Category: Novel

Using Word Clouds in the Classroom

2/24/2013

Word clouds are a fun way to display student learning. A few weeks ago, I created a word cloud using Wordle that summed up my students learning in Ancient Egypt.

There are two popular words cloud generators - Wordle and Tagxedo. Wordle creates word clouds in no defined shape. Tagxedo allows you to shape the word clouds into one of the shapes they have available, including an apple, airplane, or heart.
Here are some samples and ideas of how you can use them in your classroom.

All about Me Word Cloud

This is a fun activity at the beginning of the year or anytime!

1) First have students type their name at least 15 times (so it will be the largest)

2) Then have them type in things that describe them. Favourite colour, favourite foods, hobbies, interests etc. Again those things most important to them should be typed more than once and then they will be bigger.

3) Print them off and display them. They look cool in black and white too!

4) If you blog with your class have them embed it in their blog!

One 'book-keeping' note. It may be easier for them to type into a Word docucument first. Then, have them cut and paste their work into Wordle or Tagxedo. That way they can spell-check and ensure they have included everything they thought of.

Other Classroom uses for Word Cloud Generators:

Title pages for content areas

What I / We have learned after completing a unit in Science, Socials etc.

Poetry
Key words from a novel, A character study from a novel, turn a book report into a wordle and include it as part of the book report.
Mother's Day and Father's day cards. Have the students type in the things that they like most about their parent. Then print them off and create cards :)
Turn their blog / journal entries into word clouds
Predictions: Generate a word cloud before a unit or a story. Have students predict what the story might be about based on the words in the word cloud. You can project the word cloud using a computer projector and predict as a whole class, or you may wish to use it to create a worksheet where they independently generate their thoughts.

Here is a Tagxedo of my last blog post about the website If It Were My Home. This Tagxedo is embedded as a weblink,; therefore it is interactive. The only downside of Tagxedo is that if you do not have Microsoft Silverlight, you will not be able to view the interactive embedded version. However, you can save images and then use them. See my next example below.

Below is a Tagxedo of my next newsletter contribution. This image is saved and can be used in a variety of ways.

Finally, here is an embedded wordle. You can click on it and it will take your to the wordle website. Wordles become publically accessible if you do not choose to make them private. Therefore, if students make them about themselves, ensure that they are private! This Wordle is of the hand-out from my blogging workshop.

Happy Word Cloud Generating!

N. Keyworth, Grade 7 Teacher, Treasurer for PITA

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First Post - Oral Novel Presentations

2/9/2013

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It was almost a year ago when I was first asked to join the PITA executive, and I am thankful that I said yes. I have enjoyed my first year, and look forward to helping them continue to develop amazing professional development opportunities for intermediate and middle school teachers.

At our last executive meeting, we talked about creating a blog where we share with our members a wide variety of teaching ideas for the intermediate and middle school classroom.

Today, I get 'the blog rolling' with my first post, and the first post for MYPITA!

Oral Novel Presentations

I thought for my first post, I'd share a recent assignment in my classroom that has turned into an amazing success! Before Christmas, I did a 30-minute book talk on over 45 different novels that I thought my Grade Sevens should read and would most likely enjoy. I included current ‘trendy’ books as well as some award winners and classical favourites. The assignment was simple: in each of the Grade Seven classes each student would choose a different novel and prepare an oral presentation on the book. In addition, they would create a bookmark to summarize key parts of the book. My goal was to expose the students to a wide variety of books and have them promote books to their classmates. They were given 2 months to read their book. We set up a schedule the very next day, with one to two students presenting a day from mid-January to mid-February.

So far the presentations have been AMAZING and on this past Tuesday, the students handed in their fabulous bookmarks. The presentations have achieved exactly what I had hoped. Students are now reading the books their classmates read. In addition, many students ended up reading a book they loved and are now reading other books from that author or from a similar genre.

Here is the original assignment sheet for the oral presentation:

novel_presentation.pdf
File Size:	72 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

Here is the assignment sheet for the bookmark:

bookmark__assignment_outline.pdf
File Size:	43 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

Here is the rubric we used to mark the oral presentation:

oral_novel_presentation_rubric.pdf
File Size:	45 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

Here is the rubric for marking the bookmark:

bookmark_rubric.pdf
File Size:	36 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

Finally, here are some pictures of a few of the amazing bookmarks the Grade 7’s produced!

The beauty of this assignment is that it can be done at any grade level. I have done oral novel presentations with Grade 4's, 5's, 6's, and 7's. The marking load is minimal, and it addresses so many learning outcomes. The students love having a choice, although be prepared for several students to want the same book. As I did my big book talk, I had them write down all the books that interested them. After talking about every book, I then went back to the beginning and asked who wanted each book. If there was a 'hot' book, I left them until the end. Then we did draws etc. This took sometime, but in the end, I would say everyone left happy! I did have to go and find about 5 books other than the ones in my original talk. I took these students to the library and we spent time narrowing down the right book for them!

N. Keyworth - Grade Seven Teacher, Treasurer for PITA

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Using Word Clouds in the Classroom

First Post - Oral Novel Presentations

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