A Brief Instructional Experience Product, by Alison Paul, SLIS 741

1. WORDLE!
Word Clouds in the Classroom
By Alison Paul

2. What in the Wordle…is Wordle?
• Wordle is…
– an online tool for generating “word
clouds” from text that you provide.
http://www.wordle.net/create

3. This is a word cloud, or “Wordle”
cloud.
*I used the USC Libraries‟ Mission Statement to create this Wordle cloud.*

4. You can provide text by:
1.Inserting text
manually.

5. You can provide text by:
2. Copying
and pasting
text.

6. You can provide text by:
3. Entering the URL
of any blog, blog
feed, or any other
web page that has an
Atom or RSS feed.

7. You can provide text by:
4. Entering a
del.icio.us user name
to see their tags.

8. 1.Insert text
manually here.
2.Copy and paste
text here.
Enter URL here.
Enter del.icio.us. user name here.

9. Bigger, Bolder Words
• The clouds give graphic emphasis to
words that appear more frequently in
the source text.
The circled words appeared most frequently in my research
paper about instruction in academic libraries: „library‟,
„students‟, „English‟, „academic‟, & „faculty‟.

10. Let‟s practice!
1. Type the following Web address into
your browser:
http://www.wordle.net/create

11. 2. Manually type text into the “Paste in a bunch of text” box.
*For this practice exercise, please write an introductory paragraph about
yourself.
Manually enter text into this box. Enter text
about yourself: include your
name, interests, favorite things, words that
describe you, words that your friends or
family use to describe you, etc. …

12. 3. Once you have finished typing, click
the “Go” button below the text box.
Click on me with
your mouse!

13. Wordle will then generate your
beautiful word cloud!
• Wouldn‟t this make a great icebreaker activity for a class?
• Or a business card, even?

14. To edit your Wordle…
Use the tabs in this toolbar or the “Randomize” feature at the
bottom of the screen.

15. Edit the color scheme of your Wordle
using the “Color” tab.

16. Use the “Layout” tab’s features to edit
the physical layout of your Wordle.

17. Use the “Font” tab to change your Wordle‟s
font. Or click the “Randomize” button to see
randomly generated designs!

18. When you are finished and ready
to output your work…
Three ways to output your Wordle:
• As a printout
– Use the “Print” button feature.
• Link to webpage to be viewed in a public
gallery
– Click the “Save to public gallery” button
• Manually screen capture it and create a
digital image.
– Here is a link to a video on how:
• http://youtu.be/PE-5BD474cw

19. To print your Wordle To save your cloud to the
public gallery

20. Wordle clouds…
• Are visual representations of text!
• Put emphasis on keywords!
• Are aesthetically pleasing!
• Are fun to create!
• Can serve educational purposes!
• Can be applied in many ways in
instruction!

21. Wordle in the Classroom
• Example 1: Literary analysis
– Copy and paste the text of a poem.
* The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe

22. More literary analysis…
• Enter text from a chapter or an excerpt
from a book
*An excerpt from James Joyce‟s Ulysses

23. Analyze text from a blog or
discussion board that is relevant
to your class.
* Here I used the URL for my Session Topic Tour Guide blog

24. Analyze a Speech
* For this I copied and pasted the text of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.‟s I Have a Dream speech

25. Have your class create word
clouds for the Dewey Decimal
Classification System
The 200s, Dewey Decimal System

26. Word Clouds: The Sky‟s the
Limit!
• More great examples for your classroom:
– http://www.slideshare.net/mberner/38-intersting-
ways-to-use-wordle-in-the-classroom
– http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6
666671.html
– http://www.edgalaxy.com/journal/2010/1/22/the-
ultimate-guide-to-wordle-for-educators.html

27. The End