Create Stylish Word Clouds with Tagxedo

The De-tech-tive 4 Teachers Word Cloud

Tagxedo is a free, online web tool that students can use to create very visually appealing word clouds.  As you can see from the image on the left, word clouds can be generated in the shapes related to the topic.  For visual learners this is an excellent tool to highlight or emphasis key terms, concepts or themes.

Tagxedo offers many terrific features such as:
1. customization of fonts, themes, colors, orientation and shapes.  
2.  saving images for printing and sharing
3.  numerous fine-tuning options

Teach-nology:
(the pedagogical rationale for the use of technology in the classroom)  

Skill	Teach-nology
Visual Literacy	To interpret, recognize, appreciate, and understand information presented through objects and/or symbols
Creativity	To elaborate, refine, analyze, and evaluate ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts.
Language Skills	To expand and improve vocabulary by using various language expressions such as synonyms, homonyms, antonyms, etc.

Sample Activities:

The official blog of Tagxedo offers an excellent resource for teachers entitled "101 Ways to Use Tagxedo".  Below is a sampling of some of the great lesson ideas offered:  

1.  Contrast Candidates in a Political Debate - Using debates, speeches, slogans, promises, etc., students can examine the political platform of two or more political candidates.

2.  Current Events - Using key terms from various news outlets (newspaper, radio, television, etc.), students can summarize the latest newsworthy event.

3.  Make a Self Portrait - Using one's dreams, hopes, character traits, goals, etc., students can summarize their personality. 

4.  Make a Tagxedo Poem - Using a favorite poem or one written personally, students can create a word cloud highlighting its theme.  


How to Get Started:

View the video tutorial below to create your first Tagxedo word cloud in minutes!




Tagxedo is a fantastic resource to help students improve a variety of 21st Century skills.  Click here to get started!


This post originally appeared on The De-tech-tive 4 Teachers.

5 Fun & Interactive Grammar Websites for Students

Teaching grammar and vocabulary can be challenging at times for Language Arts teachers as the content is not as exciting as learning about other topics like the combustible chemical reaction of napthalene.  Below are five websites that will provide a more fun and interactive methodology to teaching grammar and improving vocabulary.

Irregular Verb Wheel - This fun and engaging website created by Macmillan Dictionary allows students to practice identifying various verb conjugations.  The goal of the game is to earn as many points as possible by identifying the correct past, present and future tenses of a selected verb from the wheel within the allotted time.  The learning focus for this game is commonly used irregular verbs that are often incorrectly applied in our daily oral and written expression.   

Free Rice - is a free, online game that allows users to help with world hunger while improving one's grammar and vocabulary skills.  For each correct answer from the multiple choice format, 10 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program.  Also, students are further challenged to expand their vocabulary because with each correct response, the next question is chosen from the next upper level of terms.  Recently, Free Rice has expanded its gaming repertoire to include other subject areas such as art, chemistry, foreign languages, math and geography.

Grammar Bytes! - is another free website that enables students to practice a wide range of grammar skills including sentence structure, usage and punctuation.  The website includes a glossary of terms, interactive activities, printable handouts, presentations including YouTube videos, and a quick summary of tips and rules.  The best aspect of the Grammar Bytes website is that students must demonstrate their working knowledge by correcting sentence errors, not just memorizing the rules of grammar.

Grammar Ninja - is a fun and engaging game that students can use to practice the identification of the various parts of speech.  There are three levels of difficulty: Beginner Ninja, Skilled Ninja and Master Ninja.  Instant feedback is a key feature of this website because if a student answers incorrectly, the words explode.  

Interactives: Spelling Bee - is a great website for students to practice their spelling.  Students are read either a story or a sentence and then are to spell the missing words.  Words can be repeated or a definition can be supplied if a student is having trouble.  At the end of the activity, results are calculated to determine a student's mastery of the vocabulary.  All grade levels are available as well.   


This post originally appeared on The De-tech-tive 4 Teachers.