Wordle In The Classroom

I'd like to teach social studies, including civics.

Until this assignment I had thought of wordle as something more geared toward English classrooms.  My high school English teachers sometimes used it to gather themes from a book we were reading.  But, I think it could be useful for social studies as well.

For history, we could analyze speeches and documents, by pulling out keywords from the work as highlighted by wordle.  For civics, wordle would be useful for analyzing laws and statutes, because the most frequently used words indicate the most important parts of the documents.

I also think wordle could be useful for research, and teaching students how to do good research.  If they're having trouble finding sources, then through a wordle graphic we could pick out keywords from a source they already have and use those keywords to search for more.  After all, when researching vikings, you don't just use vikings!

Student papers could also benefit from wordle, as the highlighted words would show students where they have been repetitive.