Engaging and Creative Ways to Teach English
Karen Yager - Knox Grammar [email protected]
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 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/poetic
a/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://
nsrconnectivity.wikispaces.com/ECT+Day+March+2011
Wordpress: http://karenygr.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/hsc-paper-2-presentations/