Wordle

For this activity I have chosen to work not only with Wordle, but with different fairy tales. The stories are taken from the site  http://www.gutenberg.org/ which is like a virtual library, and the stories I have chosen are:

• Little red cap (Which is, let's say, the "real name" for "Little red riding hood")
• Rapunzel
• Briar rose (which is the "real name" for "The sleeping beauty")
• Ashputtel (which is the german name for "Cinderella")
• The elves and the shoemaker
• The frog prince
• Rumpelstiltskin
• Snowdrop (which is the "real name" for "Snow-white")

The activity is aimed at teenager students, between 15 - 16 years old. As the stories are told in their original and not "Walt disney" version, it could be shocking for younger students to read them.
Apart from this piece of advice, you may need a printer to carry on with the activity and to book the computer room in advanced, just in case!

WARMER:

• Prepare some flashcards with the names of the fairy tales. Ask your students what do they know about each of these stories, or if they have read or been told these stories during their childhood.
• Allow a brainstorming and let your students go to the blackboard and write the words they have suggested about the story. (what is it about, who are the characters, description of the characters, setting in time and place, etc)
• After that, give them some time to write down some words they may consider important.

LESSON:

• Before starting the activity, remember to copy the tales on the computer's desktop, so they don't have to browse the site in order to find the tales (There's a PDF file with all the tales in it - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2591 - this is the direct link to the PDF file)
• Take the students to the computer room
• Form goups of no more than 2 or 3 students in each computer
• Asign each group one differetn tale, if possible, and tell them they have to read the story and write some words they may think are important for the story (names, places, symbols, etc) - they can write the words in a document in "Word" - Tell them they have to save the file, although they may assume this step!
• After writing the words, give them the direction to Wordle (http://www.wordle.net/) and explain them the activity

USING THE WEB

• In wordle they have to create a cloud with the words they have written in the Word document, of course they can just copy and paste the text!
• Let them create their cloud as they want! (changing colours, font, direction, size, etc) - but no more than 15 minutes!
• Once they have finished with their creation, tell them they have to print the cloud, just by pressing "print"!
• Once it is printed, write the names of the "creators" on one side of the page or at the back
• After all the clouds are printed, go back to your classroom - time to finish the activity!

FINAL PART

• In the classroom, deliver the different clouds among your students, but give them to different groups and not to the ones which have created the cloud!
• The groups have to guessed to which story the clouds belong to, by reading the words your students have selected
• After a brief discussion among your students, they will have to explain why they think that a particular cloud belongs to a particular story and which differences they have found with the guesses they have made at the beginning of the lesson

EVALUATION

• Students will be evaluated in three diffeent ways:

1. Using vocabulary and tenses related to stories (Brainstorming): descrption of the characters and use of past tenses (oral and writing)
2. Reading and comprehension of texts (reading the stories) and summary of them (reading and writing)
3. Expression opinions and agreeing or disagreeing with such opinions (Final part - oral)

That is the end of the activity, hope you find it useful! comments are more than welcomed!!