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October 2, 2008 post. Detailed description (and video) of a vocabulary game using wordle word clouds. The blogger had created a wordle and covered up the words with with rectangles. Students came to the SMARTBoard one at a time to touch the rectangle and reveal a word. Then they used a spinner to tell them what to do with the word: to use the word in a sentence, tell how many syllables, or give a synonym or antonym. The rectangles were colour coded by degree of difficulty so the teacher could differentiate instruction. You can download the Notebook file, and the blogger promises a tutorial for this idea.

I like Wordle. This game is so addictive that I can play it all day long and never get bored. It improves memory, increases vocabulary, and hones analytical skills. If you are stuck and can't guess the word, just look for hints here https://word-finder.com/words-that-end-in/ick/. This word generator tool is good not only for Wordle but for other word games as well.

Wordle created from the text of McCain's concession speech; from a Plurk message that I didn't bookmark.

use this as a compare/contrast of Obama's and McCain's acceptance/concession speech

I totally agree with your comment about WORDLE serving to highlight the commanlities. As an EFL teacher, I tend to focus a lot on the common words in English, as these are the words that define our fluency in the language. I use the BNL2709 vocabulary profiler for this at http://lextutor.ca/vp/bnl -- when you compare McCain and Obama's use of the most common words in their speeches, it can be a good starting point for a compare/contrast analysis which is accessible to most EFL students (well, those above B1 on the CEFR scale). When I get a good result for a WORDLE, I save it to the public gallery. Perhaps interesting to view WORDLEs focusing on the common words in English below with your WORDLE of unfiltered words in the McCain speech in mind. Compare the two WORLDEs http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/289555/Obama_Speech_5-11-08_-_BNL2709 http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/289552/McCain_Speech_5-11-08_-_BNL2709 Notice the differences in frequency of words in both speeches (campaign, bless, nation, unite, promise, achieve, white). Also of note are the words that appear in one and not the other like fail, victory, generation. :) Creating complementary WORDLEs like this can be another useful way to explore the compare/contrast issue that you mention.

An example of maniupulting the output from a collocates/pattern table in Just the Word as input for the ADVANCED feature of WORLDE.

Hi Sheryl - glad you found it useful. You are quite right about the spreadsheet idea...I tend to use EXCEL and some of the basic TEXT, LOOKUP and FILTER options to manipulate lexical data I get from various sources. I did leave several suggestions for PHIL at the JustTheWord user group in GOOGLE to make the 'mash up' between JTW and WORDLE more seamless. But, as you suggest, copying and pasting the data into a spreadsheet is the only way to do this at the moment. Spreadsheets aren't everyone's cup of tea, but perhaps we could provide a template for the faint at heart, which can make it easier.... I also use the same technique to extract 'sets' from Mark Davies corpus sites at http://corpus.byu.edu as well as vocabulary profiles at Tom Cobb's Lextutor site at http://lextutor.ca -- Of course, PC-based software like ANTCONC and ANTWORDPROFILE also output data that can easily be manipulated into the ADVANCED feature of WORDLE. Here are some WORDLEs in my public gallery that show the results...the ones contrasting OBAMA and McCAIN speeches are quite interesting. http://www.wordle.net/gallery?username=BNL2709 My background is EFL, so I find other sources of lexical sets like http://labs.google.com/sets?hl=en&q1=mouse&btn=Shrink+Set+%28to+15+items+or+fewer%29 also useful as input to WORDLE. :)

I'll look over these resources. Yes, I made WORDLES of Obama and McCain. I think one reason these types of web applications are so interesting is to view the ways in which we teach and learn....what our commonalities are.

7 practical ideas for using Wordle with ESL and EFL students.

June 20, 2008 post. Several ideas for using wordle. Students create wordles about themselves listing their name and characteristics, hobbies, etc. Students create wordles describing a character in a novel for a character study. It would be fun to create these without the names and then have students guess who the wordle refers to.

Idea posted to a blog about using Wordle for getting the gist of a weather forecast. The author has taken the words from a weather forecast and asks the students why they think certain words are larger than others.

This is a webslides tour of ideas for using Wordle in the classroom.

an excellent use of wordle to reinforce vocabulary development or explain a word.

More information

Build Literacy Skills with Wordle

@bookjewel has developed a new wiki for educators and collaboration on teaching ideas. She used a web application called imagechef to make WORDLES in various shapes. Hers is a star; very cool!

a neat way to use wordle with books

Assessment is one of the best ways to use WORDLE. I like to hear of teachers experiences with that aspect of using WORDLE. This is an alternative form of assessment that gives you immediate feedback on increasing vocabulary. Great stuff.

Thanks for sharing this! I like playing word games and do it quite often. Word games are a fun way to pass the time but they also have numerous benefits. Word puzzles help build your vocabulary, improve your spelling and writing skills, and increase your general knowledge. Plus, doing these puzzles improves your cognitive function, memory, and attention. Look for word hints here https://word-finder.com/words-that-end-in/anti/. Sometimes it's the only option, especially when you are stuck.