Sometimes the best way to understand the major themes of a text is to view the preponderance of words that occur. In the old days, we had concordances for this task. Today, we have Wordle. Simply copy/paste a section of text into the application, and it produces a word graphic.
This picture is a breakdown of the word usage in Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads. Language, Poetry, Nature, Feelings, Pleasure, Passions . . . yes, I think Wordle got Wordsworth right.
Point your students to this tool, using words from their own writing, for some instant--and colorful--graphi-fication!
Posts
5 comments:
I love that image. Is that a photograph of a printout?
Hi Jonathan, That is a photo of a printout. Wordle does have a way to save your graphics, but I couldn't get it to work for me--maybe my file was too large. Glad you like it. ggratton
This is the coolest tool I've seen in a while! Wouldn't it be neat to have students copy and paste some of their own written work. It would be interesting to see if they accomplished their intended purpose for a piece--if Wordle got the message.
This is the coolest tool I've seen in a while! Wouldn't it be neat to have students copy and paste some of their own written work. It would be interesting to see if they accomplished their intended purpose for a piece--if Wordle got the message.
Hi Lisa, Let me know how it turn out if you assign Wordle for your students.
Post a Comment