Now that my wonderful
http://teakdoor.com/the-games-room/4...d-is-this.html (Whose word cloud is this?) thread has been banished to the Games room never to be seen again, here's a few ideas about using word clouds (
Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds) in the classroom.
If your class has a reading text to deal with, scan the text and make a word cloud. Before they get suck into the reading, tell the students what a word cloud is. Then they can:
(a) predict what the text will be about;
(b) say whether they think it's from a magazine, newspaper, book, film review, etc;
(c) say whether they think it's an opinion-based text or a factual text, etc;
(d) say whether they think it's about the past, present or future;
(e) ask about any unfamiliar words they can see in the cloud.
Then they can read the original and check their answers to the above before they go on to any comprehension or grammar work, etc.
Here's a topical example to practise (a) to (e) with. Probably work well with 5-year-olds.
