Project: Using Wordles in ESL Instruction

Using Wordles in ESL Instruction

In the future I can envision myself using Blogs, Twitter, and Voicethread with my ESL
students, but not until I can present this social technology with more confidence and
expertise. This technology is all new to me, and I need to begin with the basics.
I also feel that this technology is more suitable for an advanced ESL class. I teach a
stacked high beginning/low intermediate level class with students whose backgrounds
range from low elementary to post graduate education. In general, their writing skills in
English are poor. In addition, about half of them have never used computers. Using
Blogs, Twitter, or Voicethread would not only be technically challenging, but
grammatically challenging as well. It would be embarrassing for the students who
struggle to write or speak even the simplest sentences. At this level, I think these
activities would require the teacher to do much of the editing before the students could
make a post. This negates the ownership and purpose of using social technology in the
first place. At present, I don’t feel that most of my students are ready for this.
After reading the articles about using Wordles in education, I felt that creating Wordles
would be a fun and suitable activity for my students. Wordles are definitely at the basic
end of the technology spectrum, so I felt confident that my students could use them. In
my ESL class, I find that students are most engaged when they are talking or writing
about themselves, their families, and their countries. First, these topics are dear to their
hearts. Second, these topics are non-threatening even for the students with low levels of
education. They can find something to say or write about these topics without doing
research. These topics also happen to work well for creating Wordles.
My students recently wrote simple essays about their hometowns. These essays
included the name of the student, the name of his or her city and country, and
information about the size, descriptive qualities, geographical features, products,
recreational activities, cultural activities, and climate of the city. I asked the students to
use the important nouns and adjectives from their essays to create their Wordles. Since
most of them don’t type, it would have taken too much time to type the entire essay
into the Wordle box. Later in the semester, they may be able to copy and paste their
essays from Microsoft Word, but they are not at that point. Selecting only the nouns and
adjectives also reinforced our previous grammar lessons about parts of speech. I had
them write the nouns and adjectives on a chart before they created their Wordles. With
my students, I find that it is necessary to break an assignment into smaller tasks. During
our hour in the computer lab, they were able to open the program and type their words
into the create Wordle box. During this activity, we also reviewed capitalization of
proper nouns and the importance of correct spelling. They had ample time to
randomize their Wordles and select their favorite ones to post. I also asked them to
print one black on white version for themselves. Tomorrow the students will break into
small groups to talk about their cities, and they will share their Wordles within their
groups.
Creating Wordles is a simple activity, but it is also a brain centered activity that engages
the students immediately, activates prior knowledge, involves categorizing information,
introduces key vocabulary visually, integrates grammar, reading, and writing, and allows
students to use technology to share information.