Using Word Clouds in the Elementary School Classroom

Amy Wise
Audience: Elementary School Teachers
Time Frame: 30 minutes
Professional Development
November 13, 2017

Identification of the Problem

I did not send out questionnaires to find out what my co-workers needed help with in the
area of technology. I already actually knew. I knew that most of the teachers I worked
with (excluding some of the young hires) had a difficult time knowing about varying web
2.0 tools that they could use to offer a different experience in the classroom. For
example, I knew that since we follow our reading curriculum so closely, no one changes
anything about the vocabulary content which is the same as when I was in school, back
in the age of dinosaurs: the student gets the word from the teacher and writes down the
definition. Also, I knew from experience that it takes teachers a long time at the
beginning of the year to get the students to use computers. This is not ok! Our
computer lab and our Chromebook carts should be used daily- maybe not on the first
day of school with its messed up schedule, but definitely on the second day of school.
So keeping this in mind, I wanted to offer to teach a new tool for their toolbox, but I did
not want it to be overwhelmingly hard for the teacher. If it was, it would be dead on
arrival. No matter how cunning the tool is, if the teacher doesnt understand it, there is
no chance that the student would ever see it. My mind went immediately to
wordart.com, also known as tagul.com. Word art is a word cloud generator. It is super
easy to use and the students that have been introduced to it took to it like a duck takes
to water. They loved it because the hard part the writing- was short and succinct,
but they could spend plenty of time designing. They could choose the font, the color,
the shape. This is very much what all tweens love to do! I realized that I had an answer
for the problem that my co-workers had been experiencing: using the same old thing in
the classroom and losing the students attention in the meantime.

Learner Analysis
My group of co-workers were volunteers. I had emailed the entire staff telling them that
I had a cool new technology tool that was fun to use in the classroom. I told them that
no one would be forced to come unless I did not get any volunteers. Immediately I got
word that the third and fourth grade teachers were having RTI meetings in the
afternoon, and those groups were the ones most apt to come to my class. I was not too
happy about that and thought about rescheduling the time. However, I really wanted to
get it done. So the class I had consisted of ten women. We have only one man on staff
and he was gone to coach football at the middle school! The ladies I had in my class fit
the focus demographic- teachers that had been teaching at least ten years. I had
wanted this age group of teachers to come, but how do you address that aspect in the
email? No young teachers allowed? No. Everyone was invited. Still, as I mentioned in
my problem identification paragraph, I wanted to offer a new type of technology to those
that were getting tired of using the same technology year after year. In other words,
those that had taught for over ten years! Of the women, four were in self-contained
classrooms, one was music, one was administration, one was reading, another one was
special education, one was math and the final one was other. The self-contained
classroom teachers are not very comfortable around new technology. (When I had to
ask them earlier this year where their pen was for their Activboard, they said they
thought they might be in their closets.) The youngest teacher was (approximately) 30
and the oldest 59. The range of teaching experience was from ten years to 27 years.

Task Analysis
The teachers will learn a new web 2.0 tool named word art (or Tagul). At the beginning
of the lesson, they will be given a sample of a word cloud and some instances of how a
word cloud can be used in the classroom. I will ask them to think as we go through the
lesson of different ways they could utilize a word cloud in their own classroom. They
will be taken step-by-step through the word cloud website, wordart.com.

Instructional Objectives

ISTE Standards for Educators

1. Educators continually improve their practice by learning from and with others and
exploring proven and promising practices that leverage technology to improve student
learning. Educators:
a. Set professional learning goals to explore and apply pedagogical approaches
made possible by technology and reflect on their effectiveness.

2. Educators seek out opportunities for leadership to support student empowerment

and success and to improve teaching and learning. Educators:
b. Advocate for equitable access to educational technology, digital content and
learning opportunities to meet the diverse needs of all students.

4. Educators dedicate time to collaborate with both colleagues and students to improve
practice, discover and share resources and ideas, and solve problems. Educators:
b. Collaborate and co-learn with students to discover and use new digital
resources and diagnose and troubleshoot technology issues.

5. Educators design authentic, learner-driven activities and environments that recognize

and accommodate learner variability. Educators:
a. Use technology to create, adapt and personalize learning experiences that
foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences and needs.
b. Design authentic learning activities that align with content area standards and
use digital tools and resources to maximize active, deep learning.

6. Educators facilitate learning with technology to support student achievement of the

ISTE Standards for Students. Educators:
d. Model and nurture creativity and creative expression to communicate ideas,
knowledge, or connections.
7. Educators understand and use data to drive their instruction and support students in
achieving their learning goals. Educators:
a. Provide alternative ways for students to demonstrate competency and reflect
on their learning using technology.
b. Use technology to design and implement a variety of formative and summative
assessments that accommodate learner needs, provide timely feedback to students and
inform instruction.

Lesson Plan

Topic: Using Word Clouds in the Classroom

Learning Targets:
Teachers will learn how utilizing a word cloud can be useful in their classrooms.
They can use them as activators for a new unit and students can use them at the
end of a unit to summarize the information they learned.
Teach the teachers ow to use wordart.com.
Show the teachers how a word cloud can be used in their life outside school.

Key Vocabulary:
word cloud
activator
summarizing activity

Activator: The teachers will see a word cloud that I have created for the lesson. See it
here.

Work Period:
Using emaze presentation tool, I will show my emaze presentation that will show
the teachers what wordart.com is and different uses for it. I will tell them that at
the end of the lesson, they can share with the rest of us different ways they
predict the program could be used in their classes.
Teachers will be walked through the different parts of the wordart screen.
A user name and password will be created for each teacher so they can try it out
on their own.
The teachers can make a word cloud that can be applied in their classroom, or
they can make a personal one.
Teachers will add at least six words to the words column and then make a
judgement as to the importance of each word and change the size accordingly.
They can look back at the example I gave in class to see how the more important
words are larger on the word cloud because I enlarged the size of those words.
Next, the group will decide which shape will best correspond with the topic they
have chosen.
 After that, they will choose the font they like. Encourage them to beware of
students that like to do the time-consuming activity of giving every word a
different font style!
Layout is next. Again, I will refer them to the word cloud I gave to them as the
activator. My word cloud is horizontal because it is the easiest way to read it.
However, if they want to be artsy, there are several different options for them to
choose.
The final step is colors and animations. They will choose which colors they want.
I will encourage them not to let their students use a background color since it
gobbles down the ink.
When everything has been completed, the teachers will click the visualize button
and their word cloud will appear. They can easily edit the cloud if it does not
meet their expectations.

Closing:
At the closing of this lesson, the teachers will share their word clouds with the class.
They will also offer examples of how they can use the word cloud in their own
classroom.

Technology:
wordart.com or tagul.com
emaze
computer for every teacher
Activboard