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"nce again, I am amazed every time I talk to groups and find out so many educators have not used word clouds to their fullest extent with their students. Word clouds also provide an easy way for teachers who are just getting started using web technology in the classroom. I have tried to include a multitude of subject areas. These ideas include practices shared with me, various readings, and a lot of my own brainstorming. I know this will be an article you wish to share with others. In order to better understand some of the advanced uses I suggest you may wish to read my past post entitled, 12 Valuable Wordle Tips You Must Read.  One example of an advanced feature includes putting multiple words  together in a word cloud. If using Wordle, just put a tilde (~) between them. (Example (ice~cream~cone). While I call it advanced, it is also necessary to know in order to get the most out of word clouds in the classroom..Also, keep in mind that Tagxedo and Tagul are great alternatives to Wordle. Keep in mind that word clouds are a Web 2.0 tool. Make sure your students practice proper digital citizenship and privacy. You should also check your district AUP (Acceptable Use Policy). By the way… do you have an idea I have not listed? Then just take a moment and leave a comment or email me at mjgormans@gmail.com . I thank you in advance. Now, let's explore those word clouds!"

"Word Clouds.  We've seen them, we've done them, many of us wear the t-shirt.   It's a quick and easy way to create a graphic based upon text.  Essentially, the size of the word is based upon the frequency of the text.  Many teachers use word clouds to  have students analyse their writing or to create a poster/graphic based upon key words. But, suppose you worked a little mathematics into it! Jason Davies has actually worked a lot of mathematics into his Word Cloud Generator.  Just start with this little protractor at the bottom of the screen."

Wordle is a toy for generating "word clouds" from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.

Wordle is a toy for generating "word clouds" from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.

Wordle is a toy for generating "word clouds" from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.

"Below is a collection of some of the best tools and mobile apps to use for generating word clouds. We have arranged these resources into three main categories:  word cloud generators for Google Drive, iPad word cloud generators, and web based tools for creating word clouds. As for Android users, the one we recommend is Word Salad which is also available for iPad."

"As elementary students learn how to read, teachers administer reading fluency tests and listen to students read passages. During these reading fluency tests, teachers listen for speed, accuracy, and expression. Nothing can replace this formal assessment, but it's helpful to teach students to track their words per minute between these reading fluency assessments. Tracking their words per minute can help students to appreciate that the more they practice reading a passage, the more words they will be able to read in a minute. In a coaching session with a second-grade teacher, I suggested we try using Voice Typing in Google Documents to help students track how many words they read in a minute. I hoped that giving them the tools to track their words per minute might motivate them to stay focused on the task of reading a challenging passage."

"English is filled with words that look alike or sound alike (or both), but mean very different things - so it's easy to get confused and use the wrong word at the wrong moment. As "word nerds" and podcast hosts of NPR's "You're Saying it Wrong," we're constantly on the lookout for these mistakes. And we've seen them everywhere, from corporate reports, resumes and cover letters, to major publications. But if you're aware of the different meanings of these words, you won't fall into the same traps. Here's a list of some of the most commonly confused words in the English language:"

"Tweetroot is an interesting app that is free today and only for a limited period of time. Tweetroot allows you to easily generate word clouds from tweets. Source data of your word clouds can be based on Tweets  a particular user shares, a hashtag, or mentions. For instance, creating a word cloud from the hashtag #edtech will enable you  to visualize the prominent words or topics being shared through this hashtag. You can also use the same strategy to analyze, for instance, your Twitter timeline and learn more about the things you have tweeted the most through a word cloud based on your 1000 most recent tweets. To use Tweetroot, you will obviously need to allow the app access to your Twitter account."

"Rivet is a reading app from Area 120 (a Google property). The free app offers more than 2,000 books for students to read independently. The books are appropriate for students in Kindergarten through second grade (5-8 years old). All of the books provide audio support to students in the form of an option to tap on a word and hear it read aloud. When students tap on a word they will hear it read aloud and can then read a definition of the word. Students also have the option to practice saying the word aloud. When students say a word aloud they get instant feedback on their pronunciation of that that word."

"What games do you play with sight words? Sight words are words that we all need to be able to read quickly and automatically in order to be strong readers, and the more we allow emerging readers to interact with these words, the better!"

"Words are the primary tools we use to convey meanings , of course there are non verbal tools as well but particularly in formal educational settings like schools and classrooms, words take the lion share of our language.  Can you imagine yourself delivering a lesson with no words in it ? will it work? Well Peterson has an answer." Peterson is a guy who used to have dyslexia when he was young and he did not learn how to read till he was in grade five. As an adult now, he designed some great applications to help teachers teach students without having to say a word. These are basically interactive learning games based on formative feedback. Watch the 8 minutes video to see the revolution Peterson triggered by the use of his free-language teaching approach. Enjoy

"Award-winning educational software publisher Terasoft, a. s., today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of Action Sight Words Games & Flashcards for Reading Success for iPhone and iPad from its new professional series aimed at early reading improvement. Featuring a total of 6 engaging games with over 300 high-frequency English words from the popular Dolch Sight Words List, the Action Sight Words Games application makes learning vocabulary and spelling fun and easy for young learners."

"The shift and caps lock key in iOS can be toggled at will to either capitalize a word or to type out something in ALL CAPS, but using the new Quick Type keyboard, you can switch casing of existing words very easily. This works really well on the iPhone and iPad, and once you learn how to use this, it'll probably become your preferred way to capitalize a word that has already been typed out, or to switch the casing to all upper or lower case."

VocabularySpellingCity is a fun way to learn spelling and vocabulary words by playing engaging learning games using any word list. The most popular activities are Spelling TestMe, HangMouse, and our vocabulary games, available to Premium Members. The most popular word lists are Sound Alikes, Compound Words, Hunger Games and SAT Words. This is a free app!

"I love word clouds. It is the best way to deconstruct a piece of text with students. It lets you start that conversation about language, text types, literacy and the power of the written word. It is also a great way to do a text analysis. Marco Torres talks about using them to compare two political speeches to analyse the types of words each of the candidates use but this idea would work just as easily with characters in a book, types of poems or even a series of artists you are studying."

" Word Mover is a free iPad app produced by Read Write Think. The app is designed to help students develop poems and short stories. When students open the Word Mover app they are shown a selection of words that they can drag onto a canvas to construct a poem or story. "

"Word cloud generators have gone the route of Kleenex and Saran Wrap, wherein people often use the name of the product to refer to the thing. Most folks I talk to refer to all word clouds as 'wordles', even though Wordle is just one of many, many tools that one can use to create word clouds."

"The use of word clouds in the classroom is a powerful way to really get through to visual learners. The details about the following nine word cloud generators will give you a fair idea how, as an educator, you can get the best out of them. A quick note: Wordle is quite easily the most popular word cloud generator out there. It's free and easy to use. It does require Java though so Chrome users might have some trouble. In any case, this article focuses on non-Wordle options you should know about."

WordsLike.net is a free service that allows you to find words and phrases that are similar or related to each other. \nType in a word or a phrase and Words Like.net will come up with a list of related words and their corresponding definitions.

"It's crucial to expose a wide variety of words to kids ages zero to five. Unfortunately, kids from lower income families hear and see far fewer words than their more affluent peers. Over time this gap widens and has a severe impact on literacy. Close this gap with these hand-picked apps that'll fill kids' brains with words and jumpstart reading and spelling. "

"Whether a teacher uses Daily 5 in the classroom or not, word work is an important piece of student daily learning. This article will provide an extensive list of iOS word work apps. Each app is listed by grade level and state, showing how it will best serve your students while they work with words in the classroom. All apps are free unless otherwise noted."