Getting a Word in Edgewise: Wordle

Missed the Just One Hour workshop on Wordle? A recap:

Horizontal, vertical, or any-which-way, Wordle makes it fun to, well, get a word in edgewise—visually. Wordle is an easy web-based program at wordle.net that allows you to create a graphic representation of text. Because it quantifies text (the more often a word or phrase appears, the larger it is represented), it can be used to compile or summarize data.

Most important, students love it.

So, how can you use it to promote student thinking in your classroom? What kinds of text can you use?

21 Ways to Use Wordle
1. Visualize a brainstorm session

2. Compile data from classroom polls

3. Create a graphic autobiography

4. Guess the ___________________ (story, novel, event)

5. Write a headline for a current event

6. See similarities and differences

7. Identify criteria for ____________

8. Show class rules

9. Present spelling lists in various fonts

10. Examine student writing (Overused words? Important details missing?)

11. Study an author’s tone

12. Display your syllabus

13. Discover main ideas in text

14. Look for key ideas in important speeches

15. Draw inferences

16. Summarize

17. Show synonyms or antonyms

18. Make a custom illustration for a blog, story, essay, book report

19. Compare news stories for bias

20. Customize your word wall

21. Reflect on your thinking

On his blog Copy/Paste, Peter Pappas shares ways to use Wordle to promote literacy skills. Pappas suggests:

Defining skills
Before the dictionary comes out, give your students a new vocabulary word and ask them to brainstorm all the word they associate with it. Gather up all the brainstormed words for a Wordle. After the term has been formally defined, repeat the process and compare to the "pre-dictionary" Wordle.

Summarizing skills
As a pre-reading exercise, copy/paste text of reading into a Wordle and ask students to predict what the main ideas of the reading will be. Another pre-reading option: give them a Wordle of a non-fiction reading and ask them to use the Wordle to generate a title or headline before they see the real article. Post reading: ask them to reflect on the reading based on a prompt (for example, main idea, what you've learned, funniest element, etc). Then collect all their reflections into a Wordle.

Comparison skills
Give them two different accounts / essays on the same theme / event - let them compare the Wordles generated by each. Or you could generate Wordles for two different readings, then let student see if they can match the Wordle to its corresponding reading.

For GREAT Wordle ideas and tips created by teachers, see the collaborative project Tom Barrett and colleagues created as a PowerPoint slide show:


How to create your own Wordles for class (or, better, have your students create them)? Start here with a copy of our Just One Hour workshop handout, Then head to wordle.net.  It's really as easy as 1-2-3:  Click create, paste in any text, and click go.

A word of caution, it's addictive. In a good way. Have fun.

M.E.

PS Just found this great post by Iowa teacher Becky Goerend with sample student work!

Sources:
http://www.wordle.net/
http://peterpappas.blogs.com/ (Twitter: edteck)
http://edte.ch/blog/ (Twitter: tombarrett)
http://mrsbmg.blogspot.com/ (Twitter: MrsBMG)

Blooming Butterfly

Don't you just love this?

This BLOOMing Butterfly graphic, based on Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy of thinking skills, was created by Learning Today under a Creative Commons license. That means you can print it and use it if 1) you attribute the source (already printed on the poster) and
2) you don't sell it.

Download it by clicking here and print it for your students, your classroom, or your parent newsletter. Thanks, Learning Today!

M.E.

PS Learn more about Creative Commons here.

SIOP - Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol

What is more difficult than learning about the interactions of matter and energy throughout the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere? …Trying to learn about it in your non-native language!

Yet, English Language Learners (ELLs) face this challenge every day in classrooms across the nation. Not only are ELLs trying to master academic content, but they are still acquiring English language proficiency.

In order to support the learning and language needs of West Clermont’s ELL students, fourteen district teachers participated in Sheltered  Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) training.

SIOP is a research-based approach to lesson planning and implementation that has proven effective with ELL students. The model uses high quality features of instruction withinin a framework of eight components, i.e. lesson preparation, building background, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice/application, lesson delivery, and review/assessment.

In the words of one WC teacher, “The SIOP model provides support to all students, but especially English Language Learners. The model provides meaningful access to the content, with the added benefit of practice in  reading, listening, speaking, and writing."                                         

Another teacher says, “SIOP is a way to take what we know about best practices, and make them even better by adding a language objective to every lesson."

Want to know more? Ask a member of our SIOP team or click here!

Cheryl

One Book, One School

Seneca once said, "The best ideas are common property."

Isn't that the truth in teaching? In my school district, great ideas are passed up and down the hallways and in between school buildings. And thanks to the many kinds of electronic communication, lesson ideas are spreading instantaneously from up the street and around the world.

One Book, One School was one of those "common property" ideas for me. Let me explain.

I belong to a PLC that consists of Heinemann authors and consultants. Once a year we meet face to face, but mostly we connect via Elluminate and conference calls. Colleen Buddy is one of my colleagues in this PLC. She is truly an idea person! During one of our Heinemann retreats, Colleen shared an idea that brought her school closer together. The initiative was called One Book, One School. I listened to Colleen, scribbled down some notes, and went home ready to share. One Book, One School is simple. Inexpensive. Powerful. Here's how we made it work for us.

I met with our eight elementary principals, suggesting that we all read the same book at the same time, in every grade level at each school. The goal here is unity around a meaningful theme. And the coolest part about it is that it all begins with picture book.

As Colleen recommended, we settled on The Golden Rule for our first attempt. Written by Ilene Cooper and illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska, this beautiful book reminds us all to treat others with the dignity and respect we want for ourselves. What greater message could be shared with our students?

