Creating a Wordle lesson plan

One of the things that I have started doing with my students is having them create a Wordle visual based on a certain topic and then responding to an essay question with the Wordle. I think it is a good way to incorporate a little technology, visual learning, and writing all in one. I have included the directions I give to the students and a very general sample of a Holocaust wordle.

Holocaust Wordle Assignment
For this assignment you will be researching a topic related to the Holocaust. You will be using the Holocaust websites from the MCHE website. Once you have completed the research you need to create a list of the 15 most important ideas/actions associated with your topic. You will then use it to create a Wordle visual that demonstrates these ideas.

The link to Wordle:
http://www.wordle.net/

How to make a Wordle:
Click on ‘Create your own’
Paste your list in where it says ‘paste in a bunch of text’ and paste or type in your list
Click ‘Go’

You may need to adjust your list several times to get your Wordle to look the way you want it to. Once you have completed your first Wordle you will follow the directions below for how to copy/paste it into Microsoft Word.

How to copy/paste the Wordles into Microsoft Word:
Once you have your final draft of your Wordle you need to click ‘Print screen’
Then open a Word document and paste it into Word
Double click on the image and then right click on the picture
Click on ‘Show picture toolbar’ and select the crop button
Crop out all of the excess stuff from your image

Note:
If you want a certain word to be more prominent than another word to represent its importance, then you should type it in more times. The more times the word appears, the larger it is in the Wordle visual. Also – if you want a set of words to be listed together (for example: many victim groups) then you should list them without a space when you type them in so that they will appear together in the Wordle (for example: manyvictimgroups).

I have included a sample below of a general Holocaust wordle so you will understand the assignment.

Sample Wordle:

Next Step: After creating each Wordle and pasting it into a Microsoft Word document, you will then write an explanation of your topic. The explanation should be a minimum of 10 sentences and based on your research.