Saturday 23 October 2010

My Life as a Wordle

On Monday I will have the pleasure of teaching face to face with 2 groups of students at the Lake School of English. A possible "getting to know you" introduction to myself will consist of this Wordle. Students (in pairs or small groups) will have 5 - 10 minutes to discuss what connection the words have to my life. They will get a point for each correct fact they guess about me! The students will then in turn create a wordle of their own. In small groups, they will show their wordles to each other and discuss the connections to their lives.

Addendum
All due credit due to the amazing inspiration behind this simple activity comes from the fab "Powerpointing Me" lesson by Karenne Sylvester. Many thanks, K!!

You will also find "Using word clouds in class - a lesson plan" by Marisa Constantinides extremely useful and practical.

6 comments:

KALINAGO ENGLISH said...

This is still one of my absolute lesson-tips and it's so simple to do! Glad you enjoyed it and are putting it into practice!

Janet Bianchini said...

Hi Karenne

Thanks very much for the reminder :-) I wrote this post in some haste and forgot to add links to other inspirational posts connected to this theme.

Your fantastic "Powerpointing Me" lesson is still one of my all-time favourites and will be added to the post forthwith!! Apologies for not including it on initial posting. Creating a wordle of one's life is indeed such an amazingly easy and enjoyable activity to do.

I have actually hurtled into "the real world" in England, as opposed to the more "relaxed and chilled" world of Abruzzo, and time is now of the essence...

Best wishes

J x

Anonymous said...

What a great idea for an initial class Janet! Just looking at your wordle and reading the words we start making so many inferences about your life and what you are into... and the follow up is perfect. In my case the students could use their own wordle as the image to the cover letter in their learning portfolios.

Thanks for sharing! now I have to check out Karenne's and Marisa's!

And good luck on the class! :-)

Janet Bianchini said...

Hi Cecilia

Thank you so much for popping in!

Your idea of using a wordle as the image to your students' cover letter in their learning portfolios is an excellent one! Thanks for sharing :-)

Vicki Hollett said...

Lovely post Janet! I'm guessing that you are a passionate, sharing, IATEFL member who lives in the countryside outside Rome with lots farmers around and a nearby lake. I'm just wondering - do you make olive oil or hatch falcons from eggs?

Janet Bianchini said...

Hi Vicki

Thank you for your comment! You have guessed correctly on everything apart from the hatching of eggs from falcons!

I make Tiramisu and lots of other delights from the 28 eggs which are freshly laid by my girls without fail every week. Sadly, 2 of the star chicks have been ravaged by hawks recently, Norris and Al Capone, RIP).

We have falcons circling above us on a regular basis. Life in the Abruzzo countryside is always fascinating. I can't wait to get back shortly, ready to pick our 70 olive trees!

Take care

Janet