Capitol Words is an interesting way to look at what your Senators and Representatives are saying in Washington. Capital Words creates “word clouds” based on key words used most often in Congress. The words in each cloud are pulled from the Congressional record. There is a national word cloud as well as word clouds for each state.

Applications for Education
Capital Words could be a good way for students to see which topics are most frequently discussed in Congress. Students can track how the word clouds change from week to week or month to month. Another activity using Capital Words would be to have students compare the word clouds of their own state with those of other states. As a continuation of the comparison, students could research and investigate the reasons for the differences between the word clouds of each state.