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| Photo taken by Haun |
With the weather changing and the school year getting to the end of the first quarter I find myself washing my hands constantly to avoid getting sick. The sniffles are going around my school and several teachers have had to take a day or two off to get ahead of them. Fortunately I have not had to deal with a cold as of yet but I've got a good support group at home if I do get sick (pictured above). Cocoa is the black dog and Micah is the bigger dog that Cocoa is laying on. They are my best friends when I'm sick but my goal is to not put them to work!
https://www.facebook.com/TEDEducation/videos/291113918392666/
The first thing I found in my searching this week is Ted-Ed's new poetry video, "To Make Use of Water" by Safia Elhilo. This is a great tool in that the animations help depict what is happening in the poem and illustrate the author's writing. Ted-Ed is planning to do a poem a week and I think that this would be a great tool in English classrooms to talk about poetry. Poems are difficult to understand and words can take on whole new meanings depending on how they are used or arranged in poetry. An animation can help students see clearer what is going on and I feel that this would be a great resource to L2 learners. Additionally, the content covered in this particular is a great discussion point with students. The author starts by describing the experience of forgetting some of her old language and some of her new language. The author relates feelings of displacement and the desire to return home. This can be a great conversational piece but I would only recommend trying it with your students if you know them well. I did get another idea from this video though...
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| Retrieved from https://www.findlay.edu/blog/digital-storytelling-tools |
Digital storytelling is a topic we started to cover this week in ESL 509 and I thought of a fun poetry activity using the Ted-Ed video as inspiration. In this activity students would have the option of picking a poem they like and creating a digital storybook to illustrate the poem. Part of the storybook would involve them reading the poem as it is written, animating what they think it means, and then they could explain what they think the poem means. This gives students a chance to flex their creative muscles on a subject that is quite tricky. I remember constantly having to write essays about poetry in school and, partially because of that, I developed a mild dislike for the writing style until I became older. I feel fun activities like this one is a way to teach students about the material in a way that is fun and enjoyable, hopefully encouraging a lifelong interest.
That's all for this post, thank you for reading!
Christopher,
ReplyDeleteYou’re right, it is the time of year for extra handwashing! What a great support group you do have at home! As an English teacher, I agree with you and find that poetry can be a difficult concept to teach and for students to understand. In one of my summer classes, we focused a lot on culture and discussed many of the ideas that the author you mention talked about. I believe this poem could be a great tool that would help students relate to poetry and the topic. This would help create an authentic learning experience for language learners as they could make the connection and find importance and understanding in poetry. I also liked your idea of having students create digital stories as they study poetry. Your activity would help students to work through their understanding of the poetry and explain it in a creative way instead of the standard essay format. Great idea! Thanks for sharing!