocabulary, spelling)

    - Brainstorming for any topic/theme work – either as an introduction or reflection tool, or perhaps both for evaluation purposes!

    - eLearning/ICT (presenting information)

    All of this, and it’s so simple and flexible to use! And what’s more, it’s relevant to the real world. (Well, the digital part of it!) Word clouds (or tag clouds) really are used as web tools.

  • http://www.huntedweb.com Tania

    Why is Wordle popular with teachers?
    It fits into so many areas of the curriculum…

    - Visual art

    - Maths (representing data)

    - English (vocabulary, spelling)

    - Brainstorming for any topic/theme work – either as an introduction or reflection tool, or perhaps both for evaluation purposes!

    - eLearning/ICT (presenting information)

    All of this, and it’s so simple and flexible to use! And what’s more, it’s relevant to the real world. (Well, the digital part of it!) Word clouds (or tag clouds) really are used as web tools.

  • Sandy

    I only discovered Wordle yesterday and immediately appreciate how this can be a tool to analyze poetry. I copied and pasted one passage from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. The first time I did, I saw that Wordle left out articles, prepositions – or what are deemed insignificant words to analyze. After reading how Wordle chooses to increase font size and how to put words into groups, I re-copied the passage and made a few changes.

    I used the tilde to hold together the phrase “after the” which would have been left out otherwise. And since this is repeated in the stanza, it increased in font size. The word “worth” was repeated so it increased in size. The result was exactly what I wanted: the emphasis on Prufrock’s inability to act because he wasn’t sure he could be successful.

    What a great tool to help visualize meaning and intent.

  • Sandy

    I only discovered Wordle yesterday and immediately appreciate how this can be a tool to analyze poetry. I copied and pasted one passage from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. The first time I did, I saw that Wordle left out articles, prepositions – or what are deemed insignificant words to analyze. After reading how Wordle chooses to increase font size and how to put words into groups, I re-copied the passage and made a few changes.

    I used the tilde to hold together the phrase “after the” which would have been left out otherwise. And since this is repeated in the stanza, it increased in font size. The word “worth” was repeated so it increased in size. The result was exactly what I wanted: the emphasis on Prufrock’s inability to act because he wasn’t sure he could be successful.

    What a great tool to help visualize meaning and intent.

  • http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/ Nik Peachey

    I think this is a great and really creative tool. I’ve also blogged a list of ideas I came up with for EFL ESL students.

    http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2008/09/using-word-clouds-in-efl-esl.html

    I also created a short video tutorial to help teacher and students see how easy it is to use.

    http://www.technogogy.org.uk/wordle/wordle.htm

    I really love the simplicity and versatility of the tool.

    Best
    Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
    http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
    http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
    Visit my office in Second Life at: http://tinyurl.com/ytz5go

  • http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/ Nik Peachey

    I think this is a great and really creative tool. I’ve also blogged a list of ideas I came up with for EFL ESL students.

    http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2008/09/using-word-clouds-in-efl-esl.html

    I also created a short video tutorial to help teacher and students see how easy it is to use.

    http://www.technogogy.org.uk/wordle/wordle.htm

    I really love the simplicity and versatility of the tool.

    Best
    Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
    http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
    http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
    Visit my office in Second Life at: http://tinyurl.com/ytz5go

  • http://www.ld-technokids.com/ gail desautels

    Another wonderful tool, and GREAT ideas to use it. I have a bent for “deconstruction” and have used http://www.tagcrowd.com quite a bit. Wordle however has some very nice and slightly different features. Thanks again – http://www.ld-technokids.com

  • http://www.ld-technokids.com gail desautels

    Another wonderful tool, and GREAT ideas to use it. I have a bent for “deconstruction” and have used http://www.tagcrowd.com quite a bit. Wordle however has some very nice and slightly different features. Thanks again – http://www.ld-technokids.com

  • Barbara Gardner

    Hi
    I agree with all the comments about Wordle above but I would like to add another bonus. English teachers have been examining the language we teach in recent years (see Michael Lewis, The Lexical Approach). There is much debate about whether we prescribe grammar and lexis that is rather unnatural. Shouldn’t we be teaching descriptive language that people actually use evryday in English-speaking countries? Think about all those studenst who study English for years, arrive in the UK and cannot understand a word in the local shop!

    Well, technology and the existence of corpora allow us to examine the frequency of words, phrases and collocation. Wordle is an excellent tool for that, we can actually see the most frequent words becuause of their size and look for their collocations in the rest of the cloud.

    Hope this makes sense!
    Barbara

  • Barbara Gardner

    Hi
    I agree with all the comments about Wordle above but I would like to add another bonus. English teachers have been examining the language we teach in recent years (see Michael Lewis, The Lexical Approach). There is much debate about whether we prescribe grammar and lexis that is rather unnatural. Shouldn’t we be teaching descriptive language that people actually use evryday in English-speaking countries? Think about all those studenst who study English for years, arrive in the UK and cannot understand a word in the local shop!

