Use word clouds (and any other tools you can think of) to link reading to writing following an approach which is motivating and allows the students to peer-review their writing as well as compare it to the original.

1. By Marisa Constantinides – CELT Athens

2. Made with Wordle

11. Study layout, title, pictures, typeface Make guesses about the contents and function Anticipate where to look for confirmation of guesses according to what one knows of such text types Read some and predict further, e.g. how text will go on Confirm or revise Guesses Skim through the passage Read again for more detail

17. A woman walks into a bank in London and asks for the loan officer . She says she's going to the US on business for two weeks and needs to borrow £5,000.The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for the loan , so the woman hands over the keys to a new Rolls Royce parked on the street in front of the bank. Everything checks out , and the bank agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan . The bank's president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the woman for using a £200,000 Rolls as collateral against a £5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then proceeds to drive the Rolls into the bank's underground garage and parks it there.

18. Two weeks later, the woman returns, repays the £5,000 and the interest, which comes to £15.41. The loan officer says, "Miss, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are worth a fortune . What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow £5,000?"

19. The woman replied: "Where else in London can I park my car for two weeks for only £15.41?".

21. I will put the sleeves back on my records. I will be kind to the dog. I will stop squeezing my spots. I will help the poor and ignorant. I will not start smoking. I will hang my trousers up. I will not spend more than earn. I will reduce the circumference of thighs by 3 inches. I will not bitch about anyone behind their backs, but be postive about everyone. I will put my photographs in a photograph album. I will not drink more than fourteen alcohol units a week. I will get up straight away when wake up in mornings.

23. http://www.wordle.net/ http://www.wordsift.com/ http://www.imagechef.com/ic/word_mosaic/ http://worditout.com/ http://tagul.com/ http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm http://www.youtube.com/ http://voicethread.com/ http://www.voxopop.com/ http://www.poetry-archive.com/r/remember.html http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0AclS3lrlFkCIZGhuMnZjdjVfMTU3ZHBic2c5YzU&hl=en

24. A similar lesson plan using a word cloud http://marisaconstantinides.edublogs.org/2010/02/10/using-word-clouds-in-class-a-lesson-plan/ A blog post comparing the various types of word clouds http://marisaconstantinides.edublogs.org/2010/02/11/tech-tools-pedagogy-ii-word-clouds/ Marisa Constantinides Teacher Educator Director of CELT Athens http://www.celt.edu.gr/ [email_address] Twitter @Marisa_C