For our Tech in Ed course, my classmates and I were asked to design three classroom activities using Web 2.0 tools. My first activity is structured around Wordle, a "word cloud" generating tool available for free at http://www.wordle.net/.
Grade Level: 9-10
Subject: Government/civics
Lesson Topic: Political rhetoric and party platforms
Objectives:
- Students will know how politicians use rhetoric and vocabulary to express their party's platform.
- Students will be able to compare and contrast the platforms of different American political parties through their use of rhetoric and vocabulary.
- Students will be able to use technology to visually demonstrate these comparisons and contrasts.
Standards:
Social Studies Common Core
- RH.9-10.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
- RH.9-10.7: Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.
- RH.9-10.9: Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources
Core Technology Standards
- ISBE-TECH.3: The competent teacher will apply learning technologies that support instruction in his or her grade level and subject areas. He or she must plan and deliver units that integrate a variety of software, applications, and learning tools. Lessons developed must reflect effective grouping and assessment strategies for diverse learners.
Step 1: Students will locate the transcripts of the president's most recent State of the Union address and the opposition party's official response (available from a variety of web sources, including the official CSPAN site) and import the text into Wordle to generate two different word clouds. For the purposes of this example, I used President Obama's 2012 address and the response given by Governor Mitch Daniels (R-IN). As a side note, my first Wordle use revealed a hiccup: the words "Applause" and "Laughter" showed prominently in my word cloud because of their presence in the transcript! This was easily fixed by copying and pasting to MS Word, then using Find-and-Replace to remove the extra text.
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| President Obama's address (http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5968303/State_of_the_Union_2012) |
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| Governor Daniel's response (http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5968309/State_of_the_Union_Response_2012)
Step 2: Viewing the two word clouds, the teacher and students will create a graphic organizer (digital or whiteboard/poster/etc) to examine where the two politicians/parties focus on either similar or differing concepts by their choice of wording. The word clouds and the graphic organizer will frame a discussion on how the politicians/parties use rhetoric to express their platforms and appeal to voters.
Extra: Students will locate the transcripts of each of the president's State of the Union address and import the text into Wordle to generate a series of word clouds, illustrating how his and his party's platform has changed its focus as time progresses. This was just another idea I thought worth inserting here, because it shows so well how Wordle and other word cloud generators can be useful in visually demonstrating abstract concepts. A similar exercise could be done with local instead of national politicians, comparing/contrasting a candidate's campaign speech to an address given in office.
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| 2011 State of the Union address (http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5968336/State_of_the_Union_2011) |
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