[teaching grammar]

As I craft an exciting lesson to help my students cope with the three-hour session, I came across this funny ransom note generator. After discussing what comparatives, superlatives, direct objects, indirect objects and predicates are, I'm going to ask my students to create their own ransom note. I've asked them to bring in newspapers and magazines and I'll supply the scissors. In the end, they'll have used all of the grammatical elements we've learnt.

[2 English lessons in 1: parody and bad grammar]

So when students ask us why grammar is important, another reason to add to the list includes maturity.  As the singer says:  "I never changed my verbal habits since I was three."

The video url is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj6QqCH7g0Q&feature=player_embedded

This video might be useful with younger classes or maybe ESL or EFL learners?

[guest lecture: MEDS 1100 - Media Texts and Representations]

I'm presenting a guest lecture for the Media Texts and Representations module today (Monday, 20 October 2008)!

Welcome to all the students who will be participating.

If you're happy to engage in public, please feel free to address the following questions here on my blog, otherwise we (DMU students) can meet in Blackboard.

[audible and visual pedagogy]

In a seemingly text-centric academic culture (where students must write essays and submit written coursework) I've been thinking about how to bring in more of our other senses including image and sound. What follows is a simple attempt to allow students to move within other kinds of literacy (oral and visual).

Name of the lesson: Hearing and Seeing Sounds

Level: Can be adjusted to suit age or level.

Subject: New Media, English, Creative Technologies,

Materials: Computers with PowerPoint, Internet Connection, Access to copyright–free images (http://www.freeimages.co.uk/, http://www.pics4learning.com/, http://freestockphotos.com/) and sounds (http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/waves.html), recording equipment (microphones, digital cameras, video),

Overview:
Students will become aware of the role sound and image play in telling a story.

Objectives:
Students will collaborate in pairs to create a short story. They must develop a narrative employing various modes including sound, a recording of their voices, images (scanned in, photos, or free–pics) and text (while being aware of how words sound and being able to explain why they chose certain words).

Activities & Procedures:
1. Have students read a selection of online stories: any episode from Inanimate Alice, Pirate’s Treasure and Number Story.
2. Discuss what students liked about each story. Talk about the role of images, colour, text, and sound in each work. Pay particular emphasis to the rhythm and tone of language.
3. Students collaborate in pairs to create their own stories using PowerPoint (due to its ease of use and general availability) or Istories if available.
4. Students can record their voices telling parts of the story or making sounds. Students can use digital cameras to take photos of classroom or school artefacts to use in their stories. Students can visit the sites suggested to collect royalty–free images.
5. Students present their creations to the class and explain how the various modes, specifically images and sound, tell their story.