Wordle Lesson Plan

Teacher: Casey Snock

Grade Level: 9
Title : Guess the Movement
Brief History and Background:
This is a lesson that would best be introduced towards the end of the year after students have become familiar with several different art movements. The class will be broken up into 5 groups of 3-4 people. Each group will be assigned an art movement that the class has learned about. The class will go to the computer lab and, using prior knowledge as well as further research,  create a wordle to describe the art movement to which they were assigned. The wordless will be printed out, exchanged among groups, and the students will have to guess each other’s movement according to the wordless.
Standards :

1.6 Speaking and listening

9.3.5. B. Describe works in the arts comparing similar and contrasting characteristics.

9.3.8. D. Evaluate works in the arts and humanities using a complex vocabulary of critical response.
9.2.8.A- Explain the historical, cultural, and social context of an individual work in the arts.
9.2.8.C- Relate works in the arts to varying styles and genre and to the periods in which they were created.
Goal: To create a wordle describing assigned movement.
Objectives :
Students will review their prior knowledge about art movement we learned about in class.
Students will research their movement to  form new ideas.

Students will create a wordle to describe their movement.

Students will exchange wordles and guess what each other’s movements were. 
Resource Materials/Visual Aides:
Past handouts, computer.

Supplies/Materials:

N/A   Teacher Preparation:
Teacher will create a handout for each movement, including examples of artwork created during that time.
Teaching
Introduction : Students will enter the room, and the teacher will explain the assignment. The students will then be assigned to groups

Directions:

Students will be assigned their movement and discuss key words/artists/works of art from their movement that would be good to include in their wordle. Class will then migrate to the computer lab to do some further research. Students will create their wordles and print them out.
Critique/Evaluation/Assessment: Class will go back to the art room and be seated in their groups. Each group will hand their wordle to the group to their right, and have an allotted time to discuss amongst themselves which movement they think their wordle is describing. After 15 minutes, the class will discuss as a whole which wordles apply to which movement, while viewing the wordles on a projector screen.
Time Budget: 2 class periods.

Resources:

Wordles 

 Will Richardson. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts

worrrrrrdles

Here is a wordle consisting of key words from Will Richardson's book: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.


I think that the most effective way to use wordles in lesson plans is backwards. Rather than having students read an article or chapter and then create a wordle, do it the other way around. Have students view a wordle and try to gain some coherent understanding of what it is about, then read the actual chapter/article to see if their new understanding aligns with their original understanding. I can see this working better if the wordle was created by hand-choosing key words, rather than just pasting the entire body of text into the site so that it can create one using words that were most commonly used.