Going Beyond Brainstorming with Wordle

In one of my early posts, I discussed the potential uses of the web 2.0 tool, Wordle in the elementary classroom.  Since then, I have considered and researched other instructional applications for this word collection tool.  After reading about how other teachers use Wordle (see sites listed below), I considered its value as a pre and post assessment tool.  At the beginning of a unit, teachers often use a word splash or concept map to introduce their students to vocabulary that will appear in the unit.  Wordle could be a great way to pre-assess students' prior knowledge of concepts and then, at the end of the unit, visually capture all that the students have learned.

For instance, the fourth grade curriculum explores the history of Maryland as a part of social studies.  I can imagine using a data collection tool, such as GoogleForms, to survey students about their prior knowledge of Maryland during the years 1630-1800, a period of transition in which Maryland became a state.  The students' prior knowledge would be collected anonymously and then compiled using Wordle.  I imagine it might look something like the Wordle below:

After studying Maryland and its history during this time period, students could be assessed again using the same process.  This time, I would hope that the Wordle would look more like the collection of words here:

This would be a great way to review and prepare for a test and to compare what students knew and what they had learned over the course of the unit.

Additional ideas for the use of Wordle in the classroom:
Using Word Clouds in EFL ESL
3 Ways to Use Wordle for More Than Fluff