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Cool Tool #3- WordItOut

This week's cool tool was suppose to be TagCloud, but I could not figure out how to work it so I decide to do WordItOut instead. WordItOut is a word cloud generator (similar to TagCloud but eaier to use) that randomly arranges words for a fun visualization. The most important words in the arrangement are positioned bigger than the other words. These words are decided based on how many times it is used throughout the sentence or document that you use. WordItOut can be used by anyone and can can vary in size, shape, and color. 

 Some cool features of WordItOut are that it is free to use and there is no sign up required. You would just need to provide an email so they can send you your cloud to print or share with others. This is perfect for the classroom. Most classrooms have 20-25 students in them so teachers would not have to worry about signing everyone up. It also give you control of to your settings to customize it to your desire. Some other features are:
  • Being able to create word clouds from sentences or whole documents
  • Pick how you want to filter the text (which one you want to be important)
  • Design your word cloud as you like such as the layout, colors, fonts and sides OR you could let WordItOut do a random design for you. 
  • Get any word cloud as a present or gift on a T-shirt, card, mug or more!
This piece of technology is user friendly (two step process) which makes it easy for students to use. All you have to do is copy and paste whatever sentence or whole document you want and then from there you hit 'create your own' and you can go from there!

 This tool can use be used anywhere, but it would be a great tool to use in the classroom because there is more than one use for this tool. Some ways this could be used include:
  1. Helping students to improve their vocabulary-you could assign students a vocab word and have them create a word cloud with words that are similar to the word that they were assigned. That way, they are learning new words to spice up their vocabulary.


2. Building character webs- students can create a list of character traits to describe a character in a novel or short story you may be reading in class. 


3.A self-assessment tool when writing- when assigning students an essay you have them plug their essay into the word generator to see what ideas come off as most important. That way, they can see if they are following what the guidelines they were given or if the main ideas they want to show off are really the ones that come across as important. 


4.A get to know you activity-this would be great to use in as a first week activity for you and the other students to get to know each other a little better. This would word similar to the character web, but instead of using a character you would use yourself. 



5. Polls

Overall, WordItOut is a great tool to use in the classroom. It has more than one use, can be used in all subjects and not just language arts, and is simple for students to use. 

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