On the first day of school, I had my fifth grade classes. Rather than go through the rules of the library and all the other information the students really don’t want to hear, I thought I would try something a little different. As the students walked in the door, they were given a playing card with a number on. This is my way of randomly putting the students into small groups. I will mention 3 of the not-so-well behaved students somehow ended up in the same group and I’m sure they didn’t swap cards. Their group task, was to come up with words, phrases, or sentences of things they CAN do in the library. I also asked the students to think of things a visitor would see if they visited our library. I gave the groups about 10 minutes to come up with their lists. I then explained Wordle, and told them I was going to type in their ideas into the site and see what would happen. We made some predictions about what words would probably show up the most and had an interesting conversation. Below, is the result of the second 5th grade class I saw that day. (Click on it to view it larger).
I think the students did a pretty good job. Can you think of anything that might be missing?
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My name is Chad Lehman. I'm currently an Elementary Library Media Specialist. I spent eight years teaching third grade prior to moving to the school library. When I'm not at school, I'm probably online, playing or watching sports, or driving my two kids to one of their activities.
Chad, LOVE this idea. Great way to focus on the positive and show them wordle at the same time. Is it cool if I borrow the idea (I’ll credit you, of course).
This was a very cool idea! I might adapt it for my second quarter information literacy class. Thanks for sharing.
I love this idea! I wish I had it last week when I created Norms with my group of teachers. Would you happen to know the Wordle’s copyright thoughts about printing and putting it up in your room?