Word Clouds are fun tools. There are a few out there (Wordle and Tagxedo are my 2 of choice). This post will focus on Wordle. I use it every 2 weeks in my classroom when we change seats. New groups make a Wordle to show what they like and have in common and these hang above their group of desks. Another great use is writing. Before a student can submit a final draft of a writing to me, they must copy and paste it into Wordle. Then they can make sure that they have not over used any words. Wordle will make the word font larger depending on its frequency. If they have very large words in their Wordle, they go back into their document and choose better words. This is an very easy visual check to see that they have varied word choice in writing.
Check out the fun at www.wordle.net!