Now we don't have a lot of money to spare, so in most cases we purchased a copy of The Golden Rule to be shared by each grade level at each school. During the first week of the school year, every child heard and discussed The Golden Rule with their classmates and teacher. Principals could stop in any classroom after the first few days of school and strike up a conversation about this age-old concept. The book's theme perfectly supported our district's anti-bullying initiative and classroom management plans.

We didn't stop there. Soon students were writing connections to the text and posting them in the hallways for all to see. Articles about The Golden Rule appeared in school-to-home newsletters and on school websites. Classroom teachers and their students brainstormed ways to practice The Golden Rule at school, on the bus and at home. Talking about The Golden Rule became part of weekly class meetings in the classrooms.

Several of our schools held additional One Book, One School weeks during the school year, like right after winter break and right before our high-stakes test week. The possibilities are endless!

With our hectic school schedules and filled-to-the-brim planning time, it is sometimes hard to come together around a common idea. One Book, One School is a wonderful, easy way to to do just that. It worked for us! And now this idea is officially "common property", just as Seneca said.

For more information, read this Education World article.

Tanny

What We Really Read

Love this graphic! Meant to spoof, perhaps, but LOL true. It illustrates the perennial teachers' conflict: teaching the classics ("the canon") or nurturing a love of reading. Forced to choose, I'd go with the latter. I'd rather be a reading catalyst. And you?

M.E.

So, what are you really reading? For me, it's Barbara Kingsolver's newest, The Lacuna, with Curtis Bonk's The World is Open on deck.

Graphic from graphjam.com. 

On Doodling

Do your students like to doodle? Do you? What some might see as an off-task, even disrespectful behavior, I see as a way to process information. A way to make thinking visible.

My colleagues are used to my crazy notebook, pictured above (click on photo to enlarge). They don't bat an eye when I'm sitting in a formal meeting or important keynote address and I take out my Flair pens and manuscript book. With paper and pens at my disposal, I can focus. I can relax. I can think.

I'm not alone in my need to turn the audible into the visible. A few years ago I read a BBC article about how British Prime Minister Tony Blair was criticized when he inadvertently left some of his doodles on a table at Number 10 Downing Street. Those same critics were left speechless when it was discovered that the doodles didn't belong to Tony Blair at all. Instead, they were the creation of a guy named Bill Gates!

For two centuries, U.S. Presidents have doodled during critical briefings and while strategizing and brainstorming. Presidential Doodles showcases sketches from George Washington to George W. Bush, and almost every president in between. I was happy to discover this book. It lends a scholarly view to the practice that some of us, adults and kids alike, can't live without.

So what does this mean for classroom instruction? A recent study suggests that doodling aids in memory recall. Those who doodled while listening to information recalled 29% more than those who tried to attend without pen in hand. Consider asking students to sketch their way through a lecture, dry textbook passage or PowerPoint presentation. Allow students to create logos or other graphic representations of their learning, to aid in the synthesizing of new information. Encourage the use of color, creative font and multi-directionality on the page. Student engagement and motivation are sure to rise!

If you're a doodler, feel affirmed. If you're not, it's never too late. You, too, can join the ranks of John F. Kennedy and Bill Gates!

Tanny

PS A shout-out to amazing educator Ian Jukes! Your recent keynote address in Columbus, Ohio inspired a page of colorful doodles and a mind full of new thinking for me. See Ian's signature right smack dab in the center of the photo.

All Hands On Deck: Response to Intervention

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a problem solving process to assure success for struggling students. It is not a gateway to special education (nor a delay to special ed) and it is not a quick fix.

You’ll often hear us use the expression, “all kids, all schools, all hands on deck.” Following our Response to Intervention (RTI) professional learning session, I asked colleagues to help me create a recap. Here’s a compilation of what “all hands” have so say about RTI, plus helpful RTI links. 

What do teachers have to say?
RTI is a process teachers should use to help struggling students be successful in their classroom. It’s probably something teachers are already doing. But I think teachers need to do a better job of documenting the strategies that are in place for students and then collecting data over time to check and see if these strategies are helping the students be successful in the classroom. ~ Todd M, grade 8 Algebra teacher

RTI is something that most of us do most of the time, but in an unstructured, undocumented way. We do it for short term intervention and longer term intervention. In possible Special Ed cases, we need to make sure we have the documentation. In other cases, we need to make sure that the rigors of documentation don't cause teachers to avoid doing what they would normally do. ~ Ceil K, IB math teacher

RTI is a continuous process of pre-assessments, proper student placements into appropriate intervention groups, weekly progress monitoring to ensure that the intervention is working, followed by a post-assessment to document student progress backed with data. ~ Aarty S, ESL assistant

RTI is a multi-layered approach to get to the new/modern idea/ideal that all kids can learn at high levels. It’s a way of getting schools to move beyond the archaic idea that school is meant to be a "sorting" place. So, RTI is a real series of techniques to make this happen, but it's not a path to special education. It's sort of like scaffolding a whole-school response of what to do when kids hit a road block. ~ Angie F, freshman English teacher

How long does RTI take?
It’s a process without a specific time frame.  It’s okay for a student to have tiered supports in place throughout their schooling to help them be successful. ~ Julie C, work study coordinator

Why have we chosen this approach, K-12?
RTI allows us to focus our collective resources toward early intervention and toward providing appropriate help and supports that prevent academic and behavioral concerns from becoming bigger issues. Amy S, school psychologist

Most important to remember: We are all learners in this process. And we’re all in this together.

Here are some resources to help us as we learn. What resources or ideas do you have to share?

M.E.

Links:
West Clermont’s RTI links
West Clermont's RTI Plan
National Center on RTI

Books:
Pyramid Respond to Intervention: RTI, PLCs, and How to Respond When Kids Don’t Learn
Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap

Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons