Thing 8 Wordle & Visualization

I strongly believe that the use of visuals is extremely important for many of our learners in school today.  Research supports the statement that the brain processes and retrieves information quicker than plain  text – 60,000 times faster than text.  A large portion of my vocabulary and elements of narrative instruction is in context. Students do a lot with connotative meaning based on what the text tells them.  This is a good indicator of what they visualize when they read which leads to what they understand, thus, retain for future use.  I therefore integrate a plethora of visuals via technology, so students can “see” what the author or text is describing for them, or how the vocabulary is used in context.  Vocabulary images and visuals of the story’s setting and any historical or cultural information are displayed as we read the text and take a moment for reflection.  Students are then able to go back and correct any misconceptions and re- visualize by synthesizing all of the information they have gathered by all of the modes of information input.  Moreover, visuals engage the reluctant learners and allow them to make connections that they otherwise would not make.  The visual organizers further allow learners to visualize the information they take from the text or that they are taking notes on; they see a connection between concepts and how information of the text relates as a whole.  Using Wordle further allows student to focus on the most important concepts and terms in definitions and academic content.  They need to be able to decipher between relevant and irrelevant information in narrative and expository test structures.  

The image above is from a site called "Big Huge Labs" that was part Ron Houtman's online web meeting for Thing 8.  He attached the URL to the chat list:http://copyrightfriendly.wikispaces.com/   This "Pocket Album" will be great for the elements of narrative when we break our novel into the elements.  This folds up and can fit in a back pocket.  :)   Students will also be creating their own flow charts as formative assessment for figurative language . . . parts of speech will work well with this as well.