When I had students create presentations or posters for projects, I always encouraged them to create original illustrations or artwork. This can be challenging for some students, luckily there is a great free web tool to create custom word clouds that even works on Chromebooks!
To get started, go to: https://tagul.com
Click on the sign up button to create your account.
From the homepage you can see all the clouds you have made. To get started, click on create a new cloud.
The first step is to add your words. You can click on the import words to copy/paste a list of words or you can also import all the words on a website. For this example, I found a transcript of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation speech and imported it. You can keep words connected by using the ~ symbol between words. You can also edit the size of each word to make it more or less prominent in the cloud.
Here is how you can import words from a website. Notice how you can remove common words and numbers as well.
The next step is to decide on your cloud shape. Tagul allows you to import pictures for custom shapes. Silhouettes or simple shapes work best. I found a silhouette of Abraham Lincoln and added the picture to my cloud.
Click on the "Visualize!" button at any point to see your changes.
You can edit the word layout as well as colors and animations. Play around with your word cloud until you are happy with the end results (make sure to click "Visualize" to see your changes).
Once you are finished with your word cloud, you can save it in a variety of formats or print it.
I hope you explore Tagul with your students and enjoy this free web tool!
Questions or Comments?
Please email me at: pamelabatchelor@johnston.k12.nc.us