Engaging and Creative Ways to Teach English

Karen Yager - Knox Grammar Schoolyagerk@knox.nsw.edu.au

Purpose Provoke thought and

sharing of ideas and strategies

Links to great websites

Access to a wiki and wordpress site with a range of resources and units of work

Writing Confidence: The ideas

and getting started Inspiration: Models and

exemplars Craft to artistry: The

writing process Vocabulary:

Sophistication Refinement: Editing

Confidence Creativity is innate ‘Just get black on white’

Robert Gray, 2011:- Notebook or iPhone- Based on experience and

passion- Haiku- Impressions- 12-word novel- Twitter text- Sentence of the week

The blanched, faceless wraithOf the escaped memoriesFlies off to the night

He hits the ground andAnd bellows a requiem To a time long lost

Blank, befuddled, thoughtless, bemused, he sits in front of screen as boredom ensues.He accelerates. The thrill explodes! He clips the kerb, breathes his last.

Inspiration Listening precedes

speaking and reading precedes writing.

Audio books, podcasts Extracts:

http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/vintage/offthepage/extracts.htm

Inspiration Inanimate Alice:

http://www.inanimatealice.com/ - tells the story of Alice, a young girl growing up in the first half of the 21st century in China

Dust Echoes: http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/dustEchoesFlash.htm - lyrical animations beautifully illustrated of Aboriginal myths.

State Library of Victoria: Mirror of the World: Books and Ideas: http://www.mirroroftheworld.com.au/ - amazing images and extracts from texts to inspire writing.

Craft to Artistry

Spotlighting: the word and sentence level

- Lexical density Structure:- Purpose and audience- Form- Syntax and

paragraphing- Framing devices

Craft to Artistry

Senses: - Sound: euphony,

discordance…the vowels and consonants

- Sight: Figurative devices

- Feeling: nuances

The Craft of Composing a Narrative

Explicitly teach all aspects of a narrative

Zoom into the word and sentence level

Using short, timed activities Listening to the sound of

the writing Peer and self marking Quality feedback

Features of a NarrativeExplicit & Systematic Teaching Audience Genre Structure - complication Ideas - coda Character Setting Vocabulary Syntax Cohesion

Flash fiction with a motif and extended metaphor. 50-word micro-story without the letter ‘e’. Focus on the idea first through images or quotes and

then planning the narrative using a mind map. A word cloud to brainstorm ideas using Wordle -

http://www.wordle.net/ Starting in the middle of the action focusing on the

verbs. Starting at the end and writing backwards. Composing the same narrative with different settings

or changed characters, complications and resolutions.

Activities

Setting Development of a sense of time and place Focus on showing not telling through imagery

appealing to the senses especially sound, colour, touch and smell, strong verbs, contrast, and a variety of sentence structures.

Atmosphere Colour Symbolism Genre Authenticity Detailed descriptions What if question

Character Idiosyncrasies Talismans How they move and act

in the setting Dialogue and voice Relationships Actions Perspectives and values http://www.voki.com/

Vocabulary Range & precision of

language choices Sophisticated:- effective figurative

and sound devices- powerful verbs- adverbs and

adjectives- synonyms

Activities Grammar Skills:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/

Grammar Monster: http://www.grammar-monster.com/index.html

Cyber Grammar: http://www.cybergrammar.co.uk/index.php

Visuword: http://www.visuwords.com/ - a beautiful online thesaurus to find more effective synonyms.

Refinement Insert comment Recording work and

really listening noting the sound and the meaning

Peer assessment through a wiki or blog

Voicethread: http://voicethread.com/

Digital TextsDigital Texts A digital timeline A narrative A reflection A life-story Choose your own… Local hero A podcast Comic strips Choose your own adventure Alternative perspectives A soundscape A digital poem A news report A travel tale: Google Earth

Littrips: http://www.googlelittrips.org/

‘Stories are the

lifeblood of a nation’

Garth Boomer.

The Sites http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/audiovideo/sit

es/about/pages/howto.shtml http://www.digi-tales.org/ http://www.photobus.co.uk/index.php?id=2 http://www.changinglives.com.au/2008/04/

abrar-autumn-and-i.html

Digital timeline: http://www.dipity.com/ Museum Box: http://museumbox.e2bn.org/ Comic strips:

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/

Essays Clarity and cohesion KISS theory Thesis or line of

argument or point of view with at least three supporting arguments

Topic sentences Evidence

Persuasion Persuasion 101:

http://prezi.com/62290/: An introduction to persuasion.

Essay Map: http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/essaymap/

Naplan: http://www.naplan.edu.au/writing_2011_-_domains.html

Persuasion Youtube: Henry V’s Saint

Crispin’s Day Speech & Barack Obama’s victory speech

Audacity/Garage Band/Adobe Soundbooth: Critical commentary on a soliloquy

Rhetoric: http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/20rhet/20rhet.html

American Rhetoric: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htmVodcasts and podcasts of speeches such as Martin Luther King.

Poetry http://www.abc.net.au/rn/poeti

ca/features/pod/ or http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do: Listen to one of the poets reading his or her poems and focus on the artistry.

Instant poetry: http://ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/newpoem.htm: Students can create poetry at this site.

Sonnet Central: http://www.sonnets.org/ - access to hundreds of sonnets and recordings too inspire writing.

Poetic Creativity

Found poems created in word - "paw through popular culture like sculptors on trash heaps"

Digital poems with images

Performance poetry Concepts: Imagery

Shakespeare Illustrated Shakespeare:

http://www.english.emory.edu/classes/Shakespeare_Illustrated/Shakespeare.html - The paintings could be used to trigger imaginative texts about the characters in the plays.

Investigate Shakespeare: http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/#

Readings of Shakespeare’s Sonnets: http://town.hall.org/Archives/radio/IMS/HarperAudio/020994_harp_ITH.html

Blackadder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE5jB2tl70M

Open Source for lines: http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/plays.php

Using Images

Shakespeare Context through slideshow Digital representation of a

Shakespearian sonnet or a character.

Sonnet slideshow Curio box for a character in Power

Point or Photostory accompanied by a recount or personal response.

Virtual Macbeth: http://virtualmacbeth.wikispaces.com/ - a Second Life treatment of Macbeth – fabulous for provoking students into creating their own wiki or blog for one of Shakespeare’s plays or characters.

Beat of the heart

Great Web20 Resources

Box of tricks – A-Z of internet sites: http://www.boxoftricks.net/?page_id=29

Cooltoolsforschools Wiki: http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/?responseToken=08d40fc592f425e0609f7b90a024fde22

Australian Films: http://aso.gov.au/titles/

Sites to ShareWikispace: http://

connectivity2011.wikispaces.com/ECT+Day+March+2011

Wordpress: http://karenygr.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/hsc-paper-2-presentations/