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.

Wordle: Creating Word Clouds

     Wordle is a word cloud web tool which creates graphic representations of frequently used words.  Users can easily individualize their word clouds as there are many formatting options including color, font, layout and choice of language.  Once the Wordle has been completed, it can be embedded in a website or blog. It can also be printed as a poster, t-shirt, brochure or business card.

How to Get Started:
See the video tutorial below:




Sample Classroom Activities:

1.  Word Association - Students can brainstorm possible definitions, synonyms, homonyms, antonyms, part of speech, etc associated with any new vocabulary.

2.  Character Sketch or Biography - Students can share their knowledge of a literary character or historical figure.

3.  Compare/Contrast Literary Themes - Students can create word clouds for two or more literary works and then compare/contrast the similarities and differences among them.

4.  Reflection of Learning - Students can summarize the content of a lesson or unit of study.

5.  Classroom Expectations - Together, students can brainstorm classroom expectations and have the end product posted in a word cloud.

6.  Book/Binder Cover - To liven up a textbook or binder, students can cover them with a word cloud describing the content of the subject area.

Wordle is a great web tool for students to demonstrate and present their knowledge on a variety of topics.  Check it out here!


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