Using Worldle in the Classroom

With my 8th graders on Wednesday, I took an Obama speech word cloud and had the class compare this with a cloud of JFK's inaugural speech in 1961. The resulting discussion was fascinating. In summary, the class noted the importance of the words "nation" and "must" in President Obama's speech. The class decided that this means that our new president recommends forceful action to support our nation in a time of economic crisis. In comparison, the class identified "nation" and "let" as key words from Kennedy's speech. The conclusion was that the focus of this era was more international, especially in light of the fact that 1961 was at the height of the Cold War era. We also had an interesting debate over the uses of the words "let" and "must", why those two words appeared so large in the clouds, and what the two presidents may have meant by emphasizing these words. One 8th grade student also reminded all of us of the limits of such a tool. A wordle provides added insight into a speech, but more investigation is needed, especially in studying the original text.

There are many possibilities for using this tool in an educational setting. Here are a few ideas:

• Have students import text from a paper or report into Wordle. Does the program identify the words and themes you feel are important? Why or why not?
• Use Wordle to examine historical documents. What can you learn about the Constitution or Declaration of Independence from a word cloud?
• Examine a section of Scripture or a psalm. What new spiritual insights are gained from using this tool?
• Create a cloud from a section of Anne Frank's diary? What insights are gained about her predicament and her emotional state while in hiding?

What are other ways in Wordle might be used in the classroom? Feel free to share those ideas as a comment to this post.