I have used Wordle for a while now and really like it but one thing it can't do is make shaped word clouds.
A while back, the "new kid" on the word cloud block was Tagxedo. I tried it, but it was new and the kinks had not been ironed out - it was not as user friendly as Wordle, especially for kids, so I ditched it.
Today, we watched Dr. Martin Luther King JR's "I have a Dream" speech. For 17 minutes, our fifth graders sat in silence, taking it all in and writing notes on key words and points from the speech. At the conclusion of the speech, there was spontaneous applause from the class. Love it!
On their own or in groups, they were then tasked with responding to the speech in whichever way they wanted: speech, poem, story....whatever they wanted. A couple chose Wordle and when I did a Google image search to show them some examples, I saw a shaped word cloud which led me to Tagxedo.
Give it a go. Super easy and visually stunning. Love it.
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