There is another good news for visual learners: word clouds. Students can go to www.wordle.net to create their own clouds. All they need to do is to paste text into Wordle and the corresponding word cloud will come out automatically.
I would like to apply this digital tool to language arts classroom. For ELLs, teachers can encourage them to choose one topic they are interested in, such as school, friend, technology, etc. Then, students can list down all the words coming up from their mind when they think of the topic of their choice. ELLs may not have a broad range of vocabulary, so teachers should allow them to consult with their classmates or check dictionary. Finally, they are going to type in all the words and make their own word clouds.
Don't forget to let your students share their word clouds with the whole class and post their works on their blogs.
