Wordle

I just found another neat tool on School Library Journal called Wordle at wordle.com. It is neat and fun! Basically you just plug in a bunch of words....I did the terms we use to build a narrative text anchor chart in my classroom. The program generates a word cloud for you. It can be personalized and printed out. I was really excited, though, because the article goes on to say how this can be a useful tool for teachers to use with students when brainstorming for ideas to research. One teacher said she used it to show students how many times they repeated certain words. Also, apparently emphasis words float to the top, so it helps kids see what should be the most important topics. I thought it was neat! Here is the link to the article http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6666671.html if anyone is interested.