Fun with Text

www.tagxedo.com

www.wordle.net

I have never even heard of a “wordle”. I mean, is that even a real word? Turns out it can actually be a really useful tool in the classroom, along with it’s mate, “tagxedo”. What makes these tools so cool is that you can add as many words as you want to this form and these programs take those words and make cool shapes and patterns out of them. On top of that, if a word is inserted more than once in the document then it will be larger in the image that is created. Therefore, these tools are useful when examining main ideas, phrases, people, or words of a subject. In fact, a student can insert a passage from a textbook or book and the programs remove common words so that all that is left are the important ones, and extra important words will be bigger than others so students can recognize that those words or phrases have some significance. After the image has been created, students then have the opportunity to personalize it with colors and different arrangements so they really feel like they can make it their own and be able to work with it and understand it.