Tools Review 3 - Word Clouds

A word cloud is an image composed of words used in a particular text or subject, in which the size of each word indicates its frequency or importance. There are a number of reasons to use word clouds in the classroom, such as helping students improve their vocabulary, as a self assessment tool when writing, as an activating strategy, as a "getting to know you" tool, and to help your students understand assessments (for more on this go to http://www.edudemic.com/5-ways-use-word-cloud-generators-classroom/).

Another website that lists 108 ways to use word clouds in the classroom is
https://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/108-ways-to-use-word-clouds-in-the-classroom-word-clouds-in-education-series-part-2/


The website reviewed for this activity was http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm
The word cloud is easy to create. You simply copy and paste or type in a selection of words and click the arrow button. A sample of your word cloud is created and you then have the option to change the text font, color scheme, and the organization of the words.

I used a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay called Recuerdo to create my word cloud.

 

Like I stated above, this is a very simple website to use to create a word cloud. It did not require any additional add-ons and was simple to save to my computer. If you would like to create a word cloud with your students I would suggest using this site.