    Well, technology and the existence of corpora allow us to examine the frequency of words, phrases and collocation. Wordle is an excellent tool for that, we can actually see the most frequent words becuause of their size and look for their collocations in the rest of the cloud.

    Hope this makes sense!
    Barbara

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  • Paul

    hi!

    I use wordle for my students on our 3D Film Production courses. A module has students writing detailed 1-page Treatments of an animation film plot. Wordle helps students quickly see the type of words they are using and their habitual use of perhaps the same few words – which in turn encourages students to use a thesaurus to adapt their texts.

    It would be amazing to have something like a WordlePlot – where input of a short film text (like a Treatment or Screenplay) WordlePlot would reveal a diagrammatic representation of the plot — a tough one i know!

    http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/1031412/film_production_WordlePlot

  • Paul

    hi!

    I use wordle for my students on our 3D Film Production courses. A module has students writing detailed 1-page Treatments of an animation film plot. Wordle helps students quickly see the type of words they are using and their habitual use of perhaps the same few words – which in turn encourages students to use a thesaurus to adapt their texts.

    It would be amazing to have something like a WordlePlot – where input of a short film text (like a Treatment or Screenplay) WordlePlot would reveal a diagrammatic representation of the plot — a tough one i know!

    http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/1031412/film_production_WordlePlot

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  • MissPlum

    I also think wordle is fantastic, but just a word of caution…a teacher in my school was using it with her class and didn't realise it is uncensored. She had an incident where her class were looking at someone elses wordle in the 'gallery' and it contained some choice language!

  • MissPlum

    I also think wordle is fantastic, but just a word of caution…a teacher in my school was using it with her class and didn't realise it is uncensored. She had an incident where her class were looking at someone elses wordle in the 'gallery' and it contained some choice language!

  • http://shiftingexpectations.bogspot.com/ Alastair

    Miss Plum
    Miss Plum

    You may be interested to know that the guy who created Wordle has also now come up with a solution for making it safe to use in schools, which filters out all the potentially unwelcome surprises! It's all detailed on his blog at http://blog.wordle.net/2009/08/how-to-make-word…

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  • http://acliltoclimb.blogspot.com/ Chiew

    I love Wordle – I think it’s got a lot of potential as a teaching tool. I’ve been using it quite a bit: http://acliltoclimb.blogspot.com/search/label/wordle

  • http://acliltoclimb.blogspot.com Chiew

    I love Wordle – I think it’s got a lot of potential as a teaching tool. I’ve been using it quite a bit: http://acliltoclimb.blogspot.com/search/label/wordle

  • Jam

    That is quite interesting, Check out this wordle projcet it gives a new perspective of looking at the inuagural addresses. Its much easier to digest than reading them all, however looking at wordle may just intrique one to read the whole address. You may even be suprised by some of them. There is a stark contrast between lincolns first and second.

    http://www.governingdynamo.com/blog/2009/8/19/take-a-look-at-some-historic-american-rhetoric.html

  • Jam

    That is quite interesting, Check out this wordle projcet it gives a new perspective of looking at the inuagural addresses. Its much easier to digest than reading them all, however looking at wordle may just intrique one to read the whole address. You may even be suprised by some of them. There is a stark contrast between lincolns first and second.

    http://www.governingdynamo.com/blog/2009/8/19/take-a-look-at-some-historic-american-rhetoric.html

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  • rharte

    I adore Wordle, but I don’t seem to be able to save it in order to open it in class or to print it, so I spend a lot of time messing around trying to printscreen it!! Am I missing something?!!

    • Guest

      Hello. Yes it’s a bit of a faff getting wordles saved, it’s all got to do with the fact that Wordle is a Java based application, and Java does not allow anything to be saved on local disks 9i.e. your computer).

      However, Wordle did recently add a print button that comes up underneath your wordle, although I find the best way is to take a screenshot, so I can then add my wordle to presentations, worksheets, etc.

      Here is a website that shows you how to take screenshots:
      http://take-a-screenshot.org/

    • http://www.pbase.com/beyer Beyer

      Try Snagit

  • rharte

    I adore Wordle, but I don’t seem to be able to save it in order to open it in class or to print it, so I spend a lot of time messing around trying to printscreen it!! Am I missing something?!!

    • http://www.boxoftricks.net José Picardo

      Hello. Yes it’s a bit of a faff getting wordles saved, it’s all got to do with the fact that Wordle is a Java based application, and Java does not allow anything to be saved on local disks 9i.e. your computer).

      However, Wordle did recently add a print button that comes up underneath your wordle, although I find the best way is to take a screenshot, so I can then add my wordle to presentations, worksheets, etc.

      Here is a website that shows you how to take screenshots:
      http://take-a-screenshot.org/

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  • Ndbellamy

    Excellent tip…you saved my presentation for Monday! Keep sharing it makes a difference in the lives of educators like me!

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  • Cgiles

    Thank you for the training today, Jose. Best wishes, King Edward VI School Southampton…

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  • lisa howard

    I just posted about Wordle on my blog too. Ateachersbagoftricks.blogspot.com

    Lisa

  • sunil singh

    Thank You 

    The given Information on your blog is very useful.
     
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