Literacy+Skills

Tech Tools for Teaching Literacy Skills

The two tech tools you will play with today are Wordle and Comic life. 

Creating a Wordle:  Wordles are word clouds that are fun and easy to make. The more times a word is mentioned in a wordle the bigger the text will appear.

For an example of a wordle click [|here]

This visual representation of text can help students evaluate the emphasis certain words have in a text. It can be interesting to view a poem in wordle, or a famous speech. A student might want to run a draft of an essay through wordle to check whether the words emphasized are the ones they mean to be emphasized. Or a student might want to write their own word cloud poems. Wordle is especially helpful for visual learners.

For more uses of wordle in the classroom click [|here]. To view presidential inaugural speeches in wordle, click [|here].

For a screencast on how to set up a wordle click [|here]. To get started with wordle, click [|here]. Have fun! Ask if you need help!

Creating in Comic Life:

 Comics are a great way to engage reluctant readers, English Language Learners, and visual learners in the classroom. Creating comics in Comic Life is a fabulous way to teach narrative structure, pulling out main ideas, and visual literacy. And it is a lot of fun.

For an example of a biography done in comic life click [|here]. For an example of a book report done in comic life click [|here]. For an example of a simple story told in comic life click [|here]. For lesson plans using comic life, including retelling a myth, and making an artist page, click [|here]. For more tips on using comics in the classroom, click [|here].

For a screencast to get started using Comic Life click [|here]. To go straight to Comic Life click [|here]. Have fun! Ask if you need